The Chief Director of the Ministry of Culture, Creative Arts and Tourism, Nana Bright Oduro-Kwateng says given the minimum resources required to his Ministry, the tourism sector could generate three billion dollars annually.
He said with such funds Ghana would not need to go to the International Monetary Fund for support.
He said the country has many tourist sites and with little investments, could beat many of the most visited tourists’ destinations in Africa.
Mr Oduro-Kwateng was speaking at this year’s Biennial Conference of the Senior Staff Association of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) at Koforidua.
He explained that, despite the huge potential of the tourism sector, his Ministry receives very low budgetary support because some policy makers could not appreciate the potential of the sector.
He charged the staff of GTA to stop threatening investors in the sector with closure of their facilities but rather approach them and find a way of supporting them to be able to fulfill their legal and other obligations to the country and their clients.
The President of the GTA Senior Staff Association, Mr George Nkrumah called for the use of the earnings of the country’s oil and gas sector to develop the tourism industry to increase the revenue base of the country.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of GTA who also chaired the programme, Professor Akunu Daker called for the development of strategic plan for the development of the tourism sector of the country.
He called for advertisement and promotions to encourage local tourism and the development of networking among all the regional offices of GTA.
Prof Daker also suggested the development of a system where with just a click, one could get information on all the tourist sites in the country.
