Gov’t urged to invest in tourism to reap full benefits

The Director in-Charge of monitoring and Evaluation at the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Dr George Asafo Adjei has said that although the tourism sector is receiving some attention from the government with the development of key tourism sites, a lot more needs to be done to maximise the benefits of the sector.

According to him, there was the need to develop tourism along the value chain, adding that “we need to link tourism development with all its accompaniments such as entertainment, food joints and other side attractions to sustain the interest of tourists who would flock into the country.”

He said it was not enough to just draw tourists into the country without the favourable conditions to sustain and generate their interest.

Most tourists want something that would generate their interest rather than merely visiting tourist sites.

“We need to ensure that the 10 or 15 minutes a tourist will spend at tourist sites, he can take something away. There could be things like cultural displays performed by local people at these sites,” he emphasised.

He was speaking in an interview with The Spectator on the sidelines of a day’s Regional sensitisation workshop organised by GIPC to create awareness on its mandate and service delivery at Techiman in the Bono East Region.

Among the objectives of the workshop was to share insights of the region’s untapped economic potentials and opportunities among others.

Dr Asafo Adjei charged the Bono East Regional Coordinating Council to liaise with the GIPC to develop a business plan to push for the region’s development.

The Bono East Region, he noted must leverage on its tourism potential as well as agribusiness which the region abounds in to fast-track the development of the area.

He also called for the improvement in infrastructure such as roads, hospitals and hotels which he said were very critical to attract investors into the new region.

The Bono East Regional Minister, Kwasi Adu Gyan, commended GIPC for extending their activities to the Bono East Region and expressed the hope that this would go a long way to speed up the implementation of the area.

He explained that the government believes that the unit of development begins from the Municipal and district Assemblies through the implementation of local content and urged the participants to make use of the knowledge acquired through the workshop.

From Daniel Dzirasah, Techiman