Government will this year consider the establishment of a Tourism Development Fund to support both private and public sector investments, the Minister of Finance, Mr Yaw Osafo- Maafo, announced on Friday.

Presenting the 2001 budget to Parliament, the minister said the government would equally support investments in tourism infrastructure for the development, promotion and marketing of historical, cultural, recreational, conference and eco-tourism across the country.

He said for the sector to make adequate contributions to socio- economic development, there is the need to accelerate its development, promotion and marketing. This would enable it to achieve the eight per cent growth rate needed for it to contribute about 3.8 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the end of the year.

In this direction, he said, a management information system for the tourism sector would be developed to make information available and accessible to investors and other end-users. The Government, the Finance Minister said, will also undertake site identification, documentation and preparation of related feasibility studies for the development of the Slave Route Project to support cultural and historical tourism.
There will also be institutional capacity building in both the public and private sectors to ensure quality service delivery to promote Ghana as a competitive and quality tourist destination. The minister said community involvement in tourism development would be enhanced through public awareness to spread the benefits of tourism across the country.
For all this, an amount of 6.98 billion cedis has been allocated to the Ministry to carry out its activities.