Accra, Oct. 22, GNA - Mr. Donald Teitelbaum, U.S Ambassador to Ghana, on Wednesday said Ghana had a lot to offer those in the Diaspora and commended the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations for their efforts to reach out to them.

He said thousands of Americans came to Ghana every month and this might be because of the shared heritage between the United States and Africa.

Mr Teitelbaum made these comments when he visited Mrs Oboshie Sai-Cofie, Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, as part of his routine as a new ambassador to acquaint himself with the Ministry and the country as a whole.

"I am only six weeks old in Ghana and I see a lot of similarities between food and other things which I thought was peculiar to the U.S. The ties that bind us are still very relevant." He expressed support for the tourism sector, especially eco-tourism, and noted that it was important that communities that hosted tourist attractions or those situated around eco-tourism sites benefited from tourism to give them a reason to protect the attractions. Mrs. Sai-Cofie pointed out that America had been very supportive of Ghana's tourism industry, especially in the promotion of community-based tourism development projects.

She mentioned the Tafi-Atome Monkey Sanctuary in the Volta Region as one success story and expressed the hope that there would be increased collaboration between the two countries. The Minister said Ghana had a special interest in the Americas because of the slave trade hence programmes like Emancipation Day, Joseph Project and PANAFEST, which attracted people in the Diaspora to come "home".

Mrs. Sai-Cofie presented a book titled: "Ghana@50" to Mr. Teitelbaum to enable him to know more about Ghana's attractions and people.