Accra, Sept. 24, GNA - Mr. Nkunu Akyea, a retired Tourism Lecturer at the University of Cape-Coast, on Thursday called for an active and robust domestic tourism plan in Ghana to enable communities benefit from tourism.

He said such a plan would infuse domestic tourism into church programmes, workshops, seminars and funeral celebrations. "People can afford to attend church conventions to sleep in classrooms; it is also possible to put on their itinerary a visit to a tourist site in the locality where the convention was held." Mr. Akyea made the call during a presentation on "The Challenges Facing Domestic Tourism in Ghana" at an international tourism conference organised as part of the celebration of the World Tourism Day in Accra. He said there was the need for an aggressive marketing and public education on domestic tourism and noted that even some policy makers and tour operators did not have adequate information about tourist attractions.

"Some give the excuse that there is lack of funds to undertake domestic tourism, others give reasons such as no time to travel" he said, but added that domestic tourism had a lot of value for the traveller and the community.

Pointing out some values of domestic tourism, Mr. Akyea who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Search-Line Foundation, a tourism organisation, said domestic tourism helped to reduce stereotypes, created opportunities for networks and reduce poverty through revenue mobilisation in the area of the tourist attraction. "It is only by travelling to some parts of the country you do not know that you get to learn about the culture of the people at first hand and also learn to relate with them."

He said domestic tourism fostered national unity and created employment hence the need for government to pay more attention to domestic tourism.

Participants at the conference discussed issues about Ghana International Airlines and the need for public education and quality human resource in the tourism sector.