Kakum, Sept. 24, GNA - Government earns at least 700 million cedis annually from people who visit the canopy walkway in Kakum in the Central Region, Mr Kamel Ford, Member of Parliament for Buem, said on Monday.

He said about 70,000 tourists visited the Kakum National Park every year and called for support from the Government towards the development of tourism.

Mr Ford, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Tourism and Trade, made the statement in an interview with the GNA during a trip organized by the Ghana Tourist Board to the Central and Western Regions to enhance members' knowledge about the development and challenges in the tourism industry.

He said Kakum alone could, as a tourist site, generate a lot of money adding: "Kakum needs to be developed to be self-sustaining and globally competitive."

Mr Ford noted that there was a problem with public-private partnership going on in the tourism industry.

He pointed out that there was a problem between Ghana Wildlife and Heritage Conservation, a private company that was also concerned with wildlife conservation because their core functions were not defined. Mr Ford called on the Government to give more attention to the development of tourism and called for the expansion of the core mandate of the Ghana Tourist Board to enable them to function effectively. 24 Sept. 07