Hohoe, April 12, GNA - Mr Prince Kwame Kludjeson, President of the Africa Global Sister City Foundation, has suggested to district assemblies and traditional councils to take advantage of the Sister City concept to accelerate development and poverty reduction. He was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Hohoe on the potential of the Sister City concept as a vehicle for boosting the tourism sector.

Mr Kludjeson said the Agogo Traditional Area was able to raise 1.3 million dollars within a short period through the Sister City concept to finance its development programmes.

He appealed to assemblies and traditional councils to sponsor delegates to this year's Sister City conference scheduled for May 25-28 and July 27 to 31 in Saint Louis, Missouri and Spokane in Washington DC respectively.

The conference would provide the platform for delegates to broker friendly ties with cities in the USA. Mr Kludjeson said the country's tourism sector was a gold mine waiting to be exploited and earnings from the sector could outstrip the traditional sources of foreign exchange.

"Only an accelerated development of the sector would generate revenue," Mr Kludjeson said and expressed the hope that the government would march its words with action as far as the development of the sector was concerned.

Mr Edwin Owusu-Mensah, the acting Deputy Executive Director of the Ghana Tourist Board, said about 600 million dollars was realised from lodging by tourists in 2004.

On domestic tourism, Mr Owusu-Mensah debunked the assertion that Ghanaians do not patronise tourism sites in the country. He said a study conducted at the Kakum National Park and the forts and castles in the Central Region indicated that 90 per cent of the patrons of these sites were Ghanaians.