Takoradi, Sept. 23, GNA - Mr Edwin Philips, Former Presiding Member for Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly (SAEMA) has called for the preservation of historical and tourists' relics for posterity. He said these relics, including palaces, artisan works, books; monuments and photographs could be preserved to attract Ghanaians and foreigners.

Mr Philips made the call at the celebration of United Nations World Tourism Day at Takoradi on Saturday.

The celebration was under the theme "Tourism enriches".

He called on parents and guardians to provide their children and wards with money boxes at home to save towards excursions to other parts of the country, adding "These children would grow to develop the habit of saving and travelling to other parts of the country and the world."

Mr Philips noted that domestic tourism could account for greater percentage of the country's earnings when developed.

He therefore, called on the Ghana Tourists Board (GTB) to liaise with Metropolitan, Municipal, District Assemblies and chiefs to use their palaces as tourists' attraction to generate revenue. Mr Michael Kpimgbi, Senior Resource Manager of GTB called for improvement in infrastructural development at tourists' sites to enable tourists have access to potable water, good roads, health and telecommunications facilities.

He noted that most tourists preferred to visit greener environments that were being used to protect fragile communities.

Mr Kpimgbi said tourism had been identified as a source of conserving historical, cultural and ecological resources of the country in addition to revenue generation.

He said about 300,000 jobs were expected to be created by 2007 with about one million tourist arrivals in Ghana.