Accra, Feb 15, GNA - A new tourist map that aimed to provide tourists with information on various attractions and to make them choose Ghana as their main destination was launched in Accra on Tuesday.

The map, an initiative of Rudan Limited, a surveying and mapping firm, captures the various cultural, natural resources and entertainment depicted in the country's festivals and dancing forms across the length and breadth of the country.

It aimed to assist first time visitors to discover and explore the country on their own with little or no assistant and to make travelling to and within the country easy.

A special feature of the new map is a guide map of the Central Business District of Accra to help tourists find their ways easily through Accra, visit embassies and High Commissions, Airline Offices and other places of interest without having to depend on a guide. Launching it, Mr Martin Mireku, Executive Director of Ghana Tourists Board lauded the initiative and said government alone could not carry out the huge responsibility of meeting the needs of the tourism industry.

He said the demand for the consumption of tourism materials is getting high and no institution or government alone could produce all the requirements.

However, Mr. Mireku asked producers of tourism materials to seek guidance from the Board in their production. This, he said, was essential to ensure that only accurate information was provided. "Any wrong information given to the public will have negative impact on our promotional efforts," he said.

Mr Mireku asked the private sector to invest in the provision of decent rest stops along the country's highways and in facilities such as camps, tents, mountain bikes, eco-lodges to boost tourist inflow into the rural communities.

Such investments would help to reduce poverty in the rural areas through the establishment of small-scale income generating activities. Mr Samuel Gadikor, Deputy General Manager, Rudan Limited said Ghana has the resources to take a big share of the revenues generated through tourism annually. But this could only be done through the provision of adequate and reliable information on the country.

He said various reports from all institutions involved in the sector would mean little to a tourist unless they were summarised into maps and brochures.

Mr Gadikor said the map has the capacity to also boost other sectors such as transport, hospitality, and entertainment ventures, among others. The first three framed copies of the map were auctioned at two million cedis each.