- Minister for Tourism

The Minister for Tourism, Juliana Azumah-Mensah has advocated that whereas government steps up its pledge to create an enabling policy atmosphere for tourism development and also help advance it globally, practitioners and for that matter the private sector tourism enterprises in Ghana should provide the high quality services expected by all.

She was of the view that practitioners in the tourism industry should strive to meet both local and international visitor expectations, stressing that the tourism industry can only be propelled to a higher level when all the stakeholders come together to fight for a common cause.

The Minister said this at separate meetings with Directors of her Ministry, the Ghana Tourist Board, Ghana Tourism Federation, HOTCATT, National Commission on Culture, and Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission of the one hand, and the staff of the Ministry on the other hand.

Mrs. Azumah-Mensah stated that in order to strengthen the achievements the country has made so far in the tourism sector, they need to also play on the international level to actively promote the uniqueness of the attractions, stressing that there is a lot of global competition that require Ghana to be seen and market its programmes vigorously.

In this regard, she said every individual in the tourism industry has a unique contribution to make to the tourism agenda of the country, so as to position Ghana on the tourism map of the globe, and thereby called on all to bring whatever expertise or ideas they have to push the industry forward.

Mrs. Azumah-Mensah, however, lamented that even though much is heard about the tourism potentials of the country, much has not been injected into the sector to enable it play its lead role in the national economy.

“When you put money into a sector it will reap back money for you, and this is where government needs to put money into some sectors such as the tourism industry to make money for the country”, she maintained.

“We want the Ministry to move forward in the right direction, and I hope everybody will play their role well so that we can achieve that objective. I hope to be seeing you in your own working environment, and whatever you want to bring on board, please bring it so that we will see how best we can work with ideas”, she noted.

The Minister called for the need for support from everybody to enable the Ministry to achieve the objectives of the government to propel tourism forward.

She noted that presently, tourism which is the fourth highest foreign exchange earner to the country and employs over 220,000 persons in the country contributes about four per cent to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product.

Globally, tourism is the fastest growing sector and one of the few which cuts across all economic sectors. It is also one of government’s policy tools to use pro-poor tourism to fight poverty in the country.

According to the Minister, governments in some developed countries inject so much resources into the tourism industry, making it tourism play a vital role in their economies, saying that even though Israel is a desert country, they have managed to turn into a green country, mainly from tourism.

“We want to make Ghana a tourist-friendly country, so that even if a tourist comes to Ghana and he/she enjoys the place so much, and if the person is not going to come back, he/she can tell the story to others to visit. But the question is whether if tourists come to the country they would want to make repeat visits due to certain problems confronting the sector. It will all depend on how friendly all the attractions and facilities are to the tourists”, she said.

The Minister assured the staff of the Ministry of a very cordial working relationship so that they can push the tourism agenda forward, because she cannot do the work alone.

She indicated that from the cleaner to the Chief Director, everybody’s role is crucial and important and that there is the need to accord respect to all and ensure that everybody play their role effectively without any problems.

The Minister, who is also a Member of Parliament for Ho East, appealed to the staff of the Ministry to try as much as possible to be wearing Ghanaian clothing very often to enable the country market Ghana.

She also called for need for the staff to seek their welfare, saying that when it happens that way they are encouraged to produce better.