Deputy Tourism Minister, Hon. James Agyenim Boateng, is calling for a shift of focus from the over-reliance on the traditional sources of revenue like the District Assemblies Common Fund and market tolls, to more innovative and sustainable ways of generating revenue for the running of Assemblies.
He is therefore advocating investments in tourism as one of the pillars of sustainable sources of national revenue, decent employment, and poverty alleviation. According to him, globally, tourism ranks 4th in the export category after fuel, chemicals, and automotive products. Also, international tourism is one of the main sources of foreign exchange, and specifically in the case of Ghana, it is the 4th foreign exchange earner after gold, cocoa, and remittances.
Hon. Agyenim Boateng made the above observations when he addressed the Conference of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies from the Northern Sector in Kumasi on the topic “Promoting Tourism for Local Economic Development.”
According to the Minister, as part of efforts of his Ministry to boost tourism at the local level, twenty-six (26) “Tourism Receptive Facilities” have been constructed in selected communities nationwide, with the view to providing a one-stop shop of information, recreation, and busines centres for all tourists and visitors to tourist sites in Ghana. He entreated Assemblies that have benefitted from these projects to put in place efficient management systems to ensure that the anticipated benefits of the facilities are fully realised.
Hon. Agyenim Boateng had a word of advise for the MMDCE’s on how they could reap the full benefits of tourism products: “numerous natural, cultural, and historical heritages, as well as man-made attractions exist all around your various districts. Appreciate these potentials, devote resources to their development and promotion, including improvements in access roads, and you would have identified and developed new areas of job creation for your people, and new income generation avenues for local development.”