Paragliding has added to the country’s domestic tourism by enriching the local economy, generating income, reducing poverty and promoting national cohesion.

It is an aviation sport, which had provided a fresh impetuous for the nation’s domestic tourism delivery, as an integral part of the Kwahu Easter festival. The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare said this at the launch of the ninth Okwahu Paragliding Festival on the Odwenanoma Mountain at Atibie, in the Kwahu South District.

She announced that a second paragliding festival would be organized in October this year, to portray the tourism potential in the area, while a paragliding training school would be established in the country to train local pilots.

Mrs Ofosu-Agyare noted that, there were a lot of islands on the Volta Lake in the Afram Plains and advised the Kwahu business community to take advantage to develop them into tourists attractions.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Julius Debrah said, the region is leading in domestic tourism destination in the country and needed funding to develop them.

He said as a result, a number of conferences were being shifted from Accra to the region, which has a lot of first class hotels, rest stops and restaurants to enhance the tourism industry.

There were photo and painting exhibition to portray the tourism potential in the Kwahu area. Fifteen pilots from mostly United States of America (USA), Peru, Japan, Belgium, France Thailand and Spain have arrived in the country to take part in the paragliding festival.

The pilots as at 12 noon yesterday had flown 12 people, out of 115, who had registered to fly at the cost of GH 200.00 each. A Ghana News Agency (GNA) survey indicated that, all the hotels on the Kwahu ridge and those in Nkawkaw are fully booked