Accra, May 25, GNA - The tourism sector saw 16 per cent growth in the first quarter of the year, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Tourism and Diasporean Relations, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Thursday.

He said the growth was very significant to boost economic activities, and was capable of helping to eradicate poverty especially in the rural areas and in communities that had tourist sites. "The current efforts to develop and promote domestic tourism will see significant increase as more people benefit from tourism development," Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said.

He said expenditures of tourists had direct impact on citizens rather than government, explaining that when tourists bought water, food or even slept in hotels in a community the income was received directly by the local people.

The Minister said Ghana could generate substantial income from tourism, noting that many people stood to benefit from the industry as "tourist dollars" touched more areas of the economy than any other industry.

He said if tourism could generate 300,000 jobs in 2007, as outlined in the Tourism Strategic Document, the level of employment should increase by 135 per cent.

"It has been quite difficult to isolate the total contribution of tourism to government tax revenue because of the structural breakdown of the economic sectors used by the Internal Revenue Service," Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey noted.