Accra, Feb 2, GNA - The Ministry of Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City on Monday expressed optimism about the sector becoming the largest employer in the informal sector by 2007. This was in line with its five year strategic Action Plan of increasing job creation from the current 115,000 jobs to over 300,000 jobs annually.

Mr Emmanuel-Victor Hagan, Director, Research, Statistics and Information of the Ministry on behalf of the Minister Mr Jake Obestebi Lamptey said foreign exchange earnings would also be increased from the current 600 million dollars to 1.5 billion dollars during the same period.

He was addressing 15 participants attending a three-day tourism workshop on Land Use Planning at Shai Hills in the Dangbe West District of Greater Accra Region.

It is being organised by the Ghana Tourism Capacity Development Initiative project in collaboration with the Georgia State University with Funding from USAID.

Mr Hagan said making Ghana a competitive and quality tourist destination within the framework of the country's cultural, historical and environmental setting could achieve the set targets.

"This means that we must apply the principles of sustainable tourism development at the attraction sites, construction of facilities and delivery of quality services at all times.

"Consequently, we need to re-emphasise the implementation and enforcement of standards that will make Ghana competitive for investors and tourists alike in terms of the development of the tourist site," he said.

Mr Kwame Tetteh-Korly Agban, District Chief Executive of Dangbe West, said Ghana needed to learn form other states such as Israel on how to manage the tourism sector to make it the number one foreign exchange earner.

He cited the River Jordon, which he had been packaged as a major tourist attraction and said: "We can learn from them on how to package historical and cultural heritage such as the Volta which is the biggest man-made lake in Africa."

Mr Foster Joe Nyarko, President of the Ghana Tourism Federation, who chaired the function, called on all Ghanaians to help keep the tourism sector clean by preventing children and hawkers from harassing tourists in their quest to earn some monies from them.