Ghana asked to invest in tourism sites

Mr Percy Amoah Gogoe, General Manager of Diaspora Tours, a tourist organisation has called on government to back the capital intensive efforts to promote the country’s tourism potentials with infrastructural development to tourist sites.

He said it is a national sham for resources to be spent towards the wooing of tourists, when the attractions are under-developed.

Mr Gogoe, who made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Sunday said: “A visit to the Mole and Kakum National Parks for instance reveals poor road network and general neglect of the two tourist attraction destinations.”

He noted that hotel accommodation and other frontline tourist attractions in the country are too expensive.

“Most clients complain about expensive air fares that connect them to Ghana.

“There is also a general lack of promotion and marketing of the country’s tourism potentials to foreigners.”

Mr Gogoe asked traditional authorities to expose the rich cultural heritage of Ghana such as child naming ceremonies and festivals, to the outside world, since it could attract a number of tourists.

He asked government to encourage domestic tourism, saying “what is the point in wooing tourism to Ghana when Ghanaians are apathetic to explore what is available to them”.

Mr Gogoe also expressed dissatisfaction about the disparity in the tourism industry, explaining that the authorities in especially Europe and America, are only satisfied in visiting Africa and other developing nations to satisfy their curiosity, but when Africans express similar interest to explore their terrain there is always a stalemate.

Source: GNA