Guide book on tourism lauched (Monday Nov. 9 2009, p3)
A website and guidebook aimed at making tourism products easily accessible to both domestic and foreign tourist has been launched in Accra.
The products, which are the initiatives of Ghana Rural Ecotourism and Travel (GREET), would, among other objectives, market, promote and offer reliable information on tourist destinations throughout the country.
Launching the initiative, the Minister of Tourism, Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, said it was apparent that the tourism sector could only see substantial growth if private organisations joined hands with the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) to initiate, plan and implement complementary programmes for effective and efficient delivery of tourism services.
She stated that the MOT’s main goal was to develop Ghana as a competitive internationally preferred destination where tourism could drive the economy and contribute to poverty reduction, job creation and the conservation of the country’s cultural, historical and environmental heritage.
She stated that the benefits of a community-based tourism was enormous as the benefits cut across economic, social and cultural spheres of life.
Community tourism, she added, was the most effective and least expensive way of bringing social inclusion and a tool to restore hope to the economically marginalised.
According to her, tourism in the past did not impact on the economic and social lives of Ghanaians because of factors such as lack of awareness among decision makers and in particular the general public on the benefits of tourism.
She lauded the GREET initiative as a step in the right direction which would effectively help create a communication system for the benefit of the tourism sector in the country.
Mrs Azumah Nelson noted that it was the hope of the MOT that the efforts of the GREET would give the right signals to encourage tourism practitioners and potential visitors to the country means of information so that they would get value for money.
The Deputy Executive Director of Operations of the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), Mr Edwin Owusu-Mensah, commended the innovation as an effective marketing of rural tourist destinations in the country.
He indicated that access to information on the obscured but interesting sites in the country had been the missing link in the marketing and promotion of tourism in the country.
Mr Owusu-Mensah stated that as part of addressing the inadequacy of information available on the country in the international tourism market, the GTB was embarking on projects such as the creation of tourism offices and desks outside the country, organisation of familiarisation trips for local and international travel journalists and the development of tourism collateral that include DVDs, CDs and documentaries on tourism in the country.
The products, which are the initiatives of Ghana Rural Ecotourism and Travel (GREET), would, among other objectives, market, promote and offer reliable information on tourist destinations throughout the country.
Launching the initiative, the Minister of Tourism, Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, said it was apparent that the tourism sector could only see substantial growth if private organisations joined hands with the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) to initiate, plan and implement complementary programmes for effective and efficient delivery of tourism services.
She stated that the MOT’s main goal was to develop Ghana as a competitive internationally preferred destination where tourism could drive the economy and contribute to poverty reduction, job creation and the conservation of the country’s cultural, historical and environmental heritage.
She stated that the benefits of a community-based tourism was enormous as the benefits cut across economic, social and cultural spheres of life.
Community tourism, she added, was the most effective and least expensive way of bringing social inclusion and a tool to restore hope to the economically marginalised.
According to her, tourism in the past did not impact on the economic and social lives of Ghanaians because of factors such as lack of awareness among decision makers and in particular the general public on the benefits of tourism.
She lauded the GREET initiative as a step in the right direction which would effectively help create a communication system for the benefit of the tourism sector in the country.
Mrs Azumah Nelson noted that it was the hope of the MOT that the efforts of the GREET would give the right signals to encourage tourism practitioners and potential visitors to the country means of information so that they would get value for money.
The Deputy Executive Director of Operations of the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), Mr Edwin Owusu-Mensah, commended the innovation as an effective marketing of rural tourist destinations in the country.
He indicated that access to information on the obscured but interesting sites in the country had been the missing link in the marketing and promotion of tourism in the country.
Mr Owusu-Mensah stated that as part of addressing the inadequacy of information available on the country in the international tourism market, the GTB was embarking on projects such as the creation of tourism offices and desks outside the country, organisation of familiarisation trips for local and international travel journalists and the development of tourism collateral that include DVDs, CDs and documentaries on tourism in the country.
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