Tourism Ministry to roll-out 15 year development plan

quist

December 24, 2015 12:33 PM

According to her, the ministry has to up its “game” to transform the sector because of stiff competition from other countries.

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The Tourism, Culture and Creative Art Ministry has developed a comprehensive 15 year development plan in a move to transform the sector in to a major source of revenue for the country, the sector minister, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare has said.

She made this known at the 11th National Tourism Awards 2015 in Accra, which was under the theme ‘Rewarding excellence through healthy competition’. The awards seek to reward excellence and ethical business practices within the tourism sector.

According to her, the ministry has to up its “game” to transform the sector because of stiff competition from other countries. She said, “In the face of stiff competition from other countries, there is a need for us to raise our game by transforming the tourism sector in order to rake in the needed foreign exchange.

“In this regard, the ministry with technical support from the World Tourism Organisation has developed a comprehensive 15-year Tourism Development Plan that aims at clearly positioning tourism as a major pillar of Ghana’s economy. This calls for accelerated and concerted efforts from all sector industry players,” she said.

Ghana’s tourism industry is valued at $2.102 billion in 2012, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has said.

The value of the sector is 5.2% of Ghana’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the year 2012, the WEF reported in the 2013 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index released last week. According to the WEF, 255 jobs representing 4.5% were created in the industry out of 1000 jobs in 2012.

It forecasts that Ghana’s tourism sector will contribute 5.4% to GDP from 2013 to 2022.

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