The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) is committed to promoting domestic tourism in the country, so as to attract more investors and tourists to enhance socio-economic activities.
In view of this, the Authority in collaboration with the Tourism Ministry and private sector has identified certain tourism potentials of the country to rehabilitate, while others will be constructed to boost tourism in the catchment areas.
Also, tourism operators have been provided with the capacity to enhance their operations and allow the sector to grow.
The Kintampo Waterfall is one of the rehabilitated and improved attractions in the country, with additional canopy walkways added to make the place more interesting to tourists and encourage more visitors to enable the community generate some revenue for developmental projects.
The staff, media and service personnel were led by the Tour Guide operator Justice Boachie, who took them through the various activities to let them have a view of the site.
Some of the personnel who had opportunity to go through the canopy walkway and also have a feel of the Nkrumah Mystery Stone expressed gratitude to management for the honour of taking them to the site to learn.
To ensure the achievement of this goal, the Northern Regional Manager for GTA, Alhaji Hakeem Ismail, led a team of the Northern staff and the National Service personnel on a tour to promote domestic tourism.
According to him, promoting the sites will help create more job opportunities in the various sectors to alleviate poverty. He said the Authority has been embarking on capacity training for tour guide operators and other industry players to enhance their operations.
He noted that the Authority this year, in collaboration with government, has accepted more personnel who have been allocated to the various hospitality venues in the country to curb the stress personnel go through in serving the nation.
The Marketing Manager for GTA, Kennis Ateere, said the Authority since the outbreak of coronavirus has been creating awareness on the need for tourists to take precautionary measures to help curb spread of the pandemic. “Though lots of revenues and jobs were lost in the process, an effort has since been made to ensure the sector’s revamping to boost revenue mobilisation and job creation,” he said.
According to him, the Authority has been liaising with traditional authorities to create awareness of the various sites’ potential to attract investors and tourists.
“To ensure transference of our cultural heritage to the younger generation, we have established tourism clubs in some schools across the region to educate them on the various tourism and culture issues. This is to encourage the younger ones to appreciate the value of their culture and the need to hold onto it,” he said.
Tour Guide Operator Justice Boachie, who took tourists around, in an interview said the site used to record many visitors before outbreak of the pandemic; but fear of contracting the virus has led to low attendance, thereby making it difficult for management to generate revenue to develop the place and also pay workers.
“With the introduction of canopy walkways and other site attractions, accompanied by awareness creation, we have been receiving some visitors – but not much as compared to the previous times,” he said.
He also appealed for disability-friendly roads to enable them access the place and get a view of the site.
