Low budget hinders tourism development –Baba Jamal
From Musah Umar Farouq, Wa
Baba Jamal, Deputy Information Minister
THE DEPUTY Minister of Tourism, Mr. Baba Jamal has noted that the poor performance of countries in the sub-region in their tourism competitiveness was due to weak research and low budget allocations to the sector.
He said the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism competitiveness index for 2011 ranked Ghana 108th out of 139 countries in terms of tourism competitiveness, which was a slight improvement from its 110th position in 2009.
The country also placed tenth in Africa and in West Africa only the Gambia and Senegal were above Ghana as being more competitive.
Mr. Jamal, who was speaking at a sensitization workshop for stakeholders in the Upper West Region, on the operation of the new Tourism Law, Act 817 and the implementation of the tourism Levy regulations (LI 2185), said the true wealth-creating and poverty reduction potential of the tourism sector was yet to be derived as Ghana was yet to make the necessary investments in that sector.
The government alone cannot meet the substantial amounts of money involved hence the need for imposition of levies to complement government budget allocations, he stated.
He said any country that wished to compete in the tourism market must scale up its legislations, policies, infrastructure and quality of service.
According to the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), tourism arrivals and receipts doubled between the periods of 2005 and 2010, while the tourism arrivals and receipts also grew at double digit figures annually within the same period.
The Upper West Regional Minister, Hon. Amin Amidu Sulemani, said figures released recently by the GTA showed that visitor arrivals grew from 698,069 in 2008 to 1,080,220 in 2011, with corresponding receipts of US$1.4 billion and US$2.17 billion respectively.
He called for a public/private partnership as a way of making Ghana a competitive and quality tourism destination within the frame work of respect for the country’s cultural, historical and environmental heritage.
Hon. Sulemani added that his region could boast of many tourism resources such as the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary and World’s heritage monuments like the Wa Naa’s palace and the Gwollu Slave Defence Walls.
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