Ghana needs more hotels - Tourism Minister

Accra, Aug. 15, GNA - Ghana needs more hotels especially near tourist sites to enable the Tourism Sector achieve its strategic action plan in 2007, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lampety, Minister of Tourism and Modernization of the Capital City, said on Monday.

He said it was for this reason that the Ministry was involved in encouraging investors to build the Hilton Hotel, Ambassador Hotel, Intercontinental Hotel and other hotels in the country to create a level of interest in the tourism industry by 2007.

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said this when Ms Mary Carlin Yates, outgoing US Ambassador to Ghana, called on him to bid him farewell. The Minister said people were becoming aware of Ghana's tourism potential and chiefs of different towns were expressing interest in the industry.

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said America had partnered the Ghanaian tourism industry for a long time and currently USAID was helping the private sector to enable them to boost tourism.

USAID must also focus on training personnel in the hospitality industry, he said.

He described Ms Yates as the most travelled Ambassador Ghana had ever had, saying: "She has been to every known tourist site in the country."

Ms Yates, who would leave the country on Sunday, expressed interest in the growth and development of Ghanaian tourism and urged the Ministry to encourage people in the industry to employ people, who understood the hospitality business.