Minister Seeks US Support for Hotel Industry

Madam Hawa Yakubu, Minister of Tourism yesterday appealed to the U.S Ambassador, Miss Nancy Powell to assist her ministry to establish a hotel management institution to feed the country's hotels.

Her request she explained was necessitated by the high cost of hiring foreign managers to manage local hotels, which she said, stood at $10,000 per manager monthly. This is in contrast to the meagre salaries taken by the local labour force.

Madam Hawa Yakubu made the request when the US Ambassador paid a courtesy call on her in Accra. The call was intended to facilitate a partnership between the two countries in the area of tourism development.

She insisted that, most Ghanaians have the managerial potentials, which have not been developed and tapped due to the lack of an appropriate institution for the purpose. She said if such potentials are effectively developed, it would expose the qualities in the citizens to the outside world and also save the nation much foreign exchange.

The Minister also called on the Ambassador to promote an exchange of programmes between the two countries, which she added would allow American journalists to explore the tourism potentials in the country.

Hawa Yakubu regretted that, most tourists are drawn to the Central Region, ignoring the northern part of the country from where she said the slave routes originated.