Technical and Vocational training, key to tourism sector - Ambassador

The South African High Commissioner to Ghana, Ms Lulama Xingwana, has stressed the need to improve technical and vocational education and expertise through continuous training.

She noted that technical and vocational training will help revamp the tourism sector as well as institute competition among the local entrepreneurs and their foreign counterparts.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, she said Ghana needed to add value to most of its raw products to enable it compete favourably on the international markets and also entice more investors.

“Agriculture, tourists’ sites, and culture are some of the factors when properly looked at and individuals trained to sell and export the finished products, will help elevate the tourism sector of the country.

“We need to add value to our products to get more profit and reduce the rate of unemployment in the country,” she said.

Ms Xingwana noted that tourism was one of South Africa’s fastest-growing sectors, and the third-largest contributor to its Gross Domestic Product and the South African Government expects the industry to generate nearly 600 million dollars a year by the end of the decade and also create 225,000 new jobs.

She said the tourism industry employs over 700,000 people in South Africa, according to industry watchers and creates a compelling image for the country.

The High Commissioner said “we need to realise that there is a brand called Africa and Africans owe it themselves to tell their own story; for as long as we all have that passion and the realization that there is a need for emancipation of mind, we can do more than the developed countries.”

She said usually what entice a tourist to Ghana was the diversity in culture, history, vegetation and recreation. These things aside being beneficial to the people, it is a source of income creation to the nation.

Ms Xingwana said “Ghana is hospitable, very business oriented and rich in culture. As one tours around Accra we see museums and art centre with a wide arrays of traditional beauty and display of culture of the people.

‘’Ghana has an arrays of calved and sculptured artifacts for beautification and this depicts the creativity of the Ghanaian. ’One thing we should know is that we are capable of creating our own trains, cars, aeroplanes, architecture, among others only if we put our mind to it’’.