Tourism sector creates more jobs

Adasewase (E/R), Dec. 21, GNA - The tourism sector created 260,000 new jobs this year and would be creating more jobs next year, the Minister for Tourism, Mrs Sabah Zita Okaikoi, has said.

She said this at the inauguration of a Tourists Receptive Facility at the Tini Waterfalls at Adasewa near Anyinam on Monday.

The facility will provide a one-stop shop for tourists visiting the Tini Waterfalls and was built at a cost of 177,000 Ghana cedis provided by the government.

She expressed concern about poor management of tourist receptive facilities in the country and called on the Atiwa District Assembly and the Eastern Regional Director of the Ghana Tourist Board to ensure that the Adasewase facility is managed in a more profitable and sustainable manner. Mrs Okaikoi said next year her office, in collaboration with the private sector, would construct 20 rest stops in the country and assured that the Eastern Region would have its fair share of the facility. She said her ministry would partner the Eastern Regional Co-ordinating Council and the private sector to speed up the development of the tourism industry in the region.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, called on the District Assembly to collaborate with the District Directorate of Education and the local community to promote local tourism.

He said an arrangement could be made for school children in the district to be taken to the Tini Waterfalls and explained that such an exercise could help in marketing the facility.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said the Eastern Region is the tourist hob of the country and has more natural and developed facilities than many parts of the country and therefore appealed to the Ministry of Tourism to support the region to develop and promote its tourism facilities.

The Atiwa District Chief Executive, Mr Atta Twum, appealed for the rehabilitation of the road from the junction of the Accra-Kumasi highway to the facility to enable visitors to easily get to the facility. Osabarima Kwame Tia II, Chief of Adasewase who chaired the function, appealed to the Regional Minister to help stop the illegal tree felling in the area because it is threatening the existence of the Tini Waterfalls.