‘Tourist sites are deteriorating’

A tour guide, Aaron Azumah has called on government to put measures in place to generate enough revenue for the communities with tourist attractions and the country in general, as Ghana marks the World Tourism Day under the theme, ‘Tourism and Community Development.’

According to Mr. Azumah, many tourist attractions in the country were gradually deteriorating despite efforts by the inhabitants to maintain them.

He disclosed this to BUSINESS GUIDE at the Pikworo Slave Camp at Nania in the Kassena Nankana West District of the Upper East region.

The Pikworo Slave Camp has nice vegetative cover especially during the rainy season, but does not have conducive resting place for visitors to be thoroughly briefed on how some Africans were captured by some blacks and sold into slavery for insignificant items like mirrors, tobacco and drink.

“We need to keep the tourist attractions well, just as it was so that when people come here, they will feel the pain that the slaves felt. If we don’t stop the deterioration of the slave sites, people who visit them may not be able to follow the footpaths or the movement of their forefathers who were sold into slavery. When we feel the pain of slavery, we will treat our subordinates with respect,” Aron Azumah said.

The road leading to the Pikworo Slave Camp is in a deplorable condition just like many other tourists sites in the Kassana-Nankana West District. BUSINESS GUIDE gathered that almost all tourist attractions in the district are under the management of the communities, thereby denying the Kassena-Nankana West District Assembly revenue for the development of the tourism sector.

A Senior Marketing Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, John Adams, in an interview with the paper, said the tour guides must be trained to effectively welcome the visitors.

According to Mr. Adams, efforts to get District Assemblies in the Upper East region to takeover management of various tourist attractions had proved futile.