Children are key in tourism devt – Tourism Minister

As part of efforts to improve sanitation in the country, the Kids in Tourism Club in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, and Qualiplast Ghana Limited has unveiled 50 kids sanitation ambassadors from 25 schools in Accra.

The ambassadors would be tasked to promote good sanitation in schools and the community as well as to support sanitation programmes.

Speaking at the event, Mrs Amy Frimpong, Chief Executive Officer, National Service, who represented the sector minister, lauded the organisers for their commitment in improving the sanitation of the country.

According to her, children play a major role in the development of tourism in the country, arguing that, “though children are not the direct decision makers, they [children] have huge indirect influence on tourism.”

She added that, the selection of the ambassadors is timely as it was in line with the President’s vision to make Accra one of the cleanest cities in Africa.

“The tourism industry should be very attentive to children experiences with a proactive approach to the family in organising various activities which will promote great experiences,” she said.

Mrs Frimpong urged the older generation to imbibe the values of their tradition into the younger ones

Speaking to the media, Mr Joseph Akl, Deputy Manager, Qualiplast Ghana Limited, reiterated the need for children to be included in the fight against poor sanitation.

According to him, the future of the country is in the hands of today’s children, hence the need to give them the right training.

“They [children] are the future. We need to invest our time and resources into them so that they know what to do from their early ages,” he said.

Mr Akl called for an improvement in the technical aspect of waste management, stating that, the collection and recycling of waste in the country must be improved.

He added that his outfit will support the ambassadors by providing logistics to help them in discharging their duties.

On her part, the Founder and President of Kids in Tourism Club, Nana Akua Afriyie, was of the opinion that Ghana would not reap the benefit of tourism if the country is buried under filth.

She expressed the view that it was time to focus on training the children in the quest to fight filth in the country.

“Whatever the child learns now is what he or she will grow up with and so we should educate them now so that when they grow the wont make the mistakes that some of us are doing,” she said.

Madam Afriyie further indicated that their vision as a club is to help boost the tourism sector and make the first foreign income earner in the country.

The Kids In Tourism Club is a non-governmental organisation which seeks to bring schools in Ghana together to promote tourism by improving the sanitation of the environment.