NR TOURISM SECTOR GROWING STEADILY (PAGE 27, OCT 30, 2010)

From Vincent
Amenuveve, Tamale.

THE tourism sector in the Northern Region generated a total of GH¢413,232 between 2002 and last year.
Additionally, a total of GH¢106,916 tourists arrived in the region within the same period.
The Regional Chief Officer of the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), Mr Alexander Nketia, who made this known to The Mirror in Tamale, said the sector had grown significantly over the past eight years particularly in the areas of revenue and tourist arrivals to the region.
According to him, the region bagged GH¢142,218 with 17,620 tourist arrivals last year alone.
The major tourist attractions are located at Larabanga, Mognori, Daboya, Mole National Park and Tizaa among others.
He attributed the growth to frantic efforts over the years by the GTB to protect and discover more tourist attractions in the region.
Touching on the World Tourism Day celebrations, the officer intimated that the developing world’s share of global or international tourism had grown from 34 per cent in the year 2000 to 40 per cent at the moment.
That of Ghana, Mr Nketia said, had grown from 428,533 visitors with corresponding receipts of $836 million in 2005 to over 850,000 visitors with receipts of over $1.5 billion last year.
“If these figures are anything to go by then the need to protect and conserve the biodiversity upon which our tourism attractions are dependent” the officer pointed out.
He noted that there was the need to educate and inform communities particularly the youth about the dangers of destroying biodiversity.
“The GTB therefore sees it as a unique opportunity to raise public awareness particularly among the youth of the importance of biodiversity to tourism development,” he stressed.
Mr Nketia urged communities to avoid such activities as poaching, bush burning, lumbering, environmental pollution, improper disposal of waste and use of weedicides.
A lecturer at the Department of Ecotourism and Environment, Mr Raymond Adongo, said tourism depended so much on biodiversity, saying one of the fastest growing sectors of tourism was the nature based one.
He advocated the formation of tourism clubs in schools, development of tourism infrastructure as well as proper disposal of wastes.