COMMITTEE TO PROMOTE DOMESTIC TOURISM IN WR (PAGE 20)

THE Western Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) has established a West Coast Tourism Destination Steering Committee with the primary responsibility of providing strategic directions for, and co-ordinating the sustainable development of the west coast as an integrated tourism destination in the Western Region.
The 10-member committee headed by the Regional Economic Planning Officer, comprises representatives of the Ghana Tourist Board, the Wildlife Division, the Wildlife Society of Ghana, Ricercae Co-operasione and the private sector.
The committee is to vigorously promote domestic tourism by encouraging people in the region to appreciate and preserve their national heritage and create wealth in the communities.
The committee is also to develop a common vision for the development of tourism in the West Coast Tourism Destination Management Area (TDMA) and to design strategies and interventions for the implementation of this vision.
Again, the committee is to co-ordinate the activities of all stakeholders during implementation and monitor the progress as well as assess the impact of tourism development on the well-being of all stakeholders in the destination area.
Furthermore, the committee is to update all relevant stakeholders with information on the above aspects of the West Coast Tourism Destination Management Programme on regular basis.
Speaking at the first meeting of the steering committee of the Core Group of the TDMA in Sekondi, the Western Regional Minister, Mr A.E. Amoah, said that was the first time the steering committee had been mandated by an international organisation, the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), to promote tourism development in the region.
He said the management of tourism destinations in Ghana was an issue that was attracting the attention of many stakeholders, both internationally and locally.
“The Western Region has numerous tourist sites that can be harnessed to provide jobs for the host communities in particular and earn foreign exchange for the region in general,” Mr Amoah said.
“These attractions range from beaches and other pleasure resources, forts, forest reserves and an eco-tourism site, among others,” he added.
The regional minister said the region had some of the vast eco-tourism attraction sites in the country and cited the Bia Resource Reserve, Nini-Suhyien National Park, Ankasa Resource Reserve and the Egyambra Crocodile Sanctuary.
Those sites, he said, were not well developed yet they contributed greatly to the development of tourism in the country.
According to Mr Amoah, some of these sites had ancillary facilities such as guest houses, and hotels where visitors could sleep and feel at home.
Mr Amoah, however, stated that the main problem was how to effectively manage them to ensure the comfort and satisfaction of visitors.
He pointed out that the problem was not peculiar to the Western Region but prevailed in all tourist destinations across the country.
“As a result, destination management is a subject of growing importance in recent times as tourism is becoming one of the lucrative sources of foreign exchange for the country,” Mr Amoah said.
He stated that the delivery of such exceptional services, experience and values largely depended on the effective collaboration of various stakeholders in the tourism sector.
“It is an undeniable fact that the role of the Ghana Tourist Board is far broader than just management of destinations,” he said.
Mr Amoah said the time had come for the Western Region to ensure proper development of the vast tourist destinations in order to provide jobs for people and also earn foreign exchange to propel the development of the region.
He said the role of the Core Group was, therefore, enormous since members were required to initiate and co-ordinate destination management activities within the framework of a coherent strategy.
Mr Amoah stressed that there was the need to educate the host communities to enable them to better appreciate the benefits of those destinations to ensure their sustenance.
Traditional authorities, he said, should be deeply involved in the activities of the Core Group TDMA in order to obtain their support for whatever plans or programmes the group would come out with.
The Deputy Western Regional Economic Planning Officer, Mr Mahama A. Abu, said the RCC in collaboration with Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) had identified the numerous tourist attractions in the region.
He said the good thing was that the region had the best tourist attraction sites in the country which included beaches, forts and rain forests.
He said some rocks and beaches were naturally designed tourist sites and these were not found in other regions.