Gambia & Ghana to Collaborate On Tourism Promotion

In a bid to further promote sub-regional tourism, a Ghanaian tourism delegation consisting of high level officials from the Ghana Tourist Board, Travel and Tourism Industry has arrived in Banjul on a five-day working visit.

According to Mr. Lamin Saho, the Director of Gambia Tourism Authority, the development was followed by a recently concluded familiarisation trip to Ghana by a cross section of The Gambia Tourism Stakeholders, which included GTA, GHA, ASSET, TTAG and Fashion Designers in partnership with Slok Air International. He added that the programme was further supported by The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Mr. Saho said the objective of the return visit is to consolidate the existing collaboration and to further discuss issues of partnership in the area of sub-regional tourism and marketing. He further stated that a comprehensive programme has been outlined to enable the Ghanaian delegation experience the best of Gambian hospitality, the range of attractions and accommodation facilities. He indicated that various discussions would be held to work out a common programme and a joint promotional strategy at the level of the sub-region, particularly to increase the volume of visitors to the respective countries; that the tour will be concluded with the signing of a comprehensive memorandum of understanding between the two countries in the area of joint marketing and sub-regional tourism.

Mr. Alieu Secka, the Chairman of The Gambia Hotel Association, said the idea is meant to promote ECO-Tourism in the sub-region, adding that they want to use the Tourism industry to create jobs in different tourist enterprises. He added that the visit would enable them learn more from each other and about each other pertaining to tourism.

Mr. Adama Bah of "ASSET" said the initiative is to look at the overall benefits and interests of each country in the tourism industry, either in craft, carving, painting and any other thing of tourism benefits and interests.

Mr. Alhaji Idris Abdulkareem of Slok Air indicated that his company sponsored the initial "Air Fare" tourism to make it easy and cheap for the tourists within West African countries.

A Ghanaian delegate, Mr. Prince A.A Sanni of the Ghanaian Tour Operators' Union, said that the visit is also to familiarise themselves with the small scale industries in the tourism sector and how to bring them to their focus. The program was held at the Sun Beach Hotel, on Monday 9 July.

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Country Lacks Hotel Rooms

GHANA CURRENTLY needs about 20, 000 hotel rooms to be able to host the number of tourists expected in the country at a given period, Mr. Frank Kofigah, Head of Planning and Development at the Ghana Tourist Board said on Friday.

He said, currently, there are only 7,000 hotel rooms in the country and these include hotels in remote villages.

Mr. Kofigah made the observation at the beginning of a three-day working tour to eco-tourism sites in theVolta Region.

He said in Ghana the hotel with the highest number of rooms had about 200 rooms while in other countries a hotel could have about 50,000 rooms.

"If we have even a thousand visitors at one point in time we will have to beg to use private accommodation."

The tour organized by the Ghana Tourists Board for members of the Parliamentary Select Committee of Trade and Tourism will take the Members of Parliament to selected tourist sites in the Volta Region.

The itinerary for the tour includes a visit to Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary, Liate-Wote Eco Tourism sites, Wli Waterfalls, Kpando Tokor grotto and Kpetoe Kente Village.

Other places to be visited are Keta, Atokor Slave market, Vume pottery and Cisneros ostrich farm.

The Members, on the first day of the trip stopped over at the Shai Hills to visit the caves and described the scenes as interesting and exciting.

Mrs. Alice Boon, Member of Parliament for Lambussie and Deputy ranking member of the group, expressed gratitude to the Ghana Tourists Board for such a trip.

She pledged the Committee's continual support for tourism development in the country.

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Tourism Sector Aims to Improve Standards

Ghana's tourism sector has realised that the country is a sought after business and leisure destination and thus aims to improve its services.

On Sunday 1 July alone, the capital city Accra will host at least three major events which have attracted international guests.

These have led to the Ghana Tourism Board (GTB) issuing an official statement Tuesday, to the effect that all hotels in the coastal city were now fully booked.

Sunday sees Accra hosting the 9th African Union Heads of State Summit at the International Convention Centre; the Gold Show - west Africa's largest fashion showcase at the breath-taking Independence Square facing the Atlantic Ocean, and a city-wide race set to attract thousands of runners: the African Unity Marathon.

With the country being the current chair of the AU, led by President John Kufuor, it is bound to attract even more visitors on official business.

The GTB and the British Council hosted a training session for service providers in the hospitality sector, earlier this week, hoping to assist the businesses to step their operations up to international standards.

Visitors to Ghana were impressed with many aspects of the nation's offerings but were often disappointed at the sub-standard service in some hotels, said Martin Mireko, acting Executive Director of the GTB.

Ghana has excellent regulations for the sector, explained Mr Mireko, and urged hoteliers and other service providers to adhere to them.

"We will conduct checks at various locations and close down those facilities found guilty of non-compliance," he warned.

Ghana aims to attract one million tourists to the country in 2008.

Should the sector improve its levels of service, it would crown the already impressive array of tourist attractions to Ghana such as the Kakum National Park, Cape Coast Castle and there Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park.

The late Ghanaian President who passed away in 1972 is buried there under a massive grey marble monument, along with his wife Fathia, who passed away in May this year.

Of particular interest to South Africans, will be a mango tree planted by Former President Nelson Mandela on his visit to the park in 1991, shortly after his release from prison and three years before becoming South Africa's first democratically elected president.

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