We have taken note of the innovations the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) is seeking to implement to boost local tourism.
For us domestic tourism is significant because apart from the revenue it will rake into the state’s kitty, it will enable Ghanaians to know more about their own country and appreciate their country even more than they do.
A couple of days ago the tourism authority organised an Accra tour for a cross-section of the media as part of a forerunner to the Domestic Tourism project.
It is an impetus for encouraging Ghanaians to tour and learn more about their country beginning with the nation’s capital.
Many residents of Accra including the indigene Gas have a limited knowledge about the city’s historical heritage. This lack of knowledge was amplified when some of the local tourists saw for the first time the now semi-demolished first hotel in Accra, the Sea View Hotel facing the Lighthouse.
The grave of a slave master who died in the heady days of the inhuman slave trade as it lies on the side of the James Fort left the local tourists in astonishment. They have never known anything about this grave and the role the James Fort played during the Slave Trade era.
The questions posed to a tour guide by the local tourists lend credence to the fact many people living in Accra did not know about such historical heritages such as Accra’s first harbour and the adjoining Customs House and the Ussher Fort.
While we commend the tourism development entity for its foresight we would be quick to ask that it collaborates with relevant bodies such as the Monuments and Monuments Board to achieve the desired results.
It became clear during the Accra tour that there are lots of tourist attractions which when packaged properly would enhance both domestic and international tourism.
We learnt from the Acting Director of Communications of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Jones Aruna Nelson that when the project takes off the newly outdoored double decker bus and the ‘arol glass’ mammy truck will be used to convey local and international tourists to tour the nation’s capital.
We are longing to see the project quickly take off which we believe will happen in no time.
We have observed that most of the tourist attractions require attention and immediately so because of their derelict state.
The James Fort is for instance begging for immediate attention as some parts of it, if not all, are showing signs of structural defects. It would not be long before some parts of this UNESCO heritage begin to collapse. It is a sharp contrast to the Lighthouse which directed in many years ago steamers and slave ships which partook in the Slave Trade.
The need for a collaboration between the tourism authority and the Museums And Monuments Board lies in the foregone worrying state of our historical sites now in derelict state.
The success of domestic and international tourism lies in our successful restoration of our historical sites and other attractions such as the meridian line which runs through Tema in the Greater Accra Region and Yendi in the Northern Region.