Expedite action on Tourism Fund

04-07-08
Page 29

THE Tourism Investors and Practitioners Organisation (TIPO) has called on the government to expedite action of the establishment of the Tourism Development Fund.
The organisation said such a measure was bound to propel the country’s efforts in tourism to greater heights.
The President of TIPO, Mr Forster Nyarko, made the call at a ceremony to brief the press on its study tour of Mauritius.
He pointed to the fact that security and good governance of the country should provide an opportunity to draw tourists from different parts of the world and increase the number of visitor arrivals.
Unfortunately, even combined with our extraordinary landscape, unique culture and variety of attractions, the vision to brand the country as a destination of preference unequalled anywhere else in sub-Saharan Africa had not fully materialised, he said.
Mr Nyarko said that the WTO Tourism Vision 2020 forecast that international arrivals were expected to reach more than 1.56 billion over the period, adding that the three top receiving regions were Europe (717 million tourists), East Asia and the Pacific (397 million), the Americas (282 million), followed by Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
He said the organisation would continue to push its programmes with a view to improving tourism generally in the country.
TIPO’s programme and activities, he said, included assisting to attract domestic and foreign investments, ensure an appropriate environment and adequate incentives for current operators and new investors, seek support for small- and medium-size entrepreneurs and create a forum for stakeholders to express their views.
Mr Nyarko said Mauritius had identified tourism as a prime industry contributing to the build-up of national revenue, adding that it took investors in the sector a maximum of only 48 hours to go through the required processes to commence business or get approval.
He stressed the need for cleanliness, adding that that was true of Mauritius, since that country had consciously developed its beaches to attract visitors and pleasure-seekers from around the world.
A member of TIPO, Nana Dr Baah Wiredu, said like the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), the Tourism Development Fund would be able to address the challenges in the tourism sector.