Tourism is tool for poverty reduction

The abounding tourism potentials in the Upper East Region, has been identified as one of the major tools that could be used to address the endemic poverty situation in the area.

Statistics indicates that the area has been ranked as one of the poverty endemic regions in the country, yet, it has huge untapped tourist attractions and natural resources including gold.

A Senior Marketing Officer of Ghana Tourist Authority, Mr John Adams who made this known to Ghana News Agency in an interview during this year’s World Tourism Day held at Tongo in the Talensi District of the region said there are lots of tourist sites in the region which are not well developed.

Some of the sites he mentioned included the friendly crocodile pond at Paga and the Pikworo Slave Camp in the Kassena-Nankana West District, Tongo and Tenzug Hills and the Tenzug shrine in the Talensi District as well as the Widnaba Hills in the Bawku West District.

Others are the Naa Gbewa Shrine and the Serigu Pottery and Arts site and the Vea and Tono Irrigation dams.

Mr Adams said road networks leading to these attractions are not good.

He said although according to the country’s laws, tourism sites are owned by the communities the people the region do not have the resources and the needed capacity to develop them.

The Senior Marketing Officer suggested the need for the municipal and district assemblies in the region to go into joint partnerships with the communities to develop the tourist sites to attract more tourists.

He said if this is done effectively, it would have multiple effects on job creation since services such as transport, hotel, marketing and trading would boom, thereby improving on the livelihoods of the people as well as increase the revenue base of the assemblies.

“This will help both the communities and the assemblies to mutually share the benefits. As it stands now, the little money that is usually acquired from these sites cannot be accounted for. Such problems would be resolved if the joint partnership is worked out.”

The occasion was also used to sensitise students on the need to become good ambassadors in promoting tourism in the region.