Kumasi, Dec. 22, GNA - Mr Julius Debrah, the newly appointed Executive Director of the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), has vowed to ensure effective and pragmatic measures to substantially increase the country's foreign exchange earnings from tourism.

He has therefore urged all stakeholders in the sector to play their roles well to achieve this goal Mr Debrah said this at a meeting with hoteliers, restaurant operators, traditional caterers and travel and tours agents in Kumasi on Monday. He said since the private sector was the engine of growth everything possible would be done to help it to function more efficiently. Mr Debrah spoke of plans to aggressively promote excursion tours in schools and institutions and to market the nation's tourism potentials to the outside world through the internet.

He said since Ashanti Region had been recognized historically and culturally as a powerful Kingdom, its festivals including Akwasidae would be given focus to portray to the outside world the unique culture to attract more tourists.

He said the Board would collaborate with institutions like the Danish International Development Agency, United Nations Development Programme and others to train more personnel in the tourism sector. Mr Debrah called for support for operators in the hospitality industry to upgrade their facilities to meet the desired standards as the nation made efforts to attract more tourists.

Mr Anane Nsiah, the Ashanti Regional GTB Manager, said the meeting was to strategize and develop plans to promote the industry. The participants appealed to the Board to be alive to its responsibilities and provide logistics and technical support to enhance the performance of the sector operators.

They complained about stray animals particularly in the Kumasi metropolis, which they said did not augur well for the country's image and tourism. They therefore called on the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly to act decisively to stop this. 22 Dec 09