Accra, April 22, GNA - Dr Maurias Haas, German Ambassador on Wednesday said poor sanitation and street beggars in the country deterred most German tourists and affecting Ghana's image. He said the German Embassy had often received complaints from its visiting nationals that the situation put them off and therefore cautioned that without urgent measures, Ghana would risk loosing her tourists.

Dr Haas made these known when he called on Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, Minister of Tourism in Accra.

He said half of the German population of about 40 million was keen on travelling and as such Ghana could earn foreign exchange from German tourists should the country develop and promote her tourism industry. He said about 50 million Euros were spent annually by Germans on travel.

The Ambassador said Ghana also had the potential to tap benefits from eco-tourism and historic tourism and expressed the hope that the sector would be further promoted to offer more to tourists. Mrs Azumah-Mensah said government appreciated the concerns and assured him that the issue and challenges would be addressed. On the street beggars, the Minister said efforts to get them off the streets had not been successful, since dealing with such vulnerable people had some social implications.

She stated that the sanitation problem also remained a major challenge to government, but expressed the hope that with the support of other sectors, Ghana could be rid of the filth.

"We hope to intensify public education on environmental cleanliness whiles at the same tackling those factors that make it difficult to achieve the desired change", the Minister added.

On tourism promotion, Mrs. Azumah-Mensah said the Ministry was promoting domestic tourism in order to generate more local resources for the country, which had become more crucial now in view of the global economic crunch. She called for the Embassy's support and investment to help push Ghana high on the world tourism map for the sector to become one of the major foreign exchange earners.