Scouting, another means of promoting tourism - Hawa

Ms Hawa Yakubu, Minister of Tourism, said on Wednesday that the ministry has plans to organise an international camping for boy scouts and girl guides to help in exposing the country's tourist centres to the outside world. Ms Yakubu said scouting and guiding were being noted for their camping and other exciting activities and it would be a good idea to bring these people together in one country from time to time.

Meeting six foreign students from the US who are on a two-week visit to Ghana, she mentioned places like the Mole game reserve, waterfalls in the Volta Region, the crocodile pond at Paga, the Larabanga stone and other forest and game reserves, which could be visited.

The students will instal computers in various laboratories including the Cocoa Research Institute, Kumasi Secondary-Technical School and Kyirapatre Library in Kumasi, Nkwatia Secondary School and Kwahu-Daa Junior Secondary School.

Ms Yakubu said there are a lot of places in the rural areas, which could be developed into tourist attraction centres. She said although information on a country could be accessed from the Internet, it would still be better to see it and have a feel of the place. The minister said school exchange programmes would also be encouraged to enable other students to spend their holidays in the country and have time to move round areas of interest.