Media commended for promoting tourism

Accra (Greater Accra), 7th May ?99 ?

Mrs. Doreen Owusu-Fianko, Acting Executive Secretary of the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), on Thursday lauded the Ghanaian media for their immense contribution to the promotion of tourism in the country.

She was speaking in one of a series of seminars forming part of the on-going joint World Tourism Organisation (WTO), Africa Travel Association (ATA), Africa meeting and convocation of African ministers of tourism in Accra.

Speaking on the theme sustaining environmental and cultural tourism in Ghana, she attributed the success chalked by GTB in efforts to sustain the development of tourism to the several "promotional media publications, which have often been very appealing to tourists."

Mrs. Owusu-Fianko noted that through media publication and other factors that present Ghana as a safe, peaceful, healthy and friendly place, the country chalked appreciable increase in tourist arrivals and its resultant financial receipts over the years.

She said while the media promoted the image of the country to attract tourists, "they also pointed out the short-comings and made fruitful suggestions, which led to improvements at such tourists attraction sites as the Kakum National Park and others."

Mr Owusu-Fianko expressed gratitude to the media for the extensive press coverage given to the on-going joint tourism conference before and since it began.

She expressed the hope that the media would sustain its commitment to the development and marketing of the country's tourism in the coming years to enable the Ministry of Tourism to achieve the objectives of the 15-year tourism development plan.

Dr. Dimitrios Buhalis, one of WTO's Information Technology Directors, stressed the indispensability of the media in the promotion of tourism saying "one of the most efficient but less expensive ways of promoting tourism is through the press."

She, therefore, urged delegates to make extensive use of the media in their respective countries, especially where funds to establish a viable modern communication facility for the purpose are not available.