Four tourism sites in the country have been earmarked for upgrade to bring them up to international standards, the Minister of Tourism, Mrs Barbara Oteng-Gyasi has announced.

According to her the upgrade of the sites which include, Lake Bosumtwe, the Paga Crocodile Pond, the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and Centre of the World Project and the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles formed part of the Ghana Tourism Development Project-Component II.

Mrs Oteng made the announcement when her Ministry took its turn at the Meet-the-Press Series organised by the Ministry of Information in Accra yesterday.

She explained that the upgrade apart from developing the selected sites into international standards was also intended to attract the desired volumes of visitation and create jobs as well as boost the incomes of the people.

In addition to these sites, she said under the component II of the project would be the upgrade grant scheme, stressing that “The purpose of the grant scheme is to diversify the leisure tourism offering in Ghana by identifying and upgrading the most promising destination areas.”

Mrs Oteng-Gyesi explained that the scheme would provide non-publicly owned sites with matching grants to support quality upgrade; and all selected sites with training on site management and maintenance.

“These sites will undergo an assessment of their ownership structures, management interest, safeguards screening, and other requirements,” she emphasised.

The Minister noted that the policy direction of her outfit was to provide a firm, stable policy environment for effective mainstreaming of Ghanaian Arts and Culture into all aspects of national life.

She said this was to ensure a strong emergence of a vibrant creative economy to improve and advance the tourism, arts and culture industry, adding that “In line with this, there have been considerable gains in the following areas; Year of Return (YOR), Ghana 2019, The Marine Drive Tourism Investment Project; The World Bank support under the Ghana Tourism Development Project and Culture, Creative Arts and Heritage Management.”

Touching on the Year of Return, the Minister said over 80 events comprising stakeholder meetings, investment forums, musical concerts and cultural festivals among other had already taken place.

She said the Year of Return had boosted the tourism sector leading to a tremendous growth of 18 per cent in international arrivals from the Americas, Britain, Carribbeans and other key countries whilst total airport arrivals increased by 45 per cent over the previous years.  

Mrs Oteng-Gyasi said following the successful implementation of the YOR, the Ministry would continuously carry out activities to sustain the country’s diaspora relationship and build on the positive impacts of the initiative.

“It therefore intends to implement a campaign-oriented projects dubbed: “Beyond the Year of Return- a Birthright” over a ten year period under the theme, ‘A decade of African Restoration 2020-2030,” she emphasised.