Accra, July 04, GNA – The Ghana Tourism Association Senior Staff Association has commenced its annual week celebration with a clean-up exercise at the La Pleasure Beach and Shining Beach, in Accra.
The exercise which formed part of activities to commemorate the celebration, was to help keep the beaches clean to attract more tourists.
Mr Reginald Malm, President of the Association, said the week-long programme which was in consonance with the Authority’s mandate in promoting domestic tourism in Ghana was under the theme, ‘Domestic Tourism – a panacea for Ghana’s tourism development”
He said the beaches were some of the places that tourist visited and as such, they must be kept clean always in line with the current drive for domestic tourism.
“We want tourists to have a good time when they come. If the beaches are not kept clean, people would come and go and not revisit, and it will affect our tourist arrivals.”
Mr Malm noted that as part of the celebration, members of the Assembly would visit some tourist sites in the Volta Region.
“The main idea behind this year’s celebration is to promote domestic tourism in Ghana. We want Ghanaians to know that we have so many domestic tourist sites they can visit.”
Mr Malm urged Ghanaians to invest their monies in domestic tourist sites instead of travelling outside to invest the monies there, so that the local economy would also grow.
“Domestic tourism is a chain and so if we invest in it, everyone in that value chain will benefit.”
Mr Samuel Kotey Neequaye, General Manager, La Pleasure Beach, commended the GTA for championing the cause of keeping the beaches clean in order to attract more tourists.
He said Ghana’s beach front have become extremely filthy and initiatives like these on regular basis would help keep them clean and attractive.
“Our beaches are so filthy and we thought with the “Operation Clean Your Frontage, things will be better but it has worsened because people now throw more rubbish into the sea when it rains and unfortunately nobody is going round to monitor these things.”
Mr Neequaye noted that because the facility was in a low-lying area, most of the waste settled on their premises and that the facility had invested over 70 per cent of its revenue into waste clearing.
He urged the Government to reintroduce the Ecozoil system, a subsidiary of Jospong Group of Companies, to help cleaning the beaches. He also asked the local Assembly to enhance its beach sanitation strategy.
Some other activities lined up for the week celebration include trips to the Afadjato Mountain, Gemi Falls, Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary and Akortor Slave Market,
GNA