By Stanley Senya
Accra, Sept 1. GNA – The Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, during a meeting with a Japanese envoy, Dr. Ituru Ishii, an Advisor to the Office of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan on 31 August in Accra made an appeal to the government to take the bull by the horns and deal with plastic waste menace in Accra especially.
Government should impose heavy taxes on importation of plastics or invest in biodegradable materials as an alternative in curbing waste materials on the streets of Accra.
The Ga Mantse said, “We cannot have a tourism appeal if we still continue to do things the way we do them in the past because we haven’t found our foot in cleaning up our plastic waste.”
He suggested that a committee should be formed in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism to begin research that will help maximize the full potential of the Ga Dangme people.
Mrs Gifty Quansah, a retired Director of Ghana Tourism Authority at the meeting stressed on the importance of tourism to Ghana and commended the government for establishing the Ghana Tourism Authority, Arts, and culture, she appealed to the government to invest more on community based eco-tourism to create jobs, preserve incomes, history, and culture of communities.
The Japanese envoy who is also a member of the Japan-Ghana Friendship League suggested innovative ways to boost tourism in Ghana, he said, within a year, Japan was able to increase the number of tourists from six (6) million to thirty-eight (38) million when they invited journalists from all over the world to find out the expectations of potential tourists from their specific countries.
According to him, the outcome of this research showed that visitors from different countries had different expectations and wanted to do different things during their visits, armed with this information, the Japanese government established tourism offices in different countries with different missions to promote Japanese tourism tailored to the specific needs of different countries.
Dr. Itaru Ishii is currently in the country to explore the tourism potential of the country and create a new channel for Japanese tourists and investors to visit Ghana. He was accompanied by Ambassador Jude Sylvester Parker-Allotey, Ghana’s former Ambassador of Ghana Plenipotentiary of Ghana to Japan and High Commissioner for Singapore.
GNA