Ghana is one of the African countries which take tourism seriously. To that note, however, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, and Creative Arts, Mrs. Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare has called on private organizations to partner with the Ministry and other public organizations to participate in the struggle to develop tourism sites in Ghana. The minister made this call at a two-day retreat held in Accra – the capital city of Ghana. This was aimed at reviewing the Ministry’s overall performance for last year (2013) and to lay strategies for upgrading the sector in 2014.

This was also aimed at sharing ideas between the partners in the ministry and make contributions towards the achievement of the Ministry’s goals and targets for 2014. She noted that the expansion of the Ministry by the President through the Executive Instrument (E.I. 2013) had placed greater responsibilities on the Ministry to deliver and hoped all the major stakeholders would give their fullest support to achieve their goals.

Mrs. Elizabeth also mentioned that, although the Ministry performed creditably well in 2013, the year 2014 promised to be exciting and could only guarantee success if they were able to maximize resources and minimize waste. According to her, MoTCCA had instituted the Expanded Management Meeting (EMM) of MoTCCA and Head of its Agencies to allow strategic interactions, effective networking, and quality service delivery to strengthen information sharing across the spectrum of the sector.

She acknowledged the efforts of all directors and staff in contributing towards the successful implementation of 2013 plans and programs although they encountered difficulties and urged them to be self-discipline, time consciousness, and dedication to duty.

Mr Humphrey Kuma, Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation at MoTCCA noted that the tourism sector is the fourth foreign exchange earner for the country. He also encouraged the local communities to help preserve the tourism sector. Kuma added that the Ministry had entered into a partnership with Turkish investors to help build an ultra-modern theatre in Kumasi.