Tourism must build mutually beneficial relationships- Tourism Advisor

Mr Corjon Van der Haat, Senior Tourism Advisor of the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), has stated the need for all activities around tourism related parks to promote mutually beneficial relationships between the parks and stakeholders in those areas. Mr Haat made the point at a two-day joint workshop for identifiable groups from Ghana and Togo to draw a tourism development plan for the Kyabobo National Park in Ghana and its counterpart Fazao-Malfakassa in Togo. Those who attended included chiefs, tour and transport operators, security officials, Ghana Tourist Board, hotel and restaurant operators, wildlife officers and community members. Mr. Haat said the development of park related tourism must include the protection and enhancement of natural resources around those parks. He warned that ethnic, chieftaincy and land disputes hurt tourism. Mr Haat said the Kyabobo National Park was yet to attract the attention of United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Step programme because it was yet to come into the limelight. He said the UNWTO, which is a multi-destination marketing programme covers Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana Benin and Togo. Mr Joseph Denteh, District Chief Executive for Nkwanta said, in addition to the Kyabobo National Park and Fazao-Malfakassa, the area has other tourism attractions such as mountains, waterfalls, climate and rivers, which needed to be developed. He drew the workshop's attention to the need for hotels of international standard, safari lodges and camps and recreational infrastructure and restaurants and car rentals along tourist routes in the area. Mr Denteh said plans were far advanced to construct the Brewniase-Nkwanta-Damanko trunk road to ease traveling in the area.GNA