The Tour Operators Union of Ghana (TOUGHA) has gone on a two-day familiarization tour of selected sites in the Central Region in their ongoing quest to encourage and boost local tourism.
Sites visited included: Fort William, Heroes/Year of Return Garden and Tourist Information Centre at Anomabo, the Slave River and Memorial Garden at Assin Manso and the Cape Coast Castle from April 27 to 28.
The group also held separate meetings with the Department of Tourism and Hospitality of the University of Cape Coast(UCC) and the members of the Oguaa Traditional Council. The meetings were to discuss partnerships that will inure to the benefit of TOUGHA and the other parties.
With UCC for instance, is seeking opportunities for training and capacity building for its members while also offering students from the university to intern or do their National Service with members of the Union. President of TOUGHA, Mrs. Alisa Osei-Asamoah said that the familiarization was their own way of the whipping up domestic tourism interest.
“We realized that as a union, we need to visit the attractions that we take our clients to. Some of us had not visited some of these places for over ten years and so this tour has given us the opportunity to see the sites, the state in which they are and how we can factor them into our tour itineraries for our clients,” she said.
Mrs. Osei-Asamoah added that the tour also ties into the Ministry of Tourism’s aim of deepening tourism among locals. TOUGHA’s meeting with the Oguaa Traditional Area was to acknowledge the role they play as custodians of sites while exploring ways of collaborating with them to ensure that tourists that are brought to the area make financial contributions to boost the local economy.
Joining TOUGHA for the tour were personnel from the Ghana Tourism Authority Marketing Department who were also ascertaining the state the sites that were visited are in order to provide support where the need be.
The Central Regional fam tour is the second after the first one to the Ashanti Region last November in a series of quarterly tours that have been earmarked by TOUGHA as they continue in their bid bolster domestic travel.
