The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture in collaboration with the Ghana Tourism Authority has unveiled Ada, a coastal town in the Greater Accra Region, as a tourism enclave to provide hospitality to the public and foreigners and generate revenue for the country.
The enclave launched on Monday, would begin with the construction of a resort on a ten acre plot of land along the Ada beach offered by the Paramountcy and the District Assembly of Ada.
It is expected to serve as a retreat for corporate institutions and businesses to hold meetings, promote the culture of the country, create a leisure hub for tourists, and provide employment for the youth.
A seven-member committee, co-chaired by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GTA and the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Ada East with other members from the Ada Traditional Council, GTA and the District Assembly have been set up to develop a road map and blueprint to serve as a guide for investors who would be interested in the project.
The Committee had been given six weeks to develop the first blueprint to be examined at a larger stakeholder engagement meeting for final approval.
Mr Akwasi Agyeman, the CEO of GTA, said Ada was an area of massive investment opportunities and a beach front investment, hence the step by the Government to harness the potentials of culture, business, heritage, retreats and ecotourism of the community.
He said tourism thrived on a neat environment, therefore, the Authority was going to ensure that the resort and its surrounding areas were well kept.
Mr Agyeman noted that the ‘La Campagne Tropical Resort,’ a hospitality facility in Lagos, Nigeria had expressed interest as investors and had engaged experienced resort developers to help in the successful establishment of the project.
He said Government would fund basic infrastructure such as roads, sewage, and introduce electricity to the site and collaborate with investors to develop the project.
Twenty-five young women and men had been selected from Ada and surrounding communities to be trained on service standards and hospitality management to start working in the facility when established.
Mrs Catherine Abelema Afeku, the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture in a speech delivered on her behalf, said tourism contributes a large amount to revenue, income and job creation.
She said as a multi-sectorial industry, tourism worked with all sectors including health, environment, roads and highways, energy, electricity, education, agriculture, and culture and therefore called for a collective engagement by all sectors to successfully operationalize the initiative.
Madam Sarah Pobee, the DCE of Ada East District said Ada was one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the country with over eight tourist sites that could excite tourists.
“Tourism as we are privy to, can be of a blessing than the opposite depending on how we preserve it. Ada has the Volta River, mangroves, estuary, and other tourist sites that are of immense benefit to the district in particular and Ghana in general,” she said.
Dr Akin Adejuwon, a Representative of Dr Olawanle Akinboboye, President of ‘Motherland Beckons’ and operators of La Campagne Tropical resort, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said the La Campagne Tropical Resort, which started in 1984 attracts between 4,000 and 12,000 visitors every weekend.
He said the construction of a similar facility in the Ada enclave in Ghana would raise huge sums of revenue for the country.
“Tourism is the most potent driver of the economy because we can’t offer the Western world nanotechnology, hence we need to promote our culture through tourism,” Dr Adejuwon stated.
