The basis of Yaa’s complaint was that there are things she believes and thinks are right but others around her felt otherwise, serving as a tool for conflict between her and others. Perhaps when all people learn to appreciate the need for diversity around them, there will be less conflict and people will learn to tolerate people who have different ideas and views from theirs. That is diversity.

Tourism Celebrating Diversity is the theme for this year’s celebration of World Tourism Day, a day set aside by the United Nations World Tourism Organization UNWTO) to look at the contributions of tourism to the economies of the world.

World Tourism Day celebrated every September 27 also looks at creating awareness, that is, the tourism industry is a vital one and has effect on social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide. Ghana is playing host to the celebrations this year, putting the country at the centre of attraction, which is, bringing the world’s attention to Ghana’s tourism.

Tourism experts from around the world are therefore meeting at the Centre of the World, Ghana, to discuss how tourism is able to celebrate diversity in the world today at the time when there is so much attention on world peace, and especially when many African countries are plagued with wars.

One may ask how tourism helps to celebrate diversity. There is a popular saying, “Travel and See”. If everybody were to stay in his own country or his hometown and not travel to any other place or not meet with people of a different cultural background, there would be no need for diversity.

It is tourism that has contributed to people’s understanding of diversity. Even within Ghana how an Ewe understands an issue may not be the same as how an Ashanti understands the same issue. The way Muslims bury their dead is different from how Christians bury their dead but it is all burial and the faster Christians and Muslims learn to accept one another’s way of doing the same thing the faster the world would see the peace and unity that the United Nations is yearning for.

It is only through travel and tourism that human beings meet people who are different in terms of ideologies or culture and interact with them.

It is through travel that people learn to accept the fact that the fact that someone is a Muslim does not mean he cannot sit and eat together with a Christian.

It is by meeting and respecting other people’s values that one can learn to accept the fact that if a person does not like to wear dreadlocks, it does not mean that someone wearing it is evil or not morally right.

Mr Teslim Braimah, Manager of Africana Guest House in Accra, at a symposium organized by the Greater Accra Regional Office of the Ghana Tourist Board, said it was through tourism that we learn not to look down on frog legs eaters.

He said it was important that while Ghana as a country learned to appreciate other peoples’ culture Ghanaians also learned to be proud of their own culture and preserve it.

“We have to preserve as much as possible our natural resources like forests and wild animals that are unique to us. We also have to preserve as much as possible our cultural practices and ways of life that are not in conflict with our religion or profession. If we lose our culture we lose our uniqueness and identity. In the end, we may have no diversity to celebrate.”

Mr Braimah therefore advised that the tourism sector should be handled in such a way that no individual feels unwanted or discriminated against to promote unity and international peace.

In the tourism industry the tourist is the most important and central actor, he said, advising that it was important to put into practice the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality to make more tourists yearn to visit the country over and over again.

“In addition, every country will want to maximize tourists receipts, this being foreign exchange which can change the lives of its people and country in terms of development,” Mr Braimah.

Source: GNA

Ghana boasts of most of the finest tourist attractions in the sub-region namely the Boti falls, Aburi gardens, Volta lake, Lake Bosumtwi, Akosombo dam to mention but a few but it is just unfortunate that, our motherland isn’t among the countries in Africa that are advertised in travel shops out here in the UK and this is really getting to a lot of us. Gambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya together with several other countries are household names due to the high advertising of their tourist sites and believe it or not, these contries are generating a lot of revenue from their tourist industry. One out of every 20 people in the UK believe that there are world class hotels in Ghana and only few believe that there are restaurants and western style shops out there yet we claim to be the gateway to Africa. Where is Ghana is what most people ask whenever the name is mentioned. We have so many beaches so why don’t we just develop them and advertise our country to enable an influx of tourists as this can alleviate our economic problems a bit. Beaches like the Scheviningen beach in Den Hagg, Netherlands are just famous because of the numerous developments at the beach and wow! what a beautiful place to be during the summer. It is time our leaders refrain from illusions and insist on work and not on words as time is running out as the day passes by.

The lake Bosomtwi can be developed and first class roads linked to it and this can be a very viabe site not forgetting the biggest tree in West Africa which is situated at Oda in the central region of our motherland. The game reserve in the nothern part of the country and several sites out there have been abandoned and nobody cares to go there at all. Tourism is one of the most lucrative sectors in the world today and that is why a country like Spain has done so much to develop the beaches in Ibiza, Mallorca and Malaga and several other islands and this draws so many holidays to the country every year. Real Madrid is even bringing in tourists due to the high publicity it has been given by the spanish media and why can’t our media do the same thing for the good of our poor motherland?

The Busua beach resort can be compared to the beach resorts in Tenerife and what have you but how come most people out here have never heard of it? We can only draw investors into the economy if we explore our tourism to the fullest. People might even decide to vacate their home countries and acquire homes in Ghana so as to help the estate developers provided our tourist sites are made to meet international standards. A lot of English people are buying homes in the Carribean and Kenya not forgetting Spain just because of their tourist sites and their nice beaches so why can’t we do the same thing? Investors don’t only set up businesses but invest in property but we will have to attract them.

Today, cuban drinks are patronised all over the world just because someone visited Havana and brought the good news about their drinks back to their home country and our Kasapreko’s and all the other drinks can gain international recognition if only we attract tourists into our wonderful tourist sites which have been abandoned for so long a time. Our leaders should please help us advertise our tourist sites and help develop them so as to enable us talk to our friends here about them as they are money making machines which are been put to rest for no apparent reasons. A word to the wise is enough