By Amin Kef Sesay
On Wednesday 23rd September, 2020, the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and the National Tourist Board in collaboration with the Monuments and Relics Commission, with support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), celebrated World Tourism Day at the Haikal Community Centre Hall in the Southern City of Bo.
This came after the Ministry and its partners successfully concluded a one day symposium celebration of World Tourism Day in Kenema for the entire Eastern region.
The theme of this year’s celebration is “Rural Development” as the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs in collaboration with other agencies continues a one week sensitization tour which will climax in Freetown at the prestigious Family Kingdom Resort in Aberdeen in Freetown.
Speaking at the Southern Regional city of Bo district, the dynamic Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Dr. Memunatu Pratt expressed delight over the interactions that have been going on among stakeholders and community residents geared towards taking tourism to a higher level in this country.
Tourism celebration, she said, started well over forty years ago revealing how it was only last year that Sierra Leone started to celebrate the World event.
Dr. Pratt furthered that last year’s celebration was unique and every year the United Nations with all touristic sectors celebrate World Tourism Day on September 27th.
The indefatigable Tourism Minister lauded President Julius Maada Bio for the support and encouragement he has been giving to ensure that the tourism sector becomes visible, viable and contribute meaningfully to the development of the nation.
Dilating on the theme “Rural Development”, she said the biggest problem they have in the sector is developing domestic infrastructures to support tourism which, according to her, has been the missing link.
Madam Pratt appealed to the Government to enhance rural development, improve touristic settings so that we would successfully attract tourists in the country.
She lamented that the tourism, agriculture sectors as well as others have not been harnessed properly for a long time to help boost domestic revenue generation for the State.
Memunatu Pratt spoke about the significance of creating an enabling environment for the tourism sector to thrive including construction of bridges, jetties, preserving heritages, accessible islands and the involvement of local people in the tourist attraction sites countrywide for greater revenue generation.
She mentioned her Ministry’s partnership and working relationship with other line Ministries in order to create the enabling environment further pointing out that without access to those facilities the tourism sector cannot thrive.
The Minister dilated on the “Enhance Integrated Framework Project” that is been implemented by the National Tourist Board and supported by the World Bank saying it will tremendously change a lot of things and make Sierra Leone a tourist destination.
Earlier, the Chairman of Board of Directors, National Tourist Board, Aliru Kokobe noted that Tourism should not be considered as only limited to urban areas but also includes rural settings. He added that Tourism is an industry which can create a lot of job opportunities for young folks.
The Chairman appealed to residents in the rural areas to protect wild animals as they can draw a lot of attraction for tourists.
Speaker upon speaker showered praises on the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs for raising the bar in the tourism industry.
Questions, comments, suggestions, clarifications and answers from stakeholders in the Southern Region climaxed the symposium.
