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Chief Executive of Kaya Tour, Gilbert Abeiku Aggrey Santana, has called on the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture to ensure cultural exchange during foreign tourist visits in the country in order to promote socio-cultural sustainability.

He also called on the government to ensure constant promotion of cultural tourism to bring in more revenue to support the country’s economy, adding that Ghana’s tourism industry could become a major foreign exchange earner given the necessary policy interventions and direction.

In a statement issued to mark this year’s World Tourism Day which fell on Wednesday September 27, Abeiku Santana, who is also a destination marketer, stated that the World Tourism Day is to foster awareness on the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic value.

According to him, the event seeks to address global challenges outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and to highlight the contribution the tourism sector can make in reaching these goals.

Abeiku Santana stressed that the theme for this year’s World Tourism Day provides Ghanaians with the opportunity to reflect on the urgent need to ensure accessibility to the country’s tourist attractions.

He highlighted that some of the challenges facing the tourism industry in the country include lack of professionalism, inadequate investment, lack of economic stability, poor environmental sustainability and lack of socio-cultural sustainability.

The CEO of Kaya Tours, therefore, called on the Ministry of Tourism and its implementing bodies to ensure that negative impacts are minimised and focus drawn on positive values such as preserving cultural exchange.

He urged the ministry to ensure that the government’s policies for tourism development fully embrace the principles of sustainability.

Abeiku Santana averred that tourists’ arrival in Ghana increased from 172,000 in 1991 to 1,093,000 in 2014, and this has also contributed an average of eight percent to GDP in the last 10 years.