Government urged to prioritise tourism education

A Professor of tourism education at the Cape Coast Technical University, Prof. Samuel Benjamin Owusu-Mintah has challenged the government to consider introducing tourism education at the early stages of the development of the child.

This, according to him would motivate the youth to develop an interest in tourism.

Speaking at his inaugural lecture at the Cape Coast Technical University, Professor Owusu-Mintah indicated that “tourism education in Ghana faces myriads of problems, such as the absence of continuous professional practical training for tourism instructors and absence of tourism education at the pre-tertiary level to prepare students for tertiary tourism studies”.

Touching on the theme; “Tourism Education: Laying the Golden Egg For Post Covid 19 Ghana?”, Prof Owusu-Mintah emphasized that “ lack of cooperation exists between education and industry and that tourism education should encourage entrepreneurial spirit”.

Tourism, according to him has the potential of solving the country’s unemployment issues, maintaining that “ industry practitioners must be prepared to act as resource persons and role models to students”.

He called for the Integration of tourism education into the pre-tertiary curricula and “ encourage more research into local tourism issues that will lead to the publication of more tourism textbooks”.

He, therefore, disclosed that he intends to focus his research on the effects of "galamsey" on tourism, as “tourism and the environment are known to be bedfellows”.