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Mrs Barbara Oteng-Gyasi (standing), Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, speaking to participants in the launch of the Women In Tourism at a ceremony in Accra. Picture: SAMUEL TEI ADANO
Mrs Barbara Oteng-Gyasi (standing), Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, speaking to participants in the launch of the Women In Tourism at a ceremony in Accra. Picture: SAMUEL TEI ADANO

Incorporate gender needs into tourism project designing - Barbara Oteng-Gyasi

No development is complete without women being factored in as a major index of the development process, hence the need to incorporate gender needs into tourism project designing, the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, has said.

"Project framework needs to go beyond disaggregating results to address the root causes of the disparities", she remarked while delivering a keynote address at the second edition of the Women in Tourism summit in Accra, last Thursday.

Event

The second edition of the Women in Tourism summit was held at the Accra Tourism Information Centre, under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism and the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA).

The event was on the theme: "Empowering Women in Ghana's Tourism Industry" and it was aimed at bringing all women operating within the tourism space together to dialogue and find possible ways of addressing some of the challenges confronting them in the industry.

The minister explained that the theme chosen for this year's summit "validate the significant role of women in tourism also provides the signpost for the empowerment of women".

Challenges

The income generation opportunities for women in tourism, she said, could be realised if the challenges inhibiting women entrepreneurs in the industry were identified and tackled head-on.

She said access to credit, management training and ready markets still remained a serious challenge for women in the tourism sector.

Despite the challenges and the inequalities, tourism, she said, in the area of restaurant, fashion, jewellery, hotel and guest houses, among others, remained a major entry point for more women participation in the country's economy than any other sector.

Partnership

The Director of International Operations for Dubai Tourism, Miss Stella Fubara Obinwa, who spoke on the topic: "Case Study: Surviving in the Tourism World", called on the players within the tourism value chain to enter into partnerships with one another as it was the only way they could survive in the industry.

She added that tourism was not only about a destination but also about what the destination had to offer, urging the government to support the industry with the needed infrastructure, regulations and restrictions.

She added that Ghana was among the top five tourism destinations in Africa, and urged the citizenry to "take pride in your country and what it has to offer no matter how little it is".

The event was graced by many women groups within the tourism sector, as well as some personalities including the leader of the Salt and Light Ministries, Ms Joyce Aryee, the South African Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Lulama Xingwana and the Chief Executive Officer of the GTA, Mr Akwasi Agyemang, as well as some queenmothers.

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