Yesterday was World Tourism Day. It may come as a surprise to many in Ghana that some nations earn tens of billions of dollars annually from their tourism sectors.
And it is wealth that actually benefits many at the grassroots level too - and, best of all, remains in many of the emerging nations tourists visit.
Last year, for example, Thailand earned a staggering U.S.$72 billion dollars from the 31 million visitors it hosted in 2016.
Ghana has so much going for it that could be harnessed in creative fashion to help transform our national economy's tourism sector.
The expatriate community in Ghana could be a valuable source of useful information in that regard.
In addition to partnering with responsible tourism organisations with a global reach, such as Sustainable Travel International, perhaps the minister with responsibility for the tourism sector could also work with leading players in the sector to set up a forum for tapping the ideas and experiences of Ghana's expatriate community.
Having experienced our warm and welcoming natures themselves they could no doubt provide useful insights about how best in their view tourist attractions in Ghana could be improved and showcased more effectively in their home countries to make this beautiful country of ours a leading outbound African tourism market.
Let us work wth them - instead of allowing lawless foreigners to destroy the natural environment with such impunity mining gold illegally and smuggling out the unrefined gold on top too - to turn Ghana into a global centre for the purchase of credit-card-sized gold bars, gold coins with Adinkra symbols etched on them and our unique traditional-style gold jewelry.
Will that more holistic approach to leveraging the gold mining industry not see tens of millions of Chinese and other foreign nationals travelling here annually to purchase all the above refined gold products from a revitalised and well-managed Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), one wonders?
In any case, in the end, in consonance with our committment to all the UN SDGs, it might actually be the case that anchoring the sector on the remainder of our country's natural heritage, is what will enable us save what is left of our nation's priceless natural capital for today's younger generations and their offspring and their children's children - because of the tourism sector's ability to generate jobs at the grassroots level.
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