The tourism industry of the Upper West Region has been described as a virgin entity due to the untapped potential of its tourist attractions and hospitality industry, a renowned industry player has said.

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Abdul-Aziz Pelpuo, a seasoned tour guide with many years of accolades and experience in tourism lamented why industry players in the region continued to falter in the promotion of tourism the region has failed to use technology to their advantage in that regard.

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He disclosed that only 3 out of the numerous tourist sites have been documented for easy accessibility to tourists far and near, despite the unique tourist products that the region can boast of.

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"I'll describe tourism in the region as a virgin entity. A virgin entity because the tourism industry in the region remains untapped. If you look from all angles, these tourist products, the tourist attraction themselves, the hospitality industry, that's, the hotels, guest houses, among others, restaurants, chop bars (eateries), in the U/W/R remains untapped.

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"And now, what will bring people to our region? - the tourist attraction. Before people come to sleep in our hotels or eat from chop bars, there must be something that would lead them to Upper West Region and these are our tourist attractions.

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"And that's why I say we have very unique tourists attractions that you can't find anywhere in the world but in the U/W/R but most of these tourists attractions that I'm about to mention, you can't even find them on Google, you can't find them on even a simple tourism brochure, you can't read it from any tourism book."

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"That's why I describe it as untapped potential. I can mention an endless number of tourist attractions in the region but you can't find more than 3 on record.

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Mostly, you could find Wechau Hippo Sanctuary and then you could also find Gbollu Slave Defence Wall and you could also find the Gbelle Game Reserve," he lamented.

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He attributed the development to the ignorance of the locals of host communities over their inability to appreciate the worth of their tourist products as well as the ineptitude of the institutions mandated to promote such facilities that are under their watch, bemoaning how some of these tourists have been left to rot.

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He made these comments in an interview with GhanaWeb Tuesday, September 27, 2022, to assess the tourism potential in the Upper West Region.

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The seven-time award-winning best regional tour guide and two-time national best added that it takes the provision of tourism infrastructures such as good roads and health facilities, functioning telecommunication network, and potable drinking water, among other social amenities, to get a thriving tourism industry.

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He indicated it is only when those facilities are in place that private investors would be attracted to invest their resources in tourism products to attract tourists to the region knowing they can recoup their resources.

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"We have tourism products and we have tourism infrastructure. If government mandated to provide the infrastructure is able to do so, then the private sector can come in to develop the product. Bad road networks - all the roads, as in all the roads leading to the tourist sites (in the Upper West Region) I know, are in a deplorable state. Even the famous Hippo Sanctuary at Wechau you know, there is no good road linking Wechau to the angles, the Mashroom Rock (road too) the same thing, Nanvile Termite Hills, ...

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Just last two weeks, I had to return a group of 12 (people) just because the road to the Termite Hills was not accessible. So 12 people came from the USA, all the way to Wa. We had to turn back after Sankana halfway, we had to turn back because it had rained and the road was not just accessible.

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"Telecommunication network is another thing. Imagine how we use our phones now. So imagine somebody going to an area where there is no telecommunication network, I can't make a call, I can't access the internet. You don't expect people to go there. Those are part of the tourist infrastructure. Now good healthcare: we have the Gbelle Reserve where we have lots of wild animals - bufalloes, elephants, antelopes, and so on, but there is no clinic in and around that area.

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So people would not go there. There is no good road there, no telecommunication there, no potable water, and no healthcare facility. So why would people go there? So those are part of the infrastructure. So if government is able to put these infrastructures in place, then individuals or private investors can now come in to develop the products," Abdul-Aziz Pelpuo stated.

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The National Executive member of the Tour Guides Association of Ghana enumerated a few of the available tourist sites in the region as follows:

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"Mystery Bleeding Rock (Busa - Wa municipal); Baobab Tree House with a natural door and a window carving with the capacity of the inside able to accommodate about 10 average humans (Busa - Wa municipal); Tomb of a colonial British agent who was instrumental in the demarcation of the northern territories of Ghana that helped to sign treaties with the natives to get them out of the British protectorates (Wa municipal);

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Mushroom Rocks (Wuling - Jirapa municipal); and Nanvile Termite Hills (Nadawli-Kaleo). Others are: Mystery Footprints on a Baobab Tree (Ulo - Jirapa municipal); Museum of President of the Third Republic, Dr. Hilla Liman (Gbollu); Gbollu Slave Defence Wall (Gbollu); Gbele Game Reserve (Daffiema-Bussie-Issa district); Crocodile Pond (Sombo - Wa municipal); and Sacred Grove Water Spring (Babile-Brefu: Lawra) and so on.

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Ras Bob as he is affectionately called, said the Ghana Tourism Federation includes all the industry players from the private sector - the Hoteliers Association, the Tour Union, the Tour Guides Association, and the Car Rental Association.

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According to him, all members of the aforementioned associations are from the private sector and could only discover or identify the tourist sites and then inform the regulators to certify and licence them and then do the promotion of those products.

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World Tourism Day

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The United Nations World Tourism Organization's (UNWTO) World Tourism Day is observed on September 27 every year with the aim of fostering awareness among the International community about the importance of Tourism and its social, economic, political, and cultural values.

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This year's event was with the theme: Rethinking Tourism. This year's official World Tourism Day celebration was held in Bali, Indonesia to highlight the shift towards tourism as a crucial pillar of development.

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As part of the celebration, Ghana developed a sub-theme dubbed: Promoting Domestic Tourism for Wealth Creation in Communities to grow the interest of Ghanaians in tourism with the Upper West Region hosting the event in Wa municipal under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.

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