With help from the World Bank, the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, in continuation of the celebrations of UN World Tourism Day on the nineteenth and twentieth December,2022 commenced regional discussions on Tourism for Peace. The theme for this 12 months’s celebration was “Rethinking Tourism” which was domesticated as “the impact of violence and conflict on tourism”. The occasions had been held at Paloma Hotel Hall in Kenema and Bo Inn Hotel Hall in Bo respectively.
September 27 is commemorated by all member states of the UN as World Tourism Day, in continuation of the sequence of occasions organized nationwide that geared in the direction of elevating consciousness on the necessity for peaceable coexistence and to stop a reoccurrence of the ugly incidents of August 10, August, 2022. The Ministry thought it prudent to have interaction the youths, ladies, conventional leaders and most of the people on the affect of battle on tourism and different companies.
Opening the classes, the Permanent Secretary, Edward Kwame Yankson mentioned they had been excited to carry the discussions within the provinces to lift consciousness in stopping the ugly happenings of August 10 which he mentioned impacted the nation negatively. He defined that one of many mandates of the Tourism sector is to rebrand the nation’s picture internationally and lure guests to come back to Sierra Leone, however portray a foul picture of the nation as within the case of the August 10 incident will hinder the positive aspects made, therefore they’re having the nationwide discussions on peace for tourism.
In his welcome statements, Paramount Chief Lappia Boima of Bo District applauded the Ministry for the seen strides and initiatives in giving Sierra Leone’s tourism the right flavour. He mentioned bringing discussions like this to the provinces is well timed and seemed ahead to a fruitful deliberation to elevating consciousness on the necessity for peace always.
The Director of Tourism, Mohamed Jalloh mentioned the observance of the World Tourism Day was to acknowledge the contribution of the sector to the socio-economic growth of various economies on the earth and to additionally acknowledge the historic, pure and cultural common values of the heritage websites. He continued that for Sierra Leone, they centred this 12 months’s celebrations on peace as a prerequisite for tourism growth. He defined the essence of peace and it significance on tourism on a vacation spot and the way projecting dangerous photographs of the nation will shrink back guests and traders from the vacation spot. He highlighted the successes of the Ministry as per the New Direction manifesto and plenty of different positive aspects made by the sector.
In her keynote handle, the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Dr. Memunatu Pratt intimated that the successes of the Ministry over the previous few years had been made potential due to peace. She reiterated that peace is a prerequisite for tourism as no vacationer will come to a rustic that has no peace and appealed to all residents to at all times preserve the peace as there are lots of cures to settle conflicts. She added that as they draw nearer to the overall elections, there ought to be peaceable coexistence to consolidate the developmental strides of the nation. She pinpointed the foundation tourism programme of the Ministry, the Budapest Rally and the upcoming AfriCaribbean competition as laudable achievement that require peace. She inspired Sierra Leoneans to keep up the peace and obey the rule of legislation.
Districts representatives, officers from the councils, Civil Society Organisations, the safety sector, Bike Riders Association and Hotel Associations made related inputs on the discussions. Interactive and participatory high-level panel discussions on the affect of battle on tourism and different companies wrapped up the classes.