On Thursday, April 27, 2023, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture hosted a training event for 3,000 drivers in the KNUST Commercial Area in Kumasi.The Ghana Tourism promotion Company (GTDC), an institution within the ministry responsible with the promotion of tourism in the country, carried out the program to train drivers with the skills needed to strengthen the tourism sector.
Speaking to the drivers at the event, the Deputy Minister of Tourism,Culture and Creative Arts, Mark Okraku-Mantey said:
” We all know the important roles drivers play in this country…So the President, as a way of developing tourism in the country, has decided to equip drivers with training programmes because they’re the first to get into contact with tourists who usually visits the country so they can sell Ghana fitly to these tourists when they pick them”.
The Projects Manager for GTDC , Lauretta Kuadey,also told the media the rationale behind the program: “We decided to train drivers within the tourism sector as we have identified their role in promoting tourism,” she said.
“They are the front liners who meet tourists when they arrive in the country and so this programme will help propagate the good news of the tourism sector, prospects and everything. If tourists arrive, they can tell them potential places to visit.”
Ms. Kuadey disclosed that a total of three thousand (3000) drivers have been trained for the first phase and “we hope to make it bigger in the future”.
Aside from the training the drivers received, they were given “certificates for participation, bumper stickers and some t-shirts” as a reward for making themselves available for the exercise.
