By Mustapha Sesay
Officials of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism say high cost of flight tickets is impeding the growth of the tourism industry of Sierra Leone.
Presenting the 2014 status report to the parliamentary oversight committee on Tourism, the delegation which included Acting Minister of Tourism Kadie Sesay said this situation has caused the country to lose tourists to other unnamed countries.
The officials from the Tourism ministry were appearing for the second time in front of the committee whose deputy Chairman, Dixon Rogers, had stood them down two weeks earlier for failing to submit a comprehensive status report.
Madam Sesay said the hike in flight ticket has cost the industry to lost huge number of potential tourists to other countries. She also cited, among others, land encroachment by the Lands Ministry, lack of tour buses for internal tourism, as well as the “meager” budgetary allocation to the ministry as key factors that were seriously affecting the growth of the industry.
The minister complained that most of the lands that belonged to the Tourism Ministry, especially those located around tourist sites, like beach areas, have been either sold to private individuals or business people.
“We want to promote local tourism and make the industry more viable, but we are looking forward to [an] increase in financial allocation from the Finance Ministry with the help of the Tourism Committee,” she told the parliament committee.
Mariatu Brown, Ating Permanent Secretary (PS) at the Ministry of Tourism, said after years without any tourism policy, it`s now that they had developed one to guide the ministry in implementing its projects. She also lamented that certain taxes that Tourism Ministry was supposed to collect as part of its revenue stream had been usurped by the National Revenue Authority (NRA).
In response to the numerous challenges highlighted by the Tourism Ministry officials, an opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party member of the committee, Paran Tarawalley, assured that they were concerned about the challenges but pointed out that the Tourism Ministry officials had a major role to play to resolve some of the issues. He said, for instance, that they needed to develop policies that would attract funding.
For the industry to flourish, Tarawalley said, there was a need to create an Act of Parliament for the Ministry that would surpassed their policies. This, he added, would empower the Minister against other ministries that try to disadvantage the Tourism sector like the Lands ministry was been accused of doing. He blamed the existence of a weak inter-ministerial collaboration among the various ministries.
MP Tarawalley then noted that the Lands Ministry needed to return those Lands to the Tourism ministry. He also suggested for a meeting with President Ernest Bai Koroma as a committee and present a plan that would call for a stronger collaboration within ministries, arguing that only the President could enforce such directives to all ministries.
The parliamentary Committee Chairman, Frank Kposowa, reserved some praises for the Tourism ministry, saying that despite the devastating impact the Ebola Virus Disease had on the industry, they strived to contribute to the consolidated fund and said they also had submitted enough justification to have more budget allocations.
(C) Politico 16/06/15
