Acting Marketing Manager of Ghana Tourists Board (GTB), Mrs. Gifty Quansah, has revealed that tourist arrivals in Ghana for last year totalled 698,069, generating revenue in excess of $1.4 billion. She announced this at a pre-tour briefing for a group of foreign and local travel writers in Accra on Tuesday. The 12 writers from Ghana, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia and the Netherlands toured some sites and communities in Accra as part of the on-going United Nations World Tourism Day celebration in Ghana. Mrs. Quansah told the writers that about 30 to 40 per cent of tourists are visitors of friends and relatives, comprising Ghanaians living abroad who visited home. According to her, there is a growing Chinese and Russian tourist interest in the country. She told the travel writers that there is also a new state interest in the beautification of the beaches following the oil discovery in commercial quantities last year, adding that is expected to boost tourist arrivals in the country soon. Mrs. Quansah said government recently launched a programme that would create about 10,000 jobs for the youth who would clean, maintain and secure the beaches for the comfort of tourists. “The tourism policy is now channelled towards sustainable job creation and poverty reduction across the country,” she said. The Accra visit took them to the offices of the Ghana Rural Ecotourism and Travel (GREET), an ecotourism and nature conservation resource organization, the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, the Usher Fort Prisons, Abola and James Town, all in Ga Mashie area in Accra. The Director of GREET, Ms. Urji Ebba, said 31 ecotourism sites have been identified across the country and her organization has trained local people to manage them effectively, to generate funds to develop their communities. At the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, Mr Eddy Sowah, Chief Curator, told the travel writers the history of Osagyefo Dr. Nkrumah’s struggle for independence, his overthrow in on February 24, 1966, his death, embalmment and immortalization. Source: GNA