AYV News May 25, 2023
Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Tourism, the Tourist Board and KEIOS consultants have held an engagement with stakeholders and key sector players on the development of a National Tourism Strategy Plan.
The engagement is part of the nationwide consultation with stakeholders and also assessing the country’s touristic and heritage sites.
Minister of Tourism, Dr. Memunatu Pratt said: “The need for an integrated strategic tourism Master plan is clear and an obvious priority to sanitise the Sierra Leone’s highly resourceful destination, hence the Government through the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs with National Tourism Board secured support from the World Bank to hire a consultancy for the Development of a Strategic Plan for Sustainable Tourism for Sierra Leone.
“The result of the consultancy will be a strategic and action-oriented action plan with specific tasks and activities with feasible budgetary capacity for implementation by the GoSL over the next five to ten years.
“The Master Plan will serve as umbrella and synchronisation of all existing and future strategic document policies, projects and activities for the sustainable development of the sector.”
The minister thanked the consultants and the team for the exercise adding that the tour to the regions get the consultants to the reality on the ground.
She said the immediate action was to intensify their relationship with MDAs to deliver the plan and incorporate them to what they are doing.
After the regional consultation and assessment of prime touristic and heritage sites, officials from the ministry and the consultants briefed the Minister, Dr. Memunatu Pratt on their experiences in the field and the wonderful feedback they got during the breakout sessions of the engagements.
During the Western Area Engagement, the Permanent Secretary, Edward Kwame Yankson thanked the consultants for getting first-hand information in the regions and encouraged the participants to make valuable inputs in the breakout sessions.
Director of Tourism, Mohamed Jalloh gave the background of the development of the Master Plan saying that the Plan will inform all other documents that relates to tourism development in Sierra Leone. Umaru Woody of the NTB, representative from the Hotel Association and other key sector players contributed to the discourse.
The engagement was climaxed by an interactive and participatory breakout session led by the lead consultant, Mike Fabricius.
