The Mayor of Houston, United States of America (USA), Mr Sylvester Turner, has committed to lead the face of tourism for Ghana in the USA to drive tourism and development to West Africa.
According to him, Ghana represents a strong vital connection with the city of Houston in terms of trade of about $240 million annually.
"And that has grown in the last decade by 16 per cent. And so we expect that with the continuing relationship, the trade between Ghana and the city of Houston will exponentially grow," he added.
Mr Turner disclosed this when a 30-member delegation led by him paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture in Accra over the weekend.
The eight-day visit is to explore areas of investment and opportunities in Ghana and strengthen the existing political ties between Ghana and Houston.
He said in terms of tourism, Houston alone contributed about 120-130,000 tourist arrivals to Ghana representing 37 per cent last year.
"But we think, that number will grow. And Houston has one of the largest African populations, one of the largest diaspora population in the United States is right there in the city of Houston and so we're here to build on that relationship," he added.
The mayor pledged that his commitment to lead the face of tourism as an ambassador for Ghana in the USA, would not only be limited to the city of Houston but beyond to encourage Americans and others to come to Ghana.
"I will encourage not only people to come to Ghana as tourists, but also to encourage those who do business in our city, to do business in Ghana, to invest in Ghana, to engage in greater trade with Ghana, and not to come and take and leave, I mean, and I make that very clear, not to come take and leave, but to come, build positive relationships, and establish win wins and not win loses," he stated.
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Mr Turner expressed gratitude to the President, the minister and his entourage for the warm reception and pledged his continuous support to help build tourism for the development of both Ghana and Houston.
The minister, Dr Ibrahim Mohammad Awal, thanked the Houston Mayor for his acceptance to be the ambassador of tourism for Ghana to drive home investment and development into the two countries.
He stated that the sector aimed to double the number of arrivals recorded last year from USA, and expressed the hope that the relationship between Houston and Ghana would help drive the tourism sector to achieve that aim and create more jobs for the youth.
"Our sector wants to create 150,000 jobs every year to the present job creation agenda. The World Travel and Tourism Council, states that three out of every 10 jobs over the decade will be created from the tourism sector. That means that, to create jobs for Africa's young people whom five per cent are still below the ages of 25 years, we need to invest in a lot of tourism. So we want you to support us, win partnership to create the jobs," he added.
Dr Awal encouraged more investment into the West African countries since Africa contributed to about 98 per cent returns of investment than the USA and Europe which contributes about 18 and 22 per cent returns respectively.
