November 23, 2021
By Audrey John
The Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and the National Tourist Board (NTB) have launched the domestic tourism campaign on the theme: Explore Freedom…bringing tourism to our doorsteps.
The Event was held at the Ministry’s Conference Hall, Kingharman Road, Freetown.
Explaining the rationale behind the launch of the domestic tourism campaign, the General Manager of the National Tourist Board, Fatmata Hamid Carew said both the Ministry and the Board are keen to driving the agenda of domestic Tourism. She noticed that lot of Sierra Leonean are not aware of the huge tourism potential that Sierra Leone possesses and also not aware that the activities they are engaged in is what is refer to domestic tourism.
She stated that the concept of domestic tourism involves people going to places, tourist attractions to spend their time and money. She added that the purpose of driving domestic tourism is for Sierra Leoneans to aware that those places, especially tourist attraction sites should be protected; hence they will be engaged in lot of domestic tourism awareness programmes.
The Consultant for the promotion of Domestic Tourism, Desmond Benya presented the domestic tourism campaign which he said will portray the image of Sierra Leone as a wonderful touristic destination.
Launching the campaign, Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Dr. Memunatu Pratt remarked that the domestic tourism campaign will connect what people are doing to what they should do that will broaden their understanding about domestic tourism, thereby improving the sector. To intensify the campaign in order for people to aware, Dr. Pratt said our traditional media, jingles and all social platforms will be utilized to increase the consciousness of people on domestic tourism.
She revealed that a lot of roads leading to tourists sites across the country are being constructed, and that the security is supporting the sector in terms of ensuring the safety and security of people, plus a special training for the security sector is on the pipeline. She said there is also lot of ongoing skills development training to boast the capacity of the sector. She concluded by calling on all and sundry to embrace domestic tourism as it is the future of Sierra Leone.