The role of Tourism in the economy of Sierra Leone

The role of Tourism in the economy of Sierra Leone - Mrs Nabeela F Tunis, Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs

"And first of all, we believe in the country, it's interesting, but when I was the Minister of Planning and Economic Development, I authored the current medium-term, national development plan, which expires next month. And one thing that we did do was to highlight tourism as one of those growth sectors. And we still believe that tourism has a lot to offer to us as a country in terms of us projecting in economic growth of Sierra Leone. And so certainly my vision is to ensure that tourism does take its place as one of the biggest income earners. As a country, we have the Big Five, we're focusing on five basic priorities, which is human capital development, and technology and innovation, public sector reformation. We're also focusing on youth employment and creating 500 jobs. I believe that the tourism sector can provide, you know, those 500 jobs, especially in creativity and culture. So what we're doing, everyone's been focusing on the beaches, on our assets, on our products. What I want to do is also focus on the people in terms of having creativity and our culture out there. Because what you see, it's much more competitive these days. There's so many people who are going in for conservation, going in for our nature-based solutions. But what can Sierra Leone offer? Sierra Leone can offer a lot of adventure. Sierra Leone can offer a lot of integration with our communities. Sierra Leone can offer a lot of volunteer tourism as well. So these are the aspects that I'd like to look at. So aside from us having the products, aside from us having the assets of lovely beaches, beautiful landscape, lovely topography, beautiful environment, you know, we're also focusing on the people and what the people have to offer. Promoting cohesion is one thing that we've done exceptionally well. You know, regional integration, religious tolerance is one thing that we've done extremely well. So as a country and as a nature nation, we're looking at how could we, you know, pitch this in the bigger picture, bigger product of tourism in the global space. And ensuring that our creative industry, our cultural industry is one aspect that people come to Sierra Leone to also explore. So exploring freedom is exploring our people, is exploring our assets, and it's enjoying our products."