Liberia’s Tourism Sector Can Generate If…

-Director of Tourism

By T Saye Goinleh

The director of tourism at the Ministry of Information, Culture Affairs and Tourism (MICAT) Madam Juanita M. Yah says Liberia has a rich potential in the tourism industry when tapped into with the rightful support from central government which will help generate revenues for the economy.

According to her, the sector when supported fully will help to create more job opportunities for many Liberians including the youths. Madam Yah told the New Republic Newspaper at her Capitol Hill office in Monrovia that some of the sites include the National Museum which was earlier enacted into law in1958 during the tenure of the late President William V. S. Tubman.

She explained that the Museum was purposely erected for use as the Department of Public Instructions, now Ministry of Education. It was mandated to collect, preserve and display Liberia’s cultural and indigenous heritage including artifacts and other historical items.

The Tourism’s head recalled the name Ducor Inter-Continental Hotel, known and styled as Ducor Palace which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and the Mesurado River in central Monrovia as well as the Township of West Point.

She went on to assert that it is disappointing and regrettable for such an eight-story luxurious landmark which was constructed in 1960. It contains three hundred and fifty bedrooms and continuously lies in ruins instead of it being renovated to regain its status.

Director Yah reflected how the status of the freed slaves depicts an interaction they had with the natives upon their arrival on the Providence Island which is Liberia’s origin. She also named the Edward J. Roye Building now a wrecked skyscraper constructed as the headquarters of the grand-old True Whig Party, as one of the prominent buildings in the City of Monrovia.

She indicated that during the building active life, it included a grand auditorium where government’s functions such as sessions of the National Legislature in 1975, Liberian Federation of Trade Unions meetings in 1977 were also held amongst other prestigious occasions that were convened there even after the April 12, 1980 military coup d’état.

“This building sits in the heart of the City of Monrovia and at the heart of a commercial enclave, which is located near the former offices of the American Colonization Society (ACS),’’ Madam Yah further revealed.

She later disclosed that Hotel Africa is the largest in Liberia and it was constructed in 1979, which hosted the conference of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now African Union (AU) held in Monrovia during the regime of late President William R. Tolbert, Jr.

President Tolbert was the convener and later became Chairman of the Organization before he was violently overthrown by the late Samuel Kanyon Doe and other sixteen enlisted me of the Armed Forces of Liberia on April 12, 1980.