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The Greater Accra Regional office of the Ghana Tourist Board on Friday organised a symposium for about 100 students from selected schools in the Greater Accra Region, to educate them about the World Tourism Day celebration. Ghana is hosting this year�s international World Tourism Day on the theme: �Tourism Celebrating Diversity,� from the September 22 to September 27. World Tourism Day is climaxed every September 27 to draw the world�s attention to the role tourism plays in the economic development of any country. Mrs Comfort Opoku Ware, Regional Manager of the Ghana Tourist Board, explained to the students that Ghana was joining other members of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to celebrate the day because Ghana was a member of the body. She said every year a country was selected to host the International event and that Ghana was selected at the 17th General Assembly of UNWTO, to host the event this year, making it the first African country to do so. Explaining the important role of tourism in the development of the country, Mrs Opoku Ware said tourism could help attract investors to the country. �The Tourism industry is the only industry that cuts across all other sectors of the economy,� she said, explaining that taxi drivers, food sellers, hotel operators, hawkers on the streets, night clubs owners, traditional caterers popularly called �chop bar� operators and market women all benefited directly from tourism industry. Mr Teslim Braimah, Manager of Africana Guest House in Accra, who spoke on the theme: �Tourism Celebrating Diversity,� said the tourism sector should be handled in such a way that no individual felt unwanted or discriminated against to promote unity and international peace. He said it was important for Ghana to preserve its unique culture and identity while appreciating other peoples� culture to make diversity meaningful. �We have to preserve as much as possible our natural resources like forests and wild animals that are unique to us. We also have to preserve as much as possible our cultural practices and ways of life that are not in conflict with our religion or profession. If we lose our culture we lose our uniqueness and identity. In the end, we may have no diversity to celebrate.� Mr Braimah said in the tourism industry the tourist was the most important and central actor and said it was important to put into practice the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality to make more tourists yearn to visit the country over and over again. �In addition, every country will want to maximize tourists receipts, this being foreign exchange which can change the lives of its people and country in terms of development.�