Ghana is home to a diverse range of intriguing tourist attractions, including ecotourism, heritage tourism, beach travel, and adventure travel. Its people are also known for being kind and pleasant. Ghana does indeed have all the makings of a desirable travel destination.
Over the last 5 years (2017-2022) Ghana’s tourism has experienced a steady growth reaching a pre-pandemic high of 1,130.307 international arrivals in 2019. The rebound from the COVID-19 induced slump has been equally impressive and rapid. From 355,108 international arrivals in 2020, a total of 623,523 in 2021, and 914,892 visitors were recorded in 2022.
The country unveiled a 15-year-long tourism plan that seeks to increase the annual number of tourists to Ghana from one million to eight million per year by 2027.
Ghana’s travel industry is projected to raise $8.3 billion a year by 2027, plus associated benefits, according to the plan.
In an attempt to achieve this, President Akufo-Addo at a 2 day Presidential Summit on Tourism charged the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) to set for themselves a target of two million tourist arrivals in Ghana by the year 2025, with a matching revenue of four billion United States dollars.
Tourism, arts and culture, according to President Akufo-Addo, “are effective tools for economic transformation” and Ghana, he says “can benefit from this because we possess a significant number of heritage resources”.
“I’m tasking the ministry of tourism, arts and culture under his brilliant and entrepreneurial Minister Ibrahim Mohammed Awal and the Ghana tourism authority under his highly respected CEO Akwasi Agyemang to ramp up their promotion activities to achieve the target of 2million international arrivals by 2025.”
This will come with corresponding earnings of some 4 billion United States Dollars to the national economy in addition to hundreds and thousands of jobs to be created along the tourism value chain I’m confident that we can achieve this target.”
The president reminded the ministry about the importance of inclusivity in the sector and said tourism must be accessible and beneficial to all Ghanaians regardless of the socioeconomic background or geographical location.
“We will invest in training, capacity programs to empower the youth and our women to participate actively in the tourism value chain.”
By: Joseph Nii Ankrah