Accra, June 23, 2017//-Ghana’s enthusiastic effort of maximising revenue from its tourism sector has a given a major boost, following a revelation that the government will from 30th June introduce a number of comprehensive initiatives into the sector.
Akwesi Agyemang, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), a public service agency in charge of regulating tourism in Ghana revealed this at Citi Business Festival’s ‘Akwaaba’ Forum held in Accra.
According to him, the GTA’s parent ministry-Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Creative Arts would launch a new initiative known as “See Ghana, Eat Ghana, Feel Ghana, Wear Ghana” to encourage domestic and foreign visits of Ghana’s numerous tourist sites across the country.
“We are launching the initiative in partnership with the Made-in-Ghana Committee on the 30th of June. It is a platform to position ‘I am a Ghanaian’, also to position the various things that we do as Ghanaians”, told players of the tourism and hospitality industry at the well-attended forum yesterday. He used the occasion to invite them to take part in the launch of the initiative.
Also, “some of the critical next steps that we are embarking upon are the industry service charter which will be available for the industry by the end of July”, Mr Agyemang added.
In addition to these, he furthered disclosed: “We are creating a tourism hotline. Currently, there is no avenue for visitors who visit some of our tourism attraction sites to give feedback. So, they rather go on social media and say I went here and it was crap, or I did this and I had this service”
Mr. Agyemang maintained that the GTA and the Ministry would continue to create more platforms to collate all feedbacks from visitors to address their grievances. “We are going to create a hotline so that we can track service standards and delivery. It is something that by middle August should be up and running,” he noted.
Contributing to a panel discussion themed-‘Unlocking Ghana’s Tourism Potential’, Professor Kwaku Boakye of the Department of Tourism and Hospitality at University of Cape Coast, observed that Ghana’s rate of growth of tourist arrivals has been declining for the past three years.
He therefore called for a concerted effort to address the situation. To this end, Prof Boakye called for the application of research to enhance the tourism industry to meet the needs of tourists thereby augmenting revenue for the socio-economic development of the country.
Adding his to the discussion, the Managing Director, Jumia Travel West Africa, Kushal Dutta indicated that the country needs to improve the infrastructure networks along tourist sites to reduce the difficulties and stresses in accessing those areas.
In his own words: “Some of the challenges we have had is the infrastructure development along these sites. Sometimes it is too difficult to reach these places due to poor road networks”.
Kofi Akpabli, a renowned tourism writer, also lamented the poor service delivery in the hospitality industry., saying: “You work in a hotel, you work in a restaurant and someone orders a dish and you can’t tell how long that dish takes to get ready. If you are asked how long it will take, you hear, oh right now. It doesn’t help because the person needs to make a decision, could he go back to his hotel room and send a quick meal before coming back to that meal”.
He therefore advised the players in the tourism and hospitality industry to attach professionalism to their work to encourage the visitors in returning to the facilities and to attract new clients as well.
Currently, Ghana ranked 21st in Africa and 120th on the latest Global Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), which measures the most competitive, travel and tourism destinations.
While latest statistics in Ghana indicates that travel and tourism contributed 1.18 billion dollars representing three percent of the GDP in 2016.
This is inadequate when compared with fellow African namely, Kenya Gambia and, Senegal. The total contribution of Kenya’s tourism industry to its GDP is above 12 percent, raking in millions of dollars for that East African country.
The event was moderated by Head of Citi Business Desk and Editor of Citibusiness.com, Mrs. Vivian Kai Lokko.
The month-long festival being organised by the Citi FM in partnership with MTN Business is focused on thematic areas such as financial inclusion, housing and real estate, foreign direct investments, innovation and tourism.
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