Accra, Ghana, September 3, 2020///-The Chamber for Tourism Industry Ghana (CTI Ghana) has warned that the expensive mandatory $150 Covid-19 test fee at Accra’s Kotoka International Airport could discourage tourists from coming into the country.
The Ghana Airports Company Limited recently issued guidelines for reopening the country up to international flights by implementing the $150 fee for testing at the airport terminal.
But the Chamber is concerned that the amount stated for testing would hamper the influx of tourists into the country.
The Chief Operating Officer of CTI Ghana, Angela Akua Asante, said: “Although it is unsubstantiated what exactly goes into the cost, a comparative analysis of costs of running tests in other countries shows that Ghana’s is on the higher side”.
Antigen tests which are the most rapid testing type, and reportedly the test type to be mandatorily used at the Kotoka International Airport, are globally pegged at about $10-$30 on the average.
This makes Ghana’s $150 an exorbitant fee; more than five times higher than Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s ($28), and almost 22 times higher than that of India’s Veer Savarkar International Airport ($7), according to her.
In neighboring country Nigeria, it is reported that PCR tests — naturally more expensive than Antigen tests — cost $130 per passenger across all their international airports; still $20 less exorbitant than the Kotoka International Airport’s mandatory $150 coronavirus fee.
“Given Ghana’s prominence as a favoured tourist destination, particularly in light of the just-ended Year of Return initiative by the Government of Ghana, it is undesirable that the nation touted as the most welcoming to the diaspora community would be the nation to charge such high fees”.
She continued: “The issue is not merely whether people coming into the country can afford $150. With the cost of Antigen testing available all over the internet, a lot of people are going to look it up, make comparisons, and be discouraged.”
If other countries are charging below $30, they will automatically feel like they are being exploited, and might choose to visit another country, Ms Asante said.
There is no doubt that tourism is a key component of Ghana’s economy. In 2019 alone, monies accrued from visitors into the country between January and September alone was about $1.9bn, with an average spend of $2,590 per visitor.
With the groundwork laid for the industry — by way of the Year of Return publicity — before COVID-19 hit, the nation cannot afford to have its image muddied.
A seemingly exorbitant fee in the midst of a crisis, and at a time where several people have been stranded from coming in or out of the country, however, stands to give the nation a bad reputation.
In the likely situation that there are pertinent costs inclusive in the fee, it will only be in the nation’s best interest for the stakeholders to be transparent and quell concerns.
If the extra costs unaccounted for are simply a revenue-generating stream, however, the Chamber called on the stakeholders involved to reconsider the ramifications of such a fee in dissuading travel, and costing the nation’s tourism industry in the long-term.
African Eye Report