Accra, August 25, 2017//-Ghana’s Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Catherine Afeku revealed that more than 60 percent of hotels operating in Ghana have poor online presence, making them invisible to guestsand players in the world market which reduces their patronage.
To this end, Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) is implementing a one-stop shop project to exhibit over 2,000 registered hotels in Ghana on the world market.
Ms Afeku said this at the Hospitality Excellence Breakfast Meeting organised by GTA in Accra.
The project is part of the modules of the National Tourism Single Window Destination that is being rolled out to deepen public access to information on the country’s tourism profile broadly.
The project is also expected to increase the marketability of hotels by creating a database to store their information and web portal to connect them to visitors and tourists globally, according to her.
The country’s tourism sector will enjoy improved visibility worldwide and publicise her rich tourist sites while trumpeting their standards of quality.
Francis B. Gavor, Business Development Manager of SGS, the project’s implementation leader, said the system would enable the GTA to mobilise revenue for the development of the tourism sector by deploying mechanisms to enhance tourism levy collection.
He added: “All the stakeholders in the tourism industry would be connected and interfaced electronically, while deploying strategies to ensure that the one percent levy charged from tourism operators is paid and monitored”.
It would also help in the issuance of certificates for tourism operations by automating registration and licensing processes and cut down delays and the challenges the operators face when acquiring some significant documentation from GTA, according to him.
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.
African Eye Report
