Ghana’s tourism industry has experienced a remarkable resurgence indicating a recovery from the dire impact suffered by the industry following the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief Director of the Ministry, John Yao Agbeko during a breakfast meeting at the GIPC Quarter Two CEOs 2024 Breakfast Meeting in Accra, revealed that the Ministry in 2023 generated a substantial $3.8 billion by the end of 2023 from international arrivals.
This marks a significant increase from the previous year’s $2.5 billion, signaling a robust recovery from the challenges posed by the pandemic.
He cited Ghana’s impressive recovery in international arrivals, with 914,882 visitors in 2022 and 1,148,002 in 2023, resulting in significant receipts of $2.5 billion and $3.8 billion, respectively.
The Ministry has pledged to foster an enabling environment for sustainable growth and development in tourism, arts, and culture given the critical contribution of the sector to Ghana’s GDP
“In Africa, the tourism industry showed considerable strength in coping with 75% of each pandemic receipt. Ghana, however, recovered a total international arrival of nine hundred and fourteen thousand, eight hundred and eighty-two in 2022 and One million, one hundred and forty-eight thousand and two in 2023 giving a receipt of $2.5 billion and $3.8 billion respectively.
These are just the international arrivals. The Ministry of Tourism exists to create a conducive environment for sustainable growth and development of Tourism, Arts, and Culture to contribute enormously to GDP through effective and efficient use of appropriate policies, plans, programmes and projects” he noted.
Deputy Finance Minister , Dr. Stephen Amoah has called on stakeholders within the tourism sector to give precedence to domestic tourism as a means to stabilize the depreciating cedi.
He underscored the importance of implementing home-grown policy measures tailored to address Ghana’s unique requirements, urging both patrons and industry players to contribute to local economic development.
“One thing I’ve seen about Africa is that we have a lot of ideas but sometimes the global modules control us too much. We need to build home-grown policy tools that specifically address our needs.
“Let’s begin to show the high level of patronage and keep the money here. I think as a country we have everything at our disposal to develop tourism because God has endowed us” he added.