Stakeholders in the hospitality and tourism sector have been urged to implement measures that will help generate revenue to increase the contribution of the sector to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Marketing Manager of Jovago Ghana Bennett Otoo, who admonished authorities at the launch of the first Hospitality Report for Ghana by the online hotel booking website also indicated that the total contribution of travel & tourism to the GDP of Ghana in 2015 was $10.5billion, which represents a 7.8 per cent contribution to the total GDP of the country.
Directly, the industry contributed GHS4.5billion in 2015, representing 3.3 per cent of total GDP. By this, tourism is the fourth largest contributor to Ghana’s GDP, coming after oil, gold, and cocoa. According to JOVAGO, the direct contribution is expected to grow by 2.7% in 2016.
Mr Otoo further stated that the contribution of tourism to income revenue in Ghana’s economy has increased rapidly over the last few years at a rate of 3.5%, which has catapulted Ghana to being the second largest economy in the ECOWAS sub-region after Nigeria. With a population estimated at around 27 million, Ghana is regarded as the second most populous country in West Africa with an enormous tourism potential that has not been utilised fully.
He pointed out that the industry generated 292,000 jobs directly in 2015, representing 2.6% of total employment with an expected growth figure of 2.4% in 2016, further increasing employment to 299,000.
The report is expected to showcase and provide more information about the sector to help promote the industry and attract more foreigners to patronise services in the sector.
“We want to tell people that Ghana has a lot more interesting things that need to be showcased to the outside world,” he told Class FM’s Nabil Ahmed Rufai on Friday June 18.
He added that the report outlined some challenges which needed to be addressed including “lack of education, lack of professionalism and inadequate infrastructure”.
“We are, therefore, calling on the Ghana Tourism Authority so that we can partner and make the tourism industry attractive so that tourists can have safe and comfortable trips to the various sites,” he noted.
The tourist sites that attracted the most visitors in 2013 were Kakum National Park (184,000), Cape Coast/Elmina Castles (157,000) Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park (93,000), Kumasi Zoo (68,000), Wli Waterfalls (63,000), and Manhyia Palace Museum (51,000).
