Government To Boost Tourism Receipts and Stimulate demand locally.

Catherine Afeku-Tourism Minister of Ghana has said, Government is set to intensify  its domestic tourism drive, as it seeks to boost tourism receipts and stimulate demand locally.

“We are focusing more on domestic tourism and we need to stimulate demand locally. In our market, we have the millennial, returnees and the diaspora. All these people need to experience various parts of the country

“So, we started this campaign called ‘eat, see, and wear Ghana’ to encourage domestic tourism,” she said.

She was speaking as a panel member on the right tourism policies at the just-ended two-day Africa Tourism Leadership Forum 2018, held at the International Conference Centre, Accra.

Tourism used to be one of the highest contributors to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product, largely as a result of high domestic tourism complemented by foreign arrivals she said.

The World Tourism and Travel Council in its Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2017 on Ghana disclosed that: “The direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP was ¢4,972.9 million – 3.0% of total GDP in 2016 – and is forecast to rise by 5.6% in 2017, and to rise by 5.1% between 2017-2027 to ¢8,626.5 million, 2.9% of total GDP in 2027”.

According to the report, in 2016 the travel & tourism industry directly supported 288,000 jobs – 2.4% of total employment. This rose by about 4.7% in 2017 and is expected to rise by 2.0% pa to 366,000 jobs – that’s 2.4% of total employment in 2027.

In 2016, the total contribution of Travel & Tourism to employment, including jobs indirectly supported by visitor exports, generated GH¢3,752.4m – 5.9% of total exports for 2016.

The country’s tourism policies must be very active and respond to changes in the environment if it is to harness the full benefits of tourism, discussants at the Forum said.

Tourism policies developed by various governments on the continent are largely rigid and do not respond to new developments within the space. This serves to delay various corrective measures that would otherwise have sealed the loopholes.