The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has announced that key tourist sites in the country will receive a facelift within the short to medium term this year.
The announcement comes at a time the CNN has ranked Ghana forth out of nineteen countries as top destinations in the world to visit this year.
For years, tourism has been the country’s fourth largest foreign exchange earner with the support of tourist sites such as Kakum National Park and the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles.
According to statistics from The World Travel and Tourism Council the direct contribution of Travel and Tourism to GDP was more than one million dollars, which was 2.9 % of total GDP in 2017, whiles the total contribution of Travel and Tourism to GDP was 6.2 % of GDP.
The GTA however anticipates significant growth this year with the rankings from the CNN and other initiatives such as the “The year of Return”.
In an interview with Citi News, Product Development and Investment Manager, at the Ghana Tourism Authority, Ben Anane Nsiah outlined some pillars that will be used to revamp tourist sites before the peak tourist period in August this year.
“We can say four main pillars, there will be a lot of work on improving the quality of the tourist attractions themselves, we need to have basic things like a good receptive facility and restrooms to make the journeys of people much more convenient and we have plans for Paga and other areas in the Volta region,” he said.
To ensure that tourists are not only treated to beautiful tourist sites but to good customer care as well, Mr Nsiah said players in the tourism industry will undergo capacity training.
“The next thing we will do will be capacity building. As you know tourism has both a hard and soft sides it’s good to have all the nice hotels and good infrastructure but the service standards has to be comparable to what you find elsewhere but you need a critical mass of training people so that the culture is instilled across board”
The report by CNN which placed Ghana fourth describes Ghana as the West African Nation of economic success and political stability.
The tourism industry this year has a lot to look forward to such as Afrochella, Panafest and Emancipation, Chale Wote and Heritage Caravan.
Source: Citinewsroom.
