By Patrick Ofoe Nudzi
Accra, Oct. 21, GNA – Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, says the tourism sector by 2025 will become Ghana’s biggest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contributor with a value of US$ 4 billion.
“By 2025, the tourism sector will generate not less than UD $ 4 billion dollars and will become the biggest contributor to Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”
The sector is currently said to be the third largest contributor to GDP.
At a press briefing at the Ministry of Information, Dr Awal said the Ministry had been developing projects and building capacities to boost tourism and drive traffic of about 1.5 million visitors between 2024 and 2025 and expected to go up exponentially.
“So if we have 1.5 million people and they spend 12 days or two weeks, and they spend about $2500, we shall be hitting over $3 billion and that is just international arrivals,” he said.
This year, 645, 047 international arrivals have so far been recorded from January to September, with a projection of one million creating 150,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The Minister said before the COVID-19, the international visitors were spending between US$ 2600 and US$2800 for a week or ten days.
He said with domestic tourism, the goal was to attain one million this year, a figure that would not only boost the local economy but build national cohesion and unity.
Domestic tourism is said to have increased by 60 per cent from 334, 921 visits in 2021 between January and September to 534, 711 visits the same period for this year.
The Government with support from the World Bank is spending GH¢350 million to modernise tourist attraction sites across the country, Dr Awal also said.
He said the Pikworo Heritage Slave Camp in Paga Nania was at phase one of development and that the Yaa Asantewaa Museum at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region would be completed in the first quarter of 2023.
The Minister said whiles the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park had been under construction and earmarked for reopening in March 2023, Cape Coast and Elmina Castles, Shai Hills, Mole Park and the W.E.B Du Bois Centre were yet to be rehabilitated.
He said the initiatives were in line with Government’s commitment to make tourism sector a veritable tool for economic transformation, thereby contributing to job creation and wealth of the people.
Tourism, last year, 2021, generated a revenue of $2.1 billion out of a target of $2.3 billion.
GNA