By Hafsa Obeng
Accra, Feb. 3, GNA – The Ghana Tourism Forum, in collaboration with the Africa Tourism Research Network (ATRN), is set to organise the maiden edition of the ‘Tourism Stakeholders’ Mixer’ on February 12, 2025.
The ‘mixer’ aims at bringing together stakeholders – public, private sector and academia – in the tourism and hospitality fields to take a deep dive into how they could build a more engaged and sustainable tourism and hospitality industry.
The thematic areas include Sustainability, Technological Transformation, Post Pandemic Recovery, Workforce Development, and Community Engagement.
It is expected to come out with an actionable strategy for industry challenges, policy recommendations for sustainable growth, new collaborative projects and initiatives, capacity building and knowledge sharing, and greater awareness of sustainability and community-focused tourism.
A release issued to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday said the tourism and hospitality sector was a vital contributor to economic growth, cultural exchange, and job creation, particularly for the youth and women in Ghana.
“However, it faces challenges such as environmental sustainability, post-COVID-19 recovery, economic volatility, lack of skilled human resource and overtourism.”
It said over the years, efforts to integrate closer working collaborations within the industry to enhance the collective benefit had hardly been met.
The stakeholders’ mixer, is therefore, to facilitate collaboration among policymakers, industry leaders, investors, and local communities to identify challenges such as sustainability, innovation, workforce development, and post-pandemic recovery and find ways of addressing them.
“This we recognise has to be led by all of us by working together to address challenges of the sector and take advantage of the enormous opportunity the sector holds for Ghana,” the release said.
“It also aims to promote eco-friendly and socially responsible tourism practices, enhance global competitiveness and resilience, foster inclusive growth, ensuring equitable distribution of tourism benefits.”
The Ghana Tourism Forum is a platform to educate, promote, preserve and celebrate the diverse cultures, while the ATRN is a tourism and hospitality civil society Think Tank promoting responsible, ethical and sustainable tourism in Africa.
GNA