By Hafsa Obeng
Accra, Nov. 9, GNA – The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts must provide a clear strategic direction and strengthen coordination among agencies to accelerate Ghana’s tourism development, a Tourism Analyst has said.
Mr Emmanuel Frimpong, Founding President of the Africa Tourism Research Network (ATRN), said the Ministry must move beyond its supervisory role and establish a coherent national tourism development agenda with defined priorities, timelines, institutional responsibilities and measurable performance indicators.
He said Ghana’s tourism sector required more than isolated promotional activities and individual initiatives, stressing the need for a coordinated approach that connected destination marketing with infrastructure development, investment, heritage preservation, skills development and private sector participation.
Mr Frimpong made the observation in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) while commenting on leadership and institutional coordination concerns within the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA).
He said the Ministry was responsible for policy formulation, sector coordination, monitoring and evaluation and must therefore ensure that agencies under its supervision operated within a common national development framework.
He noted that the GTA was responsible for translating government tourism policies into practical programmes, while its Board provided strategic oversight and management ensured effective implementation.
However, he said the sector needed stronger alignment among these institutions to ensure that their activities contributed to clearly defined national objectives.
Mr Frimpong said Ghana needed to determine the tourism products it intended to prioritise, including cultural and heritage tourism, domestic tourism, ecotourism, business events, medical tourism, marine tourism and community-based tourism.
He said deliberate efforts were also required to develop destinations beyond Accra, Cape Coast and Kumasi to ensure that more communities benefited from tourism-related economic activities.
He acknowledged the Ministry’s leadership and governance orientation programmes for agency heads and board chairpersons in 2026 but said such initiatives must translate into measurable improvements in institutional performance and collaboration.
He said the Ministry should regularly review the performance of tourism-related institutions and publish progress reports to promote transparency and accountability.
Mr Frimpong also called for a unified tourism sector development agenda that would bring together the GTA and other relevant institutions under a common strategic framework.
He said effective coordination was necessary to strengthen destination competitiveness, attract investment, improve visitor experiences, and maximise the sector’s contribution to national development.
He stressed that Ghana’s tourism potential, including its cultural heritage, historical attractions, natural resources, creative arts and diaspora connections, required deliberate leadership and sustained investment to translate into tangible economic benefits.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei
Reporter: Hafsa Obeng