By Hafsa Obeng
Accra, Oct. 21, GNA – Mr Jeremy Gray, Technical Director, CENFRI has called on stakeholders in the tourism sector to leverage data and digital technology to enhance growth.
This, he said, could be done by increasing Ghana’s presence to attract more tourists, leveraging available information to improve and stimulate the tourism ecosystem, enabling value-adding services and innovation, and improving services and products to better serve tourists.
Mr Gray was addressing the opening session of workshop organized by the African Tourism Research Network (ATRN) in collaboration with the
Ghana Tourism Federation (GHATOF) for tourism stakeholders’, in Accra.
The four-day workshop scheduled from October 20 to 25, which would be led by CENFRI and CDC Consult, would focus on insights from the Ghanaian tourism sector and recommendations for the public and private sectors.
He said despite the strengths and successes chalked by the sector, Ghana’s tourism sector was being held back by its limited use of data and digital technology.
“Ghana offers a unique heritage and culturally based tourism experience, the tourism sector has been prioritised as a strategically important sector for stimulating growth and job creation and is rich with keen and energized stakeholders, however, data and digital technology remains underutilised among stakeholders.”
He noted that there was an opportunity to leverage on data and digital technology to grow the sector, by attracting and better serving more tourists, and to
create employment opportunities, specifically for the youth.
Mr Gray said to speed up recovery and growth, the public and private sectors also have to prioritise restoring traveller confidence, promote domestic tourism, adopt and respond to new trends, increase information to tourists, improve cooperation and collaboration and build a more resilient and sustainable tourism sector.
“In order for tourism operators to make the most out of data and technology, they must focus on enhancing Ghana’s digital presence to match its physical assets for visitors , enhance the use of data to inform policy decisions and drive industry growth and encourage innovation, market entry and ease of doing business.”
Mr Emmanuel Frimpong, President, ATRN, said the workshop would discuss the state of the Ghanaian tourism sector, diving into the key challenges that were hindering development, and the opportunities for growing the tourism sector.
“This discussion will also focus on how data and digital technology are being used among private and public sector players. In doing so, we will explore the barriers to greater data and digital technology adoption and highlight the opportunities that the enhanced use of data and digital technology can unlock.”
He said it would also build on the challenges and opportunities and provide practical recommendations for public and private stakeholders to grow the tourism market.
“These recommendations will provide practical and contextually grounded examples of what they would involve, why they are relevant and necessary, and how they can be effectively implemented.
“In all 75 participants drawn from academia, private and public sectors will participate in the workshop, which will also have some training session specifically on the principles of tourism marketing and leveraging data for decision-making.”
According to Mr Frimpong, these training sessions would focus on how to create the most optimal digital presence for Ghana’s tourism sector, digitally handle selling propositions for national campaigns effectively communicating with tourists and turning interest and intrigue into booking and buying, and leverage data available to make strategic and well-informed decisions.
He said the objectives of the training sessions included providing key stakeholders in the tourism sector with the tools necessary to improve their businesses and champion the lessons and benefits from this training, and taking the training material and learnings to re-train association members, tourism operators and other relevant stakeholders.
Mr Kwesi Eyison, Acting President of GHATOF, said the workshop was also to bring about transformation in the sector. “One of our priorities is the skilling up of innovation to bring about transformation in the industry to be able to compete locally and globally.”
GNA