Ghana's tourism sector plays an important role in the country's economy, contributing to both growth and job creation. The government has committed to increasing its actions in this field to boost its performance.

The Ghanaian government plans to raise more than $1.5 billion from its tourism sector between now and 2027, according to several local media outlets citing Samuel Annim, a government statistician.

This estimate comes from the first launch of the Survey on Domestic and Foreign Tourism, whose objective is to provide data for the Tourism Satellite Account (CST) that will serve as a basis for calculating the relevance of the sector in the national economy. Funded by Harmonization and Improvement of Statistics in West Africa, it will run for three years.

According to Samuel Annim, the sector is also expected to create more than 1.4 million jobs for citizens. In the second quarter of 2022, the West African country recorded an unemployment rate of 13.9% of the total active population over 15 years of age, estimated at 13 million people. This represents an increase of 0.5 percentage points compared to the first quarter rate of 13.4%.

"The potential of tourism has contributed enormously to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of poverty reduction, decent work, economic growth and environmental sustainability," said Samuel Annim.

Tourism remains a major contributor to Ghana's GDP, accounting for more than $3 billion in 2021, according to Statistica. However, the country's inflationary situation and high interest rates have hampered private consumption and investment.

According to data from the World Bank, "in 2022, average CPI inflation was 31.5% (compared to 10% in 2021) and reached 54.1% in December (year-on-year)." Furthermore, "international reserves fell to $5.6 billion (2.5 months of imports) in December 2022, compared to $9.1 billion (4.2 months of imports) a year earlier."

It is worth noting that in April 2022, within the framework of its 15-year tourism development plan (2013-2027), the government of Ghana launched its “Destination Ghana” project, which aims to attract one million tourists from Europe to 2024.

Source: EcomNewsAfrique