The newly appointed Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture is giving the strongest indication of his readiness to make Ghana’s tourism profitable and deepening its relevance to the economy in terms of revenue generation.
To this end, the Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal has expressed his desire to generate $5 billion from the tourism industry by December, 2022. He disclosed this at a two-day retreat for heads and management of agencies under the Ministry in Akosombo last week.
He observed that the tourism industry was not doing well as expected and indicated his resolve to turn the economic fortunes of the sector by creating massive employment opportunities for the Ghanaian citizenry.
Dr. Awal, intimated that upon his assumption of office, President Akufo-Addo charged him to use his business acumen and entrepreneurial skills to change the face of Ghana’s tourism industry.
In addition to this, the Minister said, he would also focus on a strategic policy direction to help the sector. He further expressed his commitment to make Ghana’s tourism sector number one contributor to the country’s GDP from its current third place ranking.
Ghana’s tourism, until the advent of COVID-19 pandemic had been projected to rise significantly for both arrivals and receipts following the huge success of the “Year of Return” initiative. Figures from the 2019 Tourism Report by the Ghana Tourism Authority indicated that the country earned over $3,312 billion in tourism receipts.
With a goal of ensuring one million domestic tourists each year, the Minister hopes to get the country’s tourism back on track while driving investments into the creative arts and culture sub-sectors.
Dr. Awal urged the agencies to work together and in tandem with the Ministry to help realize the overarching goal of making Ghana, West Africa’s tourism hub.
