Mark Okraku Mantey
The Chief Executive Officer, Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Akwasi Agyeman, says more resources are needed to make the future of the tourism industry brighter.
According to him, “the future of tourism in the country, we know, looks bright, but we need more resources to be able to achieve that. The tourism landscape has opened, and we have a broadened mandate with other responsibilities, so one would expect that we get more resources, but it doesn’t come that way, so we struggle a bit.”
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, he said the GTA, as the main implementing agency of the Tourism Ministry, wants to have branches in all regions and districts across the country, but indicated that this was becoming difficult to achieve due to resource constraints.
“This is one of our biggest challenges as an organization. GTA has done very well with a very young dynamic team. It has transitioned positively from tourism board to an authority with a more broadened scope and mandate, but this has come with a few challenges,” he noted.
Mr. Agyeman, however, said the one per cent tourism development levy had kept the GTA afloat in terms of marketing and product development.
“We are hopeful for the better. We have a strong board and leadership and a dynamic and focused working team who understands and knows what is required of them, and with the support from the fund for our operational activities, it will ease some of the pressures on us.”
On the impact of COVID-19 on the sector, he noted that the industry was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, saying “the COVID-19 pandemic taught the industry a few things.”
Mr Agyemang stated that the Authority had put in various interventions to help the sector to bounce back and build a very resilient industry.
He said one of the interventions was product development to refocus attention on domestic tourism, and shift the focus a bit from international tourism, hence the inception of the “Experience Ghana, Share Ghana” campaign.
“To do that we realized that it cannot be just marketing, but some product improvement and so we started some product upgrade, at some of the tourist sites across the country and so product improvement became imperative.” GNA