Akwasi Agyeman
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Akwasi Agyeman, has attributed the recent boost in the tourism sector to the development of the ‘Visit Ghana’ website.
According to him, the website has been a valuable source of information to many tourists who have travelled to the country in recent times.
Mr. Agyeman, in an interview on Happy FM, said, “The Visit Ghana website has done a lot to improve tourism in Ghana.”
According to him, prior to the development of the website, most tourists used agents, tour operators and contacts in their home countries when they decided to make travel considerations, adding that this limited their travel options.
He said, “Sometimes information for tour operators is scattered so it will be difficult to know what is in Ghana, but now all that information has been made available on the website and it is aggressively being pushed on the international scene, people regularly visit the website for information and that has really helped us.”
With the Visit Ghana website operational, it provides information to over 30,000 to 40,000 people on regular basis.
From statistics available to the GTA, a greater portion of tourists who visit the country are from the United States of America (USA). It was revealed during the interview that this feat was achieved by the conscious efforts put in place by the authority.
Mr. Agyeman explained, “Studying the data, we observed that countries like the USA have been very strong markets for us. So we began to engage in exhibitions, fairs and conversations that went on in those areas. So for a program like ‘Year of Return’, when it was launched, we saw more patronage from the USA.”
With the immense efforts put in place by the GTA to promote tourism in the country, Ghana has now become a Mecca for African Americans who want to see their roots.
Mr. Agyeman advised tourists from parts of the globe to log on to www.visitghana.com to browse through amazing tourist destinations in the country.