Government target $5bn tourism revenue in 2 years

The Minister designate for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Mohammed Ibrahim Awal has disclosed plans to increased revenue generated from the sector to $6 billion within the next three years, 

The minister-designate who made an ambitious $5-billion projection of inflow within his first two years, said the feat is achievable considering the country raked in $3.3 billion in 2019 due to the Year of Return initiative.

Dr Awal was, therefore, confident that initiatives such as Beyond the Return, a further improvement of tourist sites and Ghana’s arts and culture would help achieve that target.

He said his plan was to make the tourism sector the number one foreign exchange earner for the country in the next four years.

Ghana’s tourism industry is currently the fourth foreign exchange earner, with gold, oil and cocoa occupying the number one to three positions, respectively.

“Tourism everywhere contributes significantly to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In Ghana, it is the number four foreign exchange earner, but we are determined to make it the number one,” he stated as quoted by Graphic.com.

Currently, data from the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) indicate that the sector contributed $1 billion to the economy last year, with global projections indicating that the figure could increase to $1.2 billion by the close of the year.