Goldstar Air to boost Ghana’s GDP growth

Goldstar Air, the wings of Ghana, aims to accelerate the country’s economic growth by leveraging aviation and tourism to boost Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The airline seeks to stimulate increased trade volume, investment, and business activities in the country.

According to the Chief Executive Officer, Eric Bannerman, Goldstar Air sets its sights on becoming a leading contributor to the Gross Domestic Product.

Commercial aviation is a valuable contributor to global economic prosperity and provides the only rapid worldwide transportation network, which makes it essential for global business. It generates economic growth, creates jobs, and facilitates international trade and tourism.

Commercial aviation drives 5% of the United States GDP, the equivalent of $1.37 trillion in 2023. Every day, United States Airlines operates more than 26,000 flights carrying 2.6 million passengers to and from nearly 80 countries and 61,000 tons of cargo to and from more than 220 countries.

One of the industries that relies most heavily on aviation is tourism. According to the (UNWTO) World Tourism Barometer, global tourism continued its recovery in 2023, ending at 88 percent of pre-pandemic levels with an estimated 1.3 billion international tourist arrivals. By facilitating tourism, air transport helps generate economic growth, alleviate poverty, and provide a lifeline for remote communities.

Goldstar Air will leverage key sectors of the economy to stimulate over half a percentage point of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product in the quest to revive intriguing parts of the Ghanaian economy, using our 24/7 service operations to showcase our capabilities as an economic tool for the country.

Services remained the largest sector of the Ghanaian economy, accounting for 47% of Gross Domestic Product at basic prices, to which Goldstar Air wants to contribute half annually. Industry and agriculture accounted for 32% and 21% of the Gross Domestic Product, respectively.

In 2022, travel and tourism contributed 168 billion U.S. dollars to Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This was a 40.9 percent increase from the year before. Despite the growth, the value added to the GDP remained below that recorded in 2019, some 186 billion U.S dollars.

In 2023, travel and tourism’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product was forecast to reach around 183 billion dollars. Africa stands out as the continent with the fastest tourism growth in 2023, with international tourism arrival numbers at 96% in 2019 levels, according to UN Tourism, the highest recovery percentage in the world. This translated into total international tourist movements reaching 66.4 million.

With the support of their flag carriers, some African Countries even exceeded their 2019 numbers by October or November 2023, including Ethiopia (+30%), Tanzania (+20%), and Morocco (+11%). North Africa as a whole recorded 26.8 million international arrivals up by 4.6% over 2019.

Throughout most of the world, countries' Gross Domestic Products fluctuate with the phases of different economic cycles, against a backdrop of longer-term economic growth. However, despite these ups and downs, the top economies as measured by GDP don’t budge easily from the positions that they hold.

The United States, China, Japan, Germany, and India are some of the top economies in the world, based on gross domestic product (GDP). GDP estimates the total value of finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders during a specified period, usually a year. Gross domestic product is popularly used to estimate the size of a country’s economy and its impact on the global economy. There are several popular ways to measure GDP, all of which are drawn from the World Bank database.

However, some big movers have been on the list in the last 20-plus years. China was in 13th place in 2000 but has been sitting in second place since 2010. Further down the list, Indonesia vaulted from the 27th largest economy in 2000 to the 16th as of 2022. In 2022, Saudi Arabia climbed from 18th to 17th, and Argentina jumped to 22nd from 28th last year.

The saying 'Cocoa is Ghana; Ghana is Cocoa' portrays the important role cocoa plays in the economy of Ghana one of the largest cocoa-producing countries, supplying around 20% of the world’s cocoa. Cocoa is vital to the national economy, accounting for 15% of GDP and employing approximately 800,000 farm families spread over six of the sixteen regions of Ghana.

The crop generates about $2 billion in foreign exchange annually. It is a priceless contributor to government revenue and GDP. In 2021, in real terms, the contribution of cocoa to GDP was GHS3.1 billion, or around 533 million U.S. dollars. In the 2020–2021 crop season, a little over one million metric tons of cocoa beans were produced in Ghana. What is pertaining now is not enough.

Therefore, Goldstar Air will boost this growth by promoting Ghana’s cocoa - through the patronage of various products such as Chocolate by Cocoa Processing Company and cocoa drinks on board our flights.

Ghana’s mining sector predates the colonial era. Historically, Ghana was known as the Gold Coast. Ghana is one of the largest gold producers. Gold is Ghana's most commercially exploited mineral, accounting for about 95% of the country’s mineral revenue. Other commercially exploited minerals in Ghana are manganese, bauxite, and diamonds.

The country is also endowed with deposits of iron ore, limestone, columbite-tantalite, feldspar, quartz, and salt, and there are also minor deposits of ilmenite, magnetite, and rutile. In 2018, Ghana discovered commercial quantities of lithium. What is also about the mining sector now is also not enough, therefore Goldstar Air will help boost this growth by promoting and selling made-in-Ghana jewelry on board our flights.

As China and Ivory Coast become the world’s top gold and cocoa-producing countries respectively, Ghana must shift its focus to aviation and tourism. The aviation and tourism industries depend on each other for sustainable growth and are essential to economic development strategies in many countries, particularly in remote regions far away from their source markets that rely on a steady inflow of tourists. Without the influx of tourists, their economies would decline significantly.

Developing countries are becoming more competitive in the tourism market, most notably in Asia-Pacific, and developing economies are growing steadily as a result.

Visa restrictive regimes remain an obstacle to international travel, even for tourism purposes, but the good news is that these countries realize the unnecessary barrier that these entry procedures place on their tourism sector, curtailing economic opportunities and job creation.

According to 2018 UN World Tourism Organization data, destinations worldwide required 53% of the world’s population to obtain a visa before departure, a significant improvement from 2008, when 77% required one. Over the same decade, the number of destinations without visa requirements has only increased from 17% to 21%.

Goldstar Air will initially operate flights from Kumasi International Airport to Rome, Madrid, Hamburg, London, Dusseldorf, and Milan and flights from Accra Kotoka International Airport will include destinations such as Washington, Dubai, Lagos, Toronto, Monrovia, Conakry, Abidjan, Guangzhou, Dakar, Banjul, Rhode Island, London, and Freetown.