Digital marketing as a tool for development
Tourism industry losses about US$1.2 million globally
Training event part of GH¢100 billion GhanaCares “Obaatanpa programme”
Operators urged to stay abreast of happenings on the international market.
The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has asked players in the tourism industry to leverage digital marketing platforms to grow and promote their businesses.
The Bono, Bono East and the Ahafo Regional Director of the GTA, Joseph Appiagyei made this statement during a training programme for players in the hospitality industry in Sunyani.
According to him, the evolution of the world has necessitated that brands adopt digital marketing as one of the important tools to improve business and create opportunities.
“We know that the tourism industry is dynamic, it keeps changing, especially with the advent of the COVID-19 problem, so operators have to abreast themselves with what is going on in the international market. Because if you don’t acquire knowledge to adjust yourself, then you phase out from the market, and you can’t compete with the rest of the world.
“…So, to be able to compete favourably in the world, we need to go internet that’s why we have introduced what we call digital marketing so that operators would brainstorm, be educated to have ample knowledge so that they can divert their operations into digitalisation,” he said.”
170 participants were taken through the basics of marketing on social media platforms, a training programme organised by the GTA through Ghana Cares “Obaatanpa Programme”.
The event formed part of the GHC100 billion GhanaCares “Obaatanpa programme” which is a three- and a half--year comprehensive programme to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and return the country to a sustained path of robust growth in the tourism sector and the economy in general.
Speaking at the event, IT consultant and co-founder of Mega Eye Group, Dread Kingsley Azalete expounded on the benefits of digital marketing in today’s world.
“According to statistics, the tourism industry has lost about US$1.2 million globally, which is a huge figure for any economy. Also, what statistics are telling us is that we have about 4.66 billion active internet users as talking right now, and then we are just about seven billion. So, that makes about 60% of the world’s population active internet users. Then we need to do internet business because there are more people online, so we can push businesses to people and then we can increase our sales of revenue.
“…These days, the most important thing people look out for is content, if your content is good, if you have rich content, you would be able to sell. We have rich culture as a country, we have rich products that we think the world should be able to know,” he added
