Dr. Awal Mohammed is Minister for Tourism
Tourist arrivals in 2019 stood at 1.130million in 2019, Report
29.7% of visits in 2019 were specifically for business
60.70% of visitors say accommodation facilities in Ghana were good, Report
A 2021 report compiled by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Ghana Tourism Authority, and Ghana Cares Obaatanpa programme has revealed that tourist arrivals in Ghana rose to 623,523 in 2021 from the 355,108 drop recorded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This represents a 75.59% increase.
However, tourist arrivals in 2019 stood at 1.130million in 2019.
The report noted that the top 10 arrival countries at the Kotoka International Airport in 2021 were the USA (92,139), Nigeria (59,193), Britain (34,073), Germany (14,785), and Netherlands (11,923), Canada (8,475), Cote D’Ivoire (8,413), (China 8,088), South Africa (7,591) and France (7,048).
Also, 38.6% of the visitors lodged in hotels while 41.4% lodged in private homes.
12.9% stayed in guest houses and 2.4% were in corporate houses.
29.7% of the visits were specifically for business, whilst 23.6% were for visitation purposes.
However, 60.70% of the visitors noted that accommodation facilities were good, whilst 28.20% said it was excellent.
Meanwhile, 0. 30% noted that the facilities were not good.
Hotel services according to 59.30% of visitors were good, whereas 0.60% said it was poor.
60.60% said the quality of service at restaurants was good and 0.70% said it was poor.
48.40% also stated that airport facilities were excellent and 0.20% disagreed saying the facilities were poor.
A greater percentage of 49.10% stated that Ghanaians were hospitable, whilst 1% noted that Ghanaians were not.
67.7% intimated that their overall impression of the country was good, 25.5% said excellent, 5.6% said normal and 0.6% poor.
The report however noted that tourism suffered its worst year in 2020 globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
SSD/FNOQ
