Ghana makes $500m from tourism in 2010, but sector ranks low in the world

The World Economic Forum (WEF), estimates that Ghana made over $500 million from the travel and tour sector in 2010, however, the country ranks among the lowest performing in the sector, the WEF has said in a report. This amount according to the WEF has contributed 2.8% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

In a report titled World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Travel & Tourism (T&T) Competitiveness Report 2011 Ghana was ranked 123 out of 139 countries that the report covered. The report was released March 10, 2011.

The country also ranked 67 for overall prioritization of the sector with an average government spending on the tourism industry. Under ensuring excellent destination-marketing campaigns to attract tourists, and collecting tourism data in a timely fashion, Ghana ranked 100.

The report, which is a global survey of the most competitive countries in travel and tourism industry ranked “Ghana at 108th position out of 139 countries worldwide with a score of 3.44 over 10”.

The country was however ranked 10th in Sub-Saharan Africa with countries like Mauritius, South Africa, Namibia, Cape Verde, Botswana, Gambia, Rwanda, Kenya and Senegal all ahead of Ghana from 1st to 9th accordingly.

The report indicates that Ghana is ranked 45th for the country’s overall affinity for travel & tourism, with the sector representing an important part of the economy and the general attitude of the population to foreign travelers being very welcoming.

The country’s tourism infrastructure, WEF says is less developed (105th), and policy environment is not supportive of the development of the sector (ranked 115th).

But the country benefits from price competitiveness (ranked 26th), with relatively high prices overall and taxation although this would be improved through lower ticket taxes and airport charges, and more competitive hotel prices.

The report also ranked the country 98th in safety and security levels which are not good by regional standards. In terms of challenges, the government is not seen to be making an effort to develop the industry in a sustainable way (ranked 86th), this could be backed up by more stringent and well-enforced environmental regulations (ranked 89th and 90th respectively).

According to the WEF, the drop in rank is attributable to declines across most areas measured by the Index, and particularly those measuring the quality of infrastructure, including transport, tourism and ICT infrastructures.

The Forum’s forecast for the country’s travel and tours to grow by 7.1% between 2011 and 2020 with an estimated 4000 jobs to be created within this period.

By Ekow Quandzie
ghanabusinessnews.com