Ghana tourist arrivals surge - USA, India, Nigeria, China top list

Ghana has recorded 247,834 international tourist arrivals in the first quarter of this year.

It represents a 45.19 per cent increase over the 170,696 arrivals for the same period last year.

Although higher than last year’s arrivals, the figure is still below the record 256,457 arrivals for the same period in 2019 during the implementation of the Year of Return.

The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) explained that the increase was influenced by arrivals from the United States of America, India, Nigeria, China, Britain, Germany, Liberia and the Netherlands.

With the growth in figures, some industry stakeholders have projected that the country would be able to meet its 1.2 million tourist arrival targets for 2023.

Data sourced from the GTA show fluctuations in international tourist arrivals in the country between the first quarters of 2019 and 2023.

From 256,457 arrivals in 2019, the number of tourists who visited the country dropped to 212,788 in 2020 before declining further to 98,950 in 2021.

The sector, which recorded 170,696 visits in 2022, experienced a jump to 247,834 in 2023, close to the pre-pandemic level.

One million target

The Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Operations at the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Ekow Sampson, in an interview with the Daily Graphic yesterday, stated that the country would continue to attract international tourists owing to key interventions, policies and investments being implemented by the government.

“When you look at the numbers, we have successfully doubled our tourist arrivals over the previous year.

“All things being equal, we are going to exceed the one million tourist arrival level and even meet the target for the year which is 1.2 million,” he said.

That meant that the country would be able to cross the one million target set for tourist arrival this year, Mr Sampson said.

The GTA Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Operations said the increase in the number could be attributed to sound policies by the government over the years to grow the tourism sector as a key revenue generator for the country.

He said efforts of the GTA, the industry regulator and other supporting agencies in the industry had culminated in the growth.

“Marketing promotions and initiatives such as Year of Return, Beyond the Return, Destination Ghana, among other programmes, have made a positive impact, Mr Sampson said.

“The GTA is very happy that the country has been positioned as home for diasporans seeking to visit and do business within the African continent,” he added.

For 2022, the deputy CEO noted that the international arrivals moved from 623,523 in 2021 to 914,892 in 2022, representing 46.73 per cent year on year growth.

According to him, the corresponding revenue also saw an exponential increase of more than 107 per cent, with the country making over $2.5 billion from tourism and associated spending.

Mr Sampson said Ghana’s arrivals recovery stood at 81 per cent from the pre-pandemic levels.

He said that was significantly higher than the African average and around the same recovery levels as the European markets.

“Our recovery rate was far above the entire continent’s recovery rate of 61 per cent,” Mr Sampson said.

The deputy CEO stated that the tourism sector was the backbone of economies around the world as it brought in the essential currency and investment, created jobs and stimulated several sectors of the economy.

Mr Sampson noted that the growth showed that the country could do more to attract and deepen the sector’s progress towards the end of the year and beyond.

That, he said, was because the tourism sector had exhibited strong resilience in the past year and had seen a significant rebound from the pandemic.

“We are hopeful that the country would make a full recovery by surpassing the pre-pandemic level,” he added.