The Ghana Tourism Development Company Limited (GTDC) Authority has launched two products to boost tourism in the country.
They are the Ghana Tourism Marketplace (GTM) and the Ghana Tourism Investment Platform (GTIP).
The Chief Executive Officer of GTDC, Professor Kobby Mensah, who unveiled these two initiatives in Accra, said the two initiatives were meant to reposition Ghana’s tourism sector for growth, competitiveness, and inclusivity while increasing government revenue from tourism.
He stated that the GTM would serve as a one-stop digital platform connecting businesses, products, and services across the tourism value chain, linking providers directly with consumers, therefore, removing the challenges tourists face when they visit the country.
Prof. Mensah said the products were in response to changing global trends, as anyone interested in visiting any of the country’s tourism sites could find all the necessary information about the sites online, book a date whenever you intend to visit, book a hotel reservation and other services on the online platform.
He mentioned that the Ghana Tourism Investment Platform was designed to attract capital and partnerships to scale up businesses, enhance infrastructure, and expand opportunities within the sector as the platform showcases ready-to-invest tourism destinations across all 16 regions of Ghana.
Prof. Mensah urged stakeholders in the tourism industry to showcase their products and services on the platform without paying anything for their services to be shown to the world, stressing that events such as movie premieres, music festivals, traditional festivals and other events could also be showcased on the platform.
“These initiatives are not just projects of GTDC. They are shared opportunities that demand the participation, commitment and ownership of every stakeholder, government, private sector, communities and international partners alike,” Prof. Mensah stated.
He added that the significance of digitisation and innovation aligns with the President’s vision, noting that these would allow both local and international tourists to pay for products and services virtually, eliminating the need for physical presence at tourism sites before making payments.
The President of the Ghana Hotels Association, Dr Edward Ackarh-Nyamike (Jr), expressed gratitude to the GTDC for coming up with the two major initiatives, stressing that the association was hopeful the online platform would help in their operations.
He indicated that although the Cedis and inflation had witnessed a significant improvement, their major challenges had to do with increasing utilities and urged the government to intervene in order to enable them to meet their operational costs.
Dr Ackarh-Nyamike (Jr) further appealed to the government to fix the country’s major roads, as the bad nature of the road infrastructure was significantly affecting tourism, mentioning that Nsawam to Kumasi and the Winneba to Cape Coast as major road challenges to the tourism sector.
That according to them, contributed to a decrease in foreign exchange reserves due to the poor condition of the roads, as these tourists were particularly interested in sites such as the Elmina and Cape Coast Castles, as well as other attraction sites.
BY BERNARD BENGHAN
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