The Tourism Minister, Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare has told Citi Business News government has allocated funds to fix poor roads in famous tourist sites in the country.
According to her, government has already started fixing some roads such as the one leading to the Kakum National Park.
‘We all know that government has constructed a lot of roads in Ghana. Government has also reiterated its commitment to fix roads to tourist sites, now if you want to go to Mole you can drive on a first class road from Accra to Mole, this is good enough, if you want to go to Kakum you can drive on good roads up to Cape Coast, that road is also under construction’.
A study conducted by online hotel booking company, JOVAGO, recently stated that the lack of investment in building better road infrastructure has compelled most foreign tourists to shy away from remote tour sites.
Earlier some industry players also called for infrastructure improvement in tourism sector to help generate revenue for the country.
According to them, the lack of investment to facilitate better road infrastructure as well as good communication among others has compelled tourists, especially foreigners to shy away from sector.
Chief Executive Officer of JOVAGO Travel, now Jumia Travel, Paul Midy speaking with Citi Business News, earlier urged government to invest in the sector.
“We have teams on the grounds. You know I would say maybe in Ghana there is one step right. In Ghana quality of hotel is good but the roads leading to these hotels are the problem,” he said.
“Most roads are quite dilapidated and this prevents tourists from going to such nice hotels. When this happens, hoteliers run at huge losses. This challenge is one of the huge ones facing the industry,” he lamented.
Speaking to Citi Business News Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare further on the road infrastructure development for tourism sites she maintained that government is working to build good quality roads to boost the tourism sector.
‘Government is committed to making sure these roads are fixed and so the few places that need fixing when it comes to roads government has committed that in its second term it will pay more attention to roads leading to tourism sites and government is committed in utilizing more money to fix our roads to make tourism big.
Tourism contribution to GDP in 2015
Figures released by JOVAGO early this year revealed that Travel and Tourism contributed GHS4.5 billion (US$7265 billion) in 2015, representing 3.3% of total GDP.
By this, tourism is the fourth largest contributor to Ghana’s GDP, coming after oil, gold and cocoa.
According to JOVAGO, the direct contribution is expected to grow by 2.7% in 2016.
The tourist sites that attracted the most visitors in 2013 were Kakum National Park (184,000), Cape Coast/Elmina Castles (157,000) Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park (93,000), Kumasi Zoo (68,000), Wli Waterfalls (63,000), and Manhyia Palace Museum (51,000).
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By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
