Businesses operating within Ghana’s tourism sector has lost a revenue of GH¢8 billion to the pandemic with a resultant job loss estimated at 75 percent, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal has said.
A chunk of these businesses, which falls within the hospitality subsector, according to the Ministry, had to lay off thousands of workers in hotels and restaurants in order to cut down cost or due to total closure.
Globally, the tourism and hospitality industry was said to be the biggest loser in the pandemic as the world travel and tourism sector in 2020, suffered a massive loss of nearly US$4.5 trillion due to virus-related travel restrictions, border shutdowns, and drop in consumer demand, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC)
The sector’s contribution to global GDP also plunged 49.1% year-on-year to US$4.7 trillion in 2020 (5.5% of the global economy), the WTTC indicated.
However, Dr Awal, speaking to the B&FT during a tour of some tourist attractions in the Greater Accra Region, said government has taken a keen interest in the challenges confronting the sector as stakeholders are currently being supported to receive grants to revive their enterprises.
“It is in this vein that the government from next week, will begin the disbursement of GH¢55 million grant to stakeholders in the sector to help revamp their businesses,” he said.
Indeed the tourism sector in the last couple of years have received several support and assistance from government and donor grants.
In 2018, the World Bank granted an amount of US$40 million to the sector to be used among other things, to upgrade tourist facilities in the country under the Ghana Tourism Development Project.
In the heat of the pandemic, government has, through the now, Ghana Enterprise Agency (formerly NBSSI) disbursed the GH¢100 billion COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprises Support (CARES) programme with some of the beneficiaries being tourism related businesses.
Tour of Accra
Touring some selected tourist attractions in Accra, Dr Awal assured that government would contribute significantly to upgrading and renovating key sites in the region to generate the anticipated revenue of GH¢5 billion annually.
The minister, together with the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyeman and officials of the ministry, visited the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, the National Museum, the Jamestown Light House and the Labadi Beach to acquaint with operational activities of these places.