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Pump more money into marketing Ghana’s tourism potential –
Consultant
Accra, April 29, Ghanadot/GNA – Dr. Mike
Fabricius, an international tourism consultant working in
Ghana on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism and Diaspora
Relations, on Tuesday urged government to pump more money
into the marketing of Ghana’s tourism potentials.
He said countries that spent more on marketing their tourism
potentials always attracted more tourists and had vibrant
economies.
Dr Fabricius, who also works for the Dutch NGO, the SNV and
the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO),
showed a chart by the UNWTO which listed the United Kingdom,
France, Belgium and China, among other countries that spent
more on marketing their tourism potentials compared to most
African countries. Ghana was not on the list.
He was speaking at a day’s seminar organized by the sector
ministry to discuss marketing strategies that the tourism
industry could use to attract
more tourists and make Ghana known world-wide.
The seminar on the topic: “Towards a Tourism Marketing
Strategy for Ghana,” brought together private tour
operators, hoteliers, officials of the Ghana Tourists Board
and tourism consultants who shared ideas about the way
forward for the tourism industry.
Dr. Fabricius said: “Tourism brings a lot of economic
benefits and has huge opportunities for everyone in the
country.”
He noted, however, that the industry could also have
negative effects on the economy if everything was imported
for the benefit of the tourists.
Africa, he said, attracted only three per cent of global
tourism out of which West Africa attracted only 10 per cent
of tourists arrivals.
Narrowing on Ghana, he said the country had the third
largest tourism share in West Africa but her performance had
not been the best between 2000 and 2005. He also noted that
Ghana attracted more business travellers than leisure
travellers.
He thus called on tour operators to come up with strategies
that would enable business travellers to spend more time in
the country to experience Ghana’s tourism attractions.
Dr. Fabricius cautioned that mass tourism where thousands of
tourists from a particular destination trooped into a
country just to leisure at the beach resorts was not the
most suitable for Ghana since the country’s tourism
resources were not suitable for it.
Ghana could position herself to attract selected tourists
who would spend more money, he said, rather than encouraging
mass tourism.
Mentioning some challenges he had identified in the tourism
industry in Ghana, he said the essence of making a
difference in terms of tourism as a country did not depend
on the kind of products or services that were available as a
country but the kind of people and how they received
tourists.
He asked: “What are people’s perceptions about Ghana? What
perceptions have people in the industry created in the minds
of their customers? It does not depend on the architecture,
lifestyle, food, hospitality, it is the people.
“Being different means being true to yourself but refining
your offer as a tourism destination,” he added.
Dr. Fabricius advised the industry players to improve the
value for money for tourists who visited the country.
Ghana, he stressed, needed to improve access to the country
in terms of air ticket, accommodation and encourage more
investments because a tourist who had a choice between Ghana
and Kenya could chose the latter because of the low air
fare.
Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, outgoing sector Minister,
called for a more creative approach to tourism where
man-made activities could be used as tourism attractions and
said a lot more needed to be exploited in a more sustainable
way.
“There is a huge potential of creative tourism attractions
which have not been exploited at all.”
Mr Asamoah-Boateng expressed hope that participants would
come up with innovative ideas and measures that could help
move Ghana’s tourism marketing strategy forward.
Mr Joe Nyarko, a private tour operator, urged other
participants to be practical in their discussions.
He also called for an education programme to educate people
in the industry about their attitudes and behaviour which
sometimes drove tourists away.
GNA
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