Alive Ghana
The Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) held its second quarter 2024 CEOs’ Breakfast Meeting in Accra, themed “Regulatory Framework for Tourism Infrastructure and its Growth.” This event provided a platform for stakeholders and agencies to engage in meaningful discussions and explore opportunities for collaboration to drive the growth of Ghana’s tourism sector.
The CEO of GIPC, Mr. Yofi Grant, announced plans to expand the investor portfolio to boost tourism visits. He emphasized the need for a supportive regulatory framework to enhance tourism infrastructure development, noting that Ghana has become an attractive destination for tourists in recent years. Events like the Akwasidie festival can be packaged as major attractions to contribute to the sector’s growth.
“For us, if the opportunity is there, we now need to create tourism as an attractive investment opportunity and elevate it to sustainable potential. We had many operators here, and they are concerned about the multiplicity of taxes, so we worked with the Ghana Tourism Authority, GRA, and the Ministry of Finance to see how we could rationalize some of these things so it could be more attractive and easier to attain,” Grant said.
Mr. Kwesi Agyemang, CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority, highlighted the mission to develop Ghana’s tourism infrastructure. He pointed out the issue of hotels not being patronized due to a lack of online visibility, stressing the importance of digital presence for attracting visitors.
Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr. Stephen Amoah, suggested adopting homegrown policies to address current challenges. “In Africa, we have a lot of ideas, but sometimes the global models we follow are too much. We need to build homegrown policies and tools that specifically address our needs,” he said.
The meeting concluded with a panel discussion on creating a regulatory framework to encourage private investment in tourism infrastructure.
BY : Beyonce Diamond Kpogli
