Despite the lifting of restrictions on international travels, the arrival of international tourists in Ghana has been low at the beginning of the year. Tourist arrivals through the country’s various ports of entry declined in the first quarter of 2021 when compared with figures recorded a year ago.
According to data from the Bank of Ghana, a total of 98,950 tourists entered the country between January and March this year as compared to a total of 211,599 visitors received in the first quarter of 2020. This means international tourist arrivals have declined significantly over the one-year period by 53.2 percent.
Similarly, international tourist arrivals were also higher in the last three months (Q4) of 2020 than what has been recorded in the first quarter of this year. According to Bank of Ghana, tourist arrivals during the first three months of 2021 went down by 5.9 percent when compared with 105,135 visitors received in Q4 2020.
It is however, not surprising the number of international tourists that visited the country in the last quarter of 2020 because, that period was characterized by several activities including the Christmas festivities.
Also, the weather conditions during that period was conducive for such activities as most of the tourist sites, which otherwise may have been dangerous to visit during the rainy season, become very accessible in the last quarter of the year. Moreover, the 2020 general elections may have played a role in international tourist arrivals.
Port Activity
On the contrary, economic activities at the country’s two main harbours, Tema and Takoradi, as measured by laden container traffic for imports and exports, recorded an improvement during the first quarter of 2021 as compared to what was observed in the corresponding quarter of 2020.
Data from the Central Bank of Ghana show that total container traffic for imports and exports went up by 16.3 percent to 193,840 from 166,685 recorded in the first quarter of 2020. Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana attributed the improvement in port activities, year-on-year, partly to an up-tick in international trade activities as global COVID-restrictions eased during the quarter.
However, port activity decreased marginally by 0.7 percent when compared to 195,135 laden containers recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020. This also means that international trade activities at the two main ports in the country slowed down at the beginning of the year.
Prospects of the tourism sector
Tourism holds huge prospects for the country in terms of job creation, increasing incomes and improvement of livelihoods of people living around major tourist sites in the country. This notwithstanding, the COVID-19 pandemic has had severe toll on the global tourism sector and the situation is not different in Ghana.
According to the WTO, International tourist arrivals declined by 83% in the first quarter of 2021 due to widespread travel restrictions. Also, the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, indicated that the sector lost about 75 percent of its resources and about GH¢8million last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the government continues to roll out stimulus packages to players in the sector to help them weather the storms of the pandemic. More importantly, government plans to make the tourism sector the largest contributor to Ghana’s economy as it forecasts the sector to contribute US$5 billion annually to the economy, beginning 2022. The overarching objective of government is to make Ghana the number one tourism destination in West Africa.
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