The world’s travel and tourism has changed significantly from 2013 to 2015 despite geographic location specific disturbances; notably from Middle East, Ukraine to South East Asia and fear of spread of global pandemics.

Sadly significant decrease in number of international arrivals for those countries, there was a significant increase for unaffected countries.

For a while, some other areas also saw an increase in the national visitors. The most interesting part is that travel to both rich and poor countries actually continued to grow over the past years.

Over the period, International arrivals reached a record 1.4 billion in 2014 with 51 million more than 2013 according to United Nations World Travel and Tours Council (WTTC) WTTC estimates that the sector now accounts for 9.5% of global GDP and a total value of $7 trillion, whiles it also account for 5.4% of world's export. The industry now play a vital role as a driver of growth and job creation growing at 4% in 2014 and providing 266 million jobs directly and indirectly. This means that the industry account for one in every 11 jobs on the planet and the number could rise to 1 in every 10 jobs by 2022 according to travel and tourism organisation on its travel and tourism competitiveness report 2014 involving 141 economies. The report was from leading and well established travel and tours companies, including ourselves.

The current trend is first, travel and tourism industry continue to grow more quickly than the global economy as a whole. The country's performing more strongly on travel and tours are those that are better prepared to capture the opportunities of growing demand from emerging and developing countries, the differing preferences of travellers from ageing population and new generation of younger travellers coupled with the growing importance of online services and marketing especially mobile and social marketing tools.

Secondly, developing the travel and tourism sector provide gross opportunities and social benefit for all countries regardless of their wealth. Developing and emerging economies are ranked among the 50 most travel and tour competitive countries. There are strong indication it will translate into job opportunities and skill levels

In Africa, South Africa, first on the Africa’s regional table came 48th on the global index and Egypt, Kenya and other countries did well too but Ghana came 120th out of 141 economies including Nigeria who went steep downwards.

Ghana also went back to 18th on a regional level. Ghana’s drawbacks was mainly health & hygiene, ICT readiness and quality of human resource. These three things actually undermined Ghana's growth in the travel and tourism sector. On the other hand, Ghana improved slightly on business environment and security

Thirdly, Sub Saharan Africa travel and tour industry has significant potential to grow due to its richness in natural resources and culture. There is great potential for Africa to further develop. Some economies have framework in place however, it is mostly still in the early stages of development. It is strongly connected with more general and long-standing development challenges including infrastructure as well as health and hygiene

Most economies identified the strategy to penetrate the sector however, the extent to which the actual implementation of those plans is a national priority very significantly since 1995 to 2011 and afterwards the initial “chosen moral piles” saw high income earners country visits dropping slightly and rest of the world increasing significantly.

In a nutshell, economies who took the challenge competently continue to grow quickly and has proven resilient to shocks, seeking trends and using the most effective tools to attract more international arrivals. Those who prioritised their plans were better equipped to capture the opportunities by recognising that the travel and tourism sector provide growth opportunities for all countries regardless of their wealth and offer job opportunities and increased skills levels

In Ghana as we noted that our efforts were undermined by hygiene, ICT and skills levels, we at Soultravels.net has actually developed strategy to help improve the conditions for Ghana and they include:

1. Hygiene: Monthly Newsletter on Hospitality Hygiene via Email and occasional press release. Subscribe to our newsletter to make sure you are up to date. In-depth taught will be featured in our Diploma Course

2. Free Software: We are giving world most advanced hotel manager software for free. The software has over 50 capabilities most capable are one click inventory update to all channels, API for building hotel Apps, booking form and smart links for today and the future. The functionalities will help hotels to distribute rooms to global market via our robust inventory system in a matter of seconds and connect to all channels including OTA’s Traditional Travel Agents and hotel search engines. The other thing is, the software has awesome price changing technology. Hotels can changed their rate as often as possible and in matter of seconds to all channels across the globe, either than manually sending emails or calls.

3. Free Website: We are offering free websites for all businesses in hospitality sector. We believe this will help the industry grow quickly in Ghana. The only thing you need is a photographer to take a “High resolution photos” or find our nominated photographer to do it for you. We cover all other cost. To get this, visit our website: www.soultravels.net and click on partnership Program then fill free website form as fully and correct as possible, we will not proofread anything you send to us.

4. Free Hospitality Diploma: We offer free hospitality diploma. Unlike any academic course, this is a professional course and is only available to professionals in the hospitality sector only. No minimum qualification required but basic understanding of the use of computer, reading and writing English language is essential. There are lots of good graduates and diploma holders who have qualifications but due to the fact that the country is young in the hospitality sector, the practical skills and current tools to effectively manage hospitality facilities is lacking. The course focuses on ICT skills, Marketing skills and tools (Search, Social, mobile and event marketing), Travel and tourism development, techniques to spot current trends, health and safety, hygiene, security, information security management and first Aid.

Soultravels as a country partner aim to make sure there are enough resources available to carry on to the future. The first batch already started their Diploma and registration of next batch is open till 30th September. To enrol, visit our website and click on partnership programs then choose register for a course or find out more by clicking on free course information.

As a part of our corporate social responsibility strategy, we aim to become the driver of skills and tools to propel Africa to take on the global stage.

Should you want to find out more, email us via service@soultravels.net