The Minister for Tourism and Creative Arts, Mr. Awal Mohamed Ibrahim, has disclosed that each tourist who visits Ghana splashes an average of US$2,400 on spending. Mr. Ibrahim made this statement while projecting that his sector is currently the third contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Since the president started the “Year of Return”, “Beyond the Return” and “Destination Ghana” initiatives, the country has witnessed a large number of tourists including international celebrities, trooping in and out of it. To this end, the tourism minister, who appears impressed with this feat, established that Ghana is expecting one million more visitors this year, 2022, to enable the realization of more money from their US$2,400 average expenditure. “We are targeting one million visitors this year. Each visitor spends an average of US$2,400. Before the Covid, they were spending US$2,800. They spend between 12days to 2 weeks. We are hoping that by 2024, 2025, we gather over 1.5million visitors,” he told the media in a recording re-played on Peace FM’s Entertainment Review show. Ghana, an expensive tourism destination There have been significant concerns by industry stakeholders about the fact that Ghana as a tourist hub, has become increasingly expensive over the period. It can be recalled that at a conference organized for hoteliers, tour operators, and travel consultants in Ghana earlier in September 2022, such concerns were raised. These stakeholders tabled a myriad of issues, including high taxes, rising cost of fuel leading to high air and vehicle fares, huge utility bills, increasing prices of goods and services, and high exchange rates as factors crippling the sector. “Hotel rates are very high, travel costs are very high; we pay VAT, taxes like the COVID-19 tax, GETFund and royalties. We also pay levies like the NHIS, Tourism Development Levy and cost of operation,” Mr. Edwards Nyameke-Ackah, President, Ghana Hotels Association, earlier noted. Watch this episode of E-Forum below. EB/BOG