The Honorable Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, Minister of Tourism Culture and Creative Arts for Ghana, states tourism plays a significant role in the Ghanaian economy although the industry is not measured as a sector in its own right.
The minister made this statement in Tuesday at a stakeholder’s forum on establishing systems of tourism statistics and cross sector collection of data for tourism developments of a tourism satellite account for Ghana.
The forum should share ideas, knowledge and experience with the goal of providing the country with a veritable solid policy direction for developing a strategy and achievable implementation plan and program to promote tourism, culture and creative arts.
The Hon. Ofosu Adjare said tourism, globally, is not a clearly defined industry in the System of National Accounts (SNA) but it is an amalgamation of industries such as transportation, accommodation, food and beverage services, recreation and entertainment, and travel agencies.
Mr Charles Osei Bonsu, Acting Executive Director of Ghana Tourist Authority said tourism is not measured in its own heights in the national account.
He said the forum is aimed at setting the framework for guiding tourism statistics in such a way that it would be consistent and reliable to the national economy.
Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, Director, Economic Research and Forecast, Ministry of Finance said there is the need for creating opportunities for gathering reliable data on tourism.
He said it therefore important to systematically capture accounts on tourism for the purpose of national accounting.
