In this series, CGO speaks with entrepreneurs and individuals across the African continent to get an on-the-ground perspective of current events and pressing issues of the day.
Photo: Elmina Bay Resort, Ghana (Photo courtesy Elmina Bay)
Talking Ghanaian tourism
In late 2022, CGO spoke with Mr. Ben Kweku Idun about the tourism industry in Accra and Ghana at large, including challenges, potential solutions, and how the government is managing the current economic situation.
Mr. Idun (left) is a multiple industry General Manager with over 40 years of executive management experience in the UK/ Europe. He moved back to Ghana in 2007 to establish Elmina Bay Resort, a 36-room beachfront hotel in Elmina, Ghana. He is the Managing Director of Elmina Bay Resort, Ltd. and the most recent past Chairman of the Central Region-Ghana Hotels Association.
The following conversation has been edited for breadth and clarity.
Ghana’s tourism landscape
Ben Dwork (CEO, CGO): In terms of the landscape of tourism in Ghana, what is Accra’s position, and how is it viewed?
Ben Kweku Idun: First of all, everyone coming in or leaving the country has to come into Accra. And for that reason, Accra serves as the gateway from which people will spread, depending on their journey objectives, and how much time they spend in the country, to other parts of Ghana.
It can sometimes be that entertainments and events are very Accra centered, and so some visitor groups tend to spend their entire time in Ghana in Accra. Some leisure visitors make their way out of the city into other areas, but some, like those coming from nearby Nigeria, are content to be in a city, have access to the big hotels, and all the dining options they want. They're not generally so interested in seeing the tourist sites or castles/dungeon or the other heritage sites.
Ben Dwork, CGO: That makes sense, because it's a shorter trip [from Nigeria]. I would imagine, it's more of a leisure trip to a nice city than it is for people coming overseas. You had mentioned in your 2020 reaction and response paper to Covid-19 that there's huge potential for considerable growth in the country. Are there any initiatives by the Ghana Tourism Authority, currently, or initiatives that you think should be prioritized, but maybe for one reason or another aren't?
Ben Kweku Idun: For me, the first thing would be to encourage the Tourism Ministry to act tomorrow and simplify our crazy visa regime. And let's make it possible for visitors, at a moment's notice, to decide that okay, next week, let's go to Ghana, as opposed to the nuisance that applies when get involved in applying for a visa with the cost, delays, invitation letters and so on. The visa regime is something that needs urgent attention to make it possible for the numbers of visitors to Ghana to substantially increase. Added to that, we must raise our facilities and service standards. Ghana Tourism could push that by putting a training school in each region.
Ben Dwork, CGO: Presumably, there's a revenue stream there that the government likes. But are there other reasons you believe that it has been kept in place?
Ben Kweku Idun: That’s right; there is a revenue stream. The Immigration Department for instance, must be a beneficiary of the monies that come through from the visa process.
What has happened in recent years is that as pressure on the government purse has risen, and revenue generation was through taxes has not, more government institutions have been pushed to raise part of their own operational revenues. And so, the visa fee is part of the internally generated revenue that sustains the immigration and the interior ministry. It must be hard for them to give that up.
Ghana’s economic challenges
2022 was a difficult year for Ghana’s economy. As the country was emerging from Covid-19, the war in Ukraine caused prices in goods to spike, leading to a depreciation of the country’s cedi currency, and eventually a vicious cycle of double digit inflation. In December 2022, the country reached an agreement with the IMF for a USD 3 billion dollar financing deal. While the outlook for 2023 is optimistic, the situation is still tenuous.
Ben Dwork, CGO: I would imagine that the current economic situation does not lend itself to those discussions [about waiving visa fees].
Ben Kweku Idun: Absolutely. Otherwise, Ghana Tourism Authority, the Minister of Tourism, would be rattling those cages hard and saying “no, you must review, revise, reduce it, and make it simpler, easier”. Nobody will want to raise those questions now.
Ben Dwork, CGO: And what do you think that the effect of the IMF intervention will be on the economy in the coming years?
Ben Kweku Idun: I sense a general dissatisfaction with the degree of action that has been taken. I think most Ghanaians believe that there’s more the government should be doing, as opposed to relying so much on the IMF. Most people feel that the government ought to be taking aggressive action to correct some of the structural issues that have led to this, reduce the cost of Government, make it leaner and more efficient, and that if we're not careful, we’ll be in the same situation two or three years’ from now, or whenever the agreement is made comes to an end.
For the tourism economy, we all we've seen this horrible cedi depreciation against the dollar. It's the dollar which most visitors are bringing into the country, and in far smaller volumes, the Euro and Sterling. So most people originating from dollar zones are at a significant advantage, but standing from our side, the picture doesn't look quite that good. You've got cedi depreciation in an environment where most inputs are brought important from outside Ghana. And that’s led to a huge increases in utilities, maintenance, everything that affects our guests.
Photo: Elmina Bay Resort, Ghana (Photo courtesy Elmina Bay)
Challenges with digitization
Ben Dwork, CGO: In terms of data collection in Ghana, what do you think would be? What do you think should be prioritized in terms of the types of data to be captured? Let's say in the next two to five years, what would you say is the most important?
Ben Kweku Idun: One factor that seems to be disabling data collection is the gap between the opportunity, and government departments working together. For instance, Immigration and Customs, don’t seem to collaborate with Ghana Tourism. You would have thought that Immigration, collecting and collating information for visitors coming into Accra airport in real time, could feed that to Ghana Tourism. And if the hospitality industry had a connection, we could see where we need to prepare and provide. There tends to be too much reliance on paper filled after the event. By the time that anything's been seen and reviewed, the tide has long gone.
Ben Dwork, CGO: And in terms of the process, how would you qualify the level of digitization? It is still mostly paper based from what I understand?
Ben Kweku Idun: I would guess that there will be somewhere around 6,500 hospitality businesses operating in Ghana as of now, and out of that number, I can guesstimate that a good third of them won't have any website and probably very little use of computer systems in their businesses. That means there can’t be seen by prospective visitors or have the means to communicate with them.
So, you've got a part of the industry who are just not connected. And that would be the first hurdle. In this day of smartphones able to do so much, that could be bridged. But something is needed to speed the pace, and the rate of data integration/collections to all stakeholders advantage.
Final note
Ben Dwork, CGO: My sense is that the government may have missed many opportunities previously, but is at least making steps to correct the [economic] situation because they realize that there's a lot to lose. It doesn't feel like the Zimbabwe situation where they will let it run so far away, but perhaps that's not what people in the country feel?
Ben Kweku Idun: I think that's a good perspective. And it's encouraging when people outside have a positive perspective, because at the end of the day, Ghanaians know that our economic situation is heavily influenced by sentiment from outside about our country.
These last few months and have been quite tough period in Ghana's history in terms of the huge rise in the cost of living. The most significant thing that I hope to see change is the makeup of government and the cost of government. Fewer offices and officer, more efficient, spending less, wasting les, and focusing more on agriculture and anything we can produce for ourselves. If we can get that right, we’ll achieve and exceed our potential. But there’s a long tough road ahead.
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