Ghana's Presidential Summit on Tourism 2023: Picturing a Prosperous Economic Future through Tourism
Author: Dr. Ashley Milton, Founder & CEO at She Grows It
Accra, Ghana - The Presidential Summit on Tourism was a two-day conference held May 30 - 31, 2023, at the Presidential Lodge in Peduase. The Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture and the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) hosted the Summit, bringing tourism stakeholders together to explore successes, failures, lessons learned, and innovations in tourism practices promoting national development and a greening workforce. Tourism is a key economic driver in Ghana, generating foreign exchange earnings, creating jobs, and stimulating other sectors of the economy. With the success of this inaugural Summit, Ghana has positioned itself strategically to shape the future of tourism within the country, for the region, and across the African continent. This curated convening of stakeholders in tourism continues to show how the Akufo-Addo Administration promotes collaboration in gathering data, analyzing, and acting on feedback to propel Ghana’s growth forward.
Dr. Ashley Milton, Founder and Managing Director at She Grows It takes a pictures with the girls from Kids in Tourism Ghana on Day 1 of the Presidential Summit on Tourism on May 30
It’s Ghana’s time! Ghana tourism has taken the lead in courting African Americans to visit, vacation, live, work, and invest in Africa. The famous Year of Return (YOR) tourism campaign quickly morphed into a brand, positioning Ghana as the leading tourist destination in West Africa, marketing visits and vacations to Africans throughout the Diaspora. The year-round tropical warm weather, fantastic food, Afrobeats, mountains, beaches, meteorite craters, caves, resorts, history, culture, art, scuba diving, and motocross all speak to the diverse travel experiences available here. And Ghana’s tourism market shows no signs of slowing down!
The COVID-19 pandemic only further fueled the desire for many to expand their travel itineraries to include visits to Ghana. In response, the country’s Year of Return expanded into Beyond the Return, a robust ten-year program focused on policy, repatriation, and investment – all fueled by tourism. Now, Ghana is viewed as the leading regional competitor to Senegal and The Gambia as the premier travel destination for the African American Diaspora. These features influence Ghana’s position in the regional market. I strongly encourage Ghana’s tourism stakeholders to leverage the country’s tourism sector performance to lead conversations on economic growth, job creation, and better price positioning for inbound travel to the country.
Dr. Ashley Milton, Found & MD at She Grows It & Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, Minister of Tourism, Arts, and Culture.
Ms. Ivy Prosper, Social Media Manager for Ghana Tourism Authority's 'Year of Return' & 'Beyond the Return' campaigns and Dr. Ashley Milton, Founder & MD at She Grows It.
Diverse stakeholder engagement is essential for strengthening the design of a resilient tourism strategy and fostering broad support for ambitious tourism policies to support the country’s growth strategies. The Presidential Summit on Tourism hosting institutions understood this assignment, curating a diverse audience that included public, private, and civil society stakeholders. Investment in building these stakeholder relationships will result in sustainable partnerships that grow Ghana’s momentum in the region and in the global tourism market.
In the policy arena, who is in the room is important, but who is not is an even greater tell. The President of Ghana, HE Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is clearly passionate about the tourism industry, as evidenced by his presence, participation, and engagement with stakeholders at the Summit. This is extremely important to note, as it sets a standard for leadership and highlights how this Administration continues to prioritize policies that sustain growth in the tourism sector. The inaugural Summit also convened diverse stakeholders to help the country's leadership better understand required inputs while ensuring stakeholders in the tourism sector are correctly heard and accurately messaged to counter outdated and incorrect information.
The theme of the two-day Summit was Rethinking Tourism for Economic Growth and Job Creation. The curated panel sessions covered topics from business culture, technology, governance, the arts, and fostered robust discussions on how tourism can be transformative for Ghana’s society. Most importantly, the connections between the green economic principles needed in tourism and how Ghana can lead by establishing targets to develop a green workforce in the sector were strongly outlined. And, as tourism in Ghana continues to rise, growing jobs and the economy, it can also contribute to helping Ghana meet the 17 SDGs. Tourism-adjacent and tourism-supporting industries are also needed to grow and expand the economy. Customer service skills, intentional data collection, and better road networks are necessary to produce Ghana's economic returns. These were leading recommendations made by panelists and participants from the private sector providing goods and services in the tourism space. To this point, there is no shortage of examples for Ghana to learn from - the diversification model used in the UAE and the model of tourism in Caribbean markets were also discussed to increase continuity and continue building bridges.
Mr. Charles Cobbina, Dr. Ashley Milton, Honorable Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mesah, and Mr. Ben Nisa.
The legacy of December in Ghana is here to stay. Ghana’s Year of Return sparked an increased interest in travel to the country from the African American and Afro-Caribbean Diaspora communities. The YOR mandate challenged the private sector to rise to the occasion, supporting the government’s campaign of growing tourism and reconnecting the Diaspora to the Ghanaian economy. It also laid the foundation for increased domestic travel led by groups such as Encounter Ghana and Sorted Chale. Creatives took the lead, marketing Ghanaian food, music, culture, and lifestyle to the world. During the Summit, it was mentioned that the work in the tourism space can sometimes be siloed, with everyone working in their own corner, yet all are responsible for selling Ghana to the world. In response, there was a collective resonation and commitment to do more collaborative work and create unique itineraries that introduce travelers to all aspects of Ghana’s geographical regions and ethnicities.
“Ghana is known for its Pan-African credentials.”
Tourism campaigns promoting Diaspora returns must also consider the psychological, physical, and financial state of being a Diaspora tourist. This reality also allows other sectors to rise to the occasion, providing the wrap-around support services needed for travelers. To this point, I am highlighting the first weakness of the Summit – no presenter mentioned specific targets or projections for the tourism sector or a plan of action for improving tourism-related jobs. These specifics can help industry stakeholders refine targets, practices, and the marketing of services, while also helping government agencies quantify tourism's financial and cultural impacts. In Jamaica, the government gave free online training certification classes to 10,000 tourism workers to help improve their skills. Further, exploring how a green workforce connects directly with tourism would have greatly benefited all stakeholders in the room. This was a missed opportunity to connect tourism to a greening economy and to connect the need for financial support for climate change solutions for Africa, led by Africans. A second weakness in the Summit was that besides customer service recommendations for the private sector, there was minimal discussion on the financial support required to invest in developing formal structures for the private sector that ensure Ghana remains on a positive growth trajectory.
Ghana is known for its Pan-African credentials. There are 350 million Africans in the Diaspora, and Ghana tourism is changing the narrative on Africa as a top destination for Black people. These tourism campaigns help promote diversity, equity, and inclusion because the marketing promotes the entire cultural fabric and tapestry of the land, the people, the animals, the history, the languages, and so much more. What is now known as Detty December, the culture of Ghana and West Africa has left a significant imprint on the world, on the culture, and on shaping the future of how we come together and build something resilient and regenerative for us, by us.
Overall, the Presidential Summit on Tourism was a success. These are the types of conferences Ghana needs to help spread the good news about why Ghana is the place of choice for tourists right now. With the most promising and hopeful energy, conference participants seem to be collectively committed to do more collaborative work and create unique itineraries that introduce travelers to all aspects of Ghanaian lifestyles. And for those of us who have the pleasure of learning from living in Ghana, we understand that now is the time. With domestic travel in Ghana on the rise, growing from 600,000 in 2021 to 1 million in 2022, Ghana is setting itself up to be the premier choice of travel for all Africans throughout the Diaspora.
She Grows It™, or SGI, is a full-service consulting and investment migration advisory firm based in Washington, D.C., with offices in Accra, Ghana, and Dakar, Senegal.