Key Employment and Sustainability Metrics Absent from 2024 Tourism Report

Ghana’s 2024 National Tourism Performance Report has come under sharp scrutiny from a prominent tourism expert who argues that the report fails to deliver a comprehensive overview of the sector’s true progress. Emmanuel Frimpong, Founding President of the Africa Tourism Research Network, described the report as overly broad and lacking in critical details necessary for effective planning, investment decisions, and sustainable development within Ghana’s tourism industry.

Launched by the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) under the theme “Growth and Stability,” the report was intended to serve as a vital resource for assessing the country’s tourism performance, identifying emerging trends, and pinpointing areas requiring strategic intervention. While the report provides encouraging national visitor arrival numbers and highlights key tourist attractions, Frimpong believes it falls short of offering the nuanced, actionable data policymakers and investors need to drive growth.

One of the most glaring deficiencies, according to Frimpong, is the absence of a detailed regional analysis of tourism activity. “The report offers national aggregate figures but neglects to break down data regionally, especially overlooking the Northern, Savannah, Upper East, and Upper West regions,” he explained. “Achieving inclusive and equitable tourism development depends on understanding what is happening beyond Accra and Cape Coast, so regional data is essential for directing targeted investments and ensuring all areas benefit.”

Frimpong also expressed concern over the report’s failure to include employment statistics, despite tourism’s acknowledged potential as a significant job creator. Critical information such as the number of jobs generated, the participation rate of youth and women, and the scope of informal sector employment—including local tour guides, artisans, and vendors—is missing. “Without employment data, we miss the full social and economic impact of tourism, and development organizations like the International Labour Organization (ILO) rely heavily on such information to shape their support,” Frimpong noted.

In addition, the report lacks insights into visitor satisfaction, omitting survey data that would reflect tourists’ feedback on service quality, safety, infrastructure, and pricing. “Counting visitors alone is not enough,” Frimpong stressed. “We must understand their experience to improve Ghana’s reputation as a desirable and safe destination.”

Although the report emphasizes ecotourism, it fails to address the environmental footprint of tourism activities or the degree to which tourism facilities comply with sustainability standards. There is also no mention of how resilient tourism sites are to climate change impacts. “Sustainability should not just be a buzzword,” Frimpong said. “It requires measurable indicators to ensure that growth today does not compromise the environment or communities tomorrow.”

Air travel affordability and connectivity issues were another notable omission. The report does not discuss the cost of flights, border crossing challenges, or Ghana’s competitiveness as a travel destination within West Africa—factors that significantly influence tourist arrivals. “Travel cost remains one of the biggest hurdles for both tourists and the tourism industry,” Frimpong said.

The report also provides no data on private and public sector investments, such as new hotel developments or infrastructure projects, nor does it address investor challenges like land access and regulatory barriers. “Transparent investment information is vital for building investor confidence and facilitating policy reforms,” he added.

Frimpong further criticized the report for barely addressing how global economic challenges—such as inflation, currency instability, and recession concerns—impact travel patterns, pricing, and domestic tourism dynamics. While it mentions efforts to regulate platforms like Airbnb, there is no data on enforcement outcomes, such as compliance rates or penalties, rendering such regulation ineffective without accountability.

To make future tourism reports more meaningful, Frimpong urged the inclusion of detailed regional visitor data, employment statistics including informal sector jobs, visitor satisfaction surveys, environmental impact assessments, analyses of air travel costs and connectivity, investment trends, and evaluations of global economic effects.

He also recommended expanding the scope to cover niche tourism sectors like Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE), medical tourism, sports tourism, and outbound tourism trends, which are currently overlooked.

“Ghana’s tourism industry has immense potential to drive economic growth and job creation, but this potential can only be unlocked through accurate, detailed, and data-driven reporting,” Frimpong concluded.