Invest in Tourism Industry to impact GDP-JUMIA to govt

As the world marked World Tourism Day yesterday, hospitality and online hotel booking company, JUMIA has urged government to invest in the Tourism industry to help create jobs and increase foreign earnings.

Figures released by JUMIA indicated that the total contribution of Travel and Tourism to Ghana's GDP was around GHC 10.5 billion in 2015, representing 7.8% of the GDP.

Speaking to Citi Business News after a short ceremony in Accra to mark the World Tourism Day, the Managing Director of JUMIA Ghana , Madam Claire Staal maintained that the industry could grow  if challenges hindering its expansion are addressed.

“The challenges we face at JUMIA Travel is that there are no addresses showing tourists where they are going. We can put the most beautiful hotels on our platform, beautiful pictures but if there are no addresses tourists can not locate the destination,” she said.

She recalled a trip to the Kakum National Park in the Central region which proved difficult due to no proper signs to direct tourists.

As part of celebrating the World Tourism Day, Madam Staal announced that JUMIA has  activated  1000 hotels, guesthouses and apartments on their portal in Ghana.

“This landmark achievement gives travelers and tourists to and within Ghana a wide range of affordable but comfortable accommodation options,” she said.

She explained that this expansion has been engineered to better serve the local needs of Ghanaian travelers around the country, as well as serve incoming tourists and travelers who frequent the country.

“Reaching the 1000 mark reiterates our stand as Africa's leading online hotel booking website with the largest inventory of Hotels. With hotels in all 10 regions of the country at very affordable rates, the headache of not finding a suitable accommodation is eliminated,'' she stressed.

She stated that although hotel booking is the heart of business of JUMIA, the company has further established itself as a travel expert with the addition of travel packages including flights, weekend trips and holiday packages.

Speaking at the event, the Public Relations Manager of JUMIA Travel Ghana, Mr. Bennet Otoo said “after rebranding, we have grown to bigger heights with over 1000% increase in website visits and an increase in web application usage”.

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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana