Ghana needs hotel development policy

Accra, June 20, GNA - Ghana needs a hotel development policy that would encourage more developers to build hotels outside the Greater Accra Region, an official from the Ministry of Tourism and Modernization of the Capital City, has observed.

Mr Owusu Amoakohene, Research Advisor to the Sector Ministry, said tourist attractions, which brought tourists to the country, were mostly located outside the Greater Accra Region and incentives should be given to developers who built near tourist sites.

Mr Amoakohene's comments were contained in the seventh edition of the "Tourism Data Series" which looked at the regional distribution of hotels in Ghana.

He said there was also the need to establish of a Tourism Development Fund to facilitate the effort of developers, who built in deprived areas.

Mr Amoakohene said most destinations where tourism had grown substantially had been preceded by accommodation development and called on the Government to strategise on spreading development across the country, more so as the Government had linked tourism to its poverty reduction strategy.

The linkage of tourism to poverty reduction, he said, presupposed that Ghana would attract higher spending tourists and the fact that these tourists would stay and spend money at tourist sites to enable the community to benefit from the economics of tourism.

According to the data, in 2004 there were 1,315 hotels in Ghana with 42 per cent located in the Greater Accra Region.

With the exception of the Ashanti Region where there was a five per cent decline, most of the regions maintained a relatively similar share of hotel distribution in Ghana between 1993 and 2004. 20 June 05