Tourism Minister urges airlines to cut domestic fares to boost local tourism

Ghana's Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts Minister Abla Dzifa Gomashie has called for the sector to receive a larger portion of the national budget due to its potential economic impact. Currently, the ministry faces difficulties in securing sufficient government resources as there is a lack of reliable and verifiable data to demonstrate the sector's full economic contribution, according to a confidential interview with Pulse Ghana.

Gomashie argues that the sector has the potential to rival or exceed the contributions of traditional sectors such as gold and cocoa, which are well-documented in economic figures. She acknowledges that sectors like tourism and the creative arts are not easily quantifiable in the same way as infrastructure or education, making it challenging to justify funding requests to the Ministry of Finance.

To address this issue, Gomashie stated that the ministry is working on aligning with UNESCO's 2030 Culture Indicators, a framework designed to measure the contribution of culture to development and a country's resources. The ministry is nearing completion of its submission to UNESCO for validation, and hopes to receive feedback in the coming weeks or months.

Additionally, Gomashie highlighted that Ghana is collaborating with the Ghana Statistical Service to improve data collection on the sector's activities.