The Ministry of Tourism, Art, and Culture has signed a partnership deal with GUMA GROUP, an investment company in South Africa to construct lodges at three tourist sites in Ghana.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Development Company, Mr. Kwadwo Antwi, disclosed this during the TOSOGHA liberty card media launch at the Accra Tourist Centre.
According to him, GUMA Group is investing $5 million to improve three tourist sites, namely Shai Hills, Kakum National Park, and Mole National Park, in the country.
Mr Antwi noted that the improvement consists of upgrading the tented camp to a luxury facility with rooms, a restaurant, and a cultural village at the Shai Hills, and building an eco-lodge to provide tourists with overnight accommodation at two parks, Kakum National Park and the Mole National Park, as well as a restaurant to offer meals to tourists.
According to the Chairman of GUMA Group, Robert Gumede, Ghana is blessed with beautiful tourist sites that need proper investment to bring out their full benefits; thus, partnering with the government would bring significant investments into the country.
Photo credit: Graphic Online
He emphasized the need for other investors to develop more tourism facilities, particularly hotels, to accommodate the number of tourists that would be visiting the country every time.
He assured that within the stipulated 60 months allocated for the completion of the project, it will be done while work will commence on the selected sites within the shortest possible time.
“Within this West African region, Ghana is our home and we believe that we can only grow from Ghana to the rest of the world, we want Ghana to become very important to tourists and we are hoping that we will finally implement our dream project which is to build the biggest resort in the country,” he added.
The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Ibrahim Awal, disclosed that the government has plans and has put measures in place by implementing initiatives that would attract tourists from other countries to consider Ghana as the most preferred tourism destination in Africa and beyond.
“Our target by 2026 is to achieve two million arrivals and that can give us a minimum of $2 billion. Our plan is to create 150,000 jobs every year from the tourism, arts and culture sector,” the minister added.
The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, signed the agreement on behalf of the government while the Chairman GUMA Group, Robert Gumede, signed for his company on Wednesday, December 6, 2023.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Tourism Development Company (GTDC), Kwadwo Antwi, has declared that government is in the process with investors to build an environmentally friendly lodge for tourists towards the end of the year.
He made this declaration during the launch of the Tourism Society of Ghana(TOSOGHA) Liberty card at the Accra Tourist Information Center on Wednesday, November 22, 2023.
According to the CEO, accommodation at tourist sites is a major problem the country is facing hence, government and some investors have come up with the initiative to provide lodging areas for tourists.
He highlighted the Savannah areas, Mole National Park, Kakum National Park and the Shai Hills will be the first set of tourist sites to have such facilities before they work on other sites.
“We have some deficit when it comes to tourism accommodation in general especially when you go to our eco-tourism facilities in forest areas ( Savannah areas what we refer to as parks) we have selected 3 parks( Kakum National Park, Shai Hills and the Mole National Park).
We have an investor to develop Eco lodges (environmentally friendly lodges) putting additional rooms so that we can have more of such facilities available for travellers so that they can enjoy proper safari tours that is what the government is doing towards the end of the year”
Speaking at the event, he informed the public that, all Liberty Card holders will have access to these lodges at discounted prices as compared to non-liberty cardholders.
