The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park now generates GH¢1.1 million a month following its rehabilitation.
Prior to the rehabilitation, the park was generating GH¢3,000 on average a month.
Aside from the increase in revenue, the workforce at the park has since increased by 50 workers.
The Minister of Tourism and Creative Arts, Dr Ibrahim Awal, said this at the inaugural Ghana Mutual Prosperity Dialogues in Accra yesterday.
Beyond these achievements, the minister said the national museum, which previously generated GH¢25,000 a month, now raked in GH¢350,000 after its rehabilitation, while 15 more workers had been recruited to work at the facility.
He, therefore, asked the private sector to take advantage of the opportunities that existed in the area of tourism in view of the enormous benefits it had for the country.
Objective
He said the objective of the government was to move tourism from its third position, in terms of contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP), to number one by 2025/2026.
Dr Awal indicated that the country was expecting 1.2 million international arrivals this year, as against almost one million last year.
“The sector is very viable and very rich and I want members of the private sector to avail their minds to the tourism and creative sector,” he said.
Moreover, he said there was the need to build two to four five-star hotels every year over the next decade since all the hotels were full now.
“We need to build 120,000 rooms over the next 15 years by hotels,” he said and urged the private sector to take advantage of that.
He said between December 1 and 15 this year, the country would expect about 115,000 people from the United States alone.
Middle class
Apart from that, he said, there was the need for more restaurants as the number of people in the middle class was also growing.
The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said one of the most important takeaways at the event was one of collaboration and partnership which was evident in the open arms with which the government’s side led the conversation.
That, he said, was because one side could not do it all alone, and that there was the need for collaboration with other partners.
“This collaboration and partnership require us to listen some more and in particular to promote where we have a big stock of our businesses, that is in the small and medium enterprise arena,” he said.
Source: Graphic online
