Ghana’s Minister of Tourism, Creative Arts and Culture, Mrs. Barbara Oteng Gyasi, says that the tourism sector of Ghana has lost about US$171 million revenue from March to June this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The minister told journalists in Accra that the revenue loss was largely due to the closure of the country’s borders to human traffic in order to prevent the importation of the virus into the country.
Local media reports on Friday quoted the minister as saying that the total revenue from tourist arrivals in 2019 was US$3.312 billion.
According to the reports, the minister disclosed that operators in the tourism and hospitality industry, can apply for support from the GHS600 million COVID-19 Alleviation Programme of the government as well as the US$4 million dollars allocation towards the development of tourism sites and information this year, alongside US$5 million for tourism enterprise support.
GIK/APA