A new report by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) disclosed on Thursday that Ghana recorded 470,806 outbound tourists in 2023.
Alhassan Iddrisu, Government Statistician at the GSS, said the number included both Ghanaians resident at home and other nationals who are resident in Ghana, traveling out of the country for tourism purposes.
“These include those who traveled for holiday, leisure, and recreation; medical tourism; business and professional trips; visiting friends and relatives; religion and pilgrimage; and sporting activities, among others,” Iddrisu said.
In all, he said 77,501 made day trips out of the country, while 393,305 were overnight outbound travelers.
The total expenditure of these outbound tourists was 4.0 billion Ghana cedis (367 million U.S. dollars), with the same-day outbound tourists spending 59.8 million cedis, while their overnight counterparts spent 3.4 billion cedis.
“On average, 33.8 percent of outbound same-day trips were made for business professional purposes, followed by funeral trips, which accounted for 23 percent. Visiting friends and relatives was the main purpose of outbound overnight trips, accounting for 40 percent of all the outbound overnight trips,” Iddrisu stated.
The official said Ghana should take steps to retain part of the spending on outbound tourism by investing in transportation infrastructure, including airports, and hospitality, while the private sector also invests in hotels and airlines with attractive packages.
Tourism contributed at least 4.8 billion dollars to the Ghanaian economy in 2024, after recording 3.8 billion dollars a year earlier, according to the 2024 tourism report by the Ghana Tourism Authority.