By Juliet ETEFE ([email protected])
The Ghana Tourism Development Company (GTDC) has noted plans to boost the country’s tourism landscape through innovation and technology.
According to its Chief Executive, Professor Kobby Mensah, the company is moving beyond traditional infrastructure to embrace digital solutions that will transform service delivery, enhance competitiveness and ensure local businesses benefit more from the tourism value chain.
“We have constrained infrastructure to only physical structures for too long — but infrastructure is also about systems and support. Technology is the way forward,” he said at a press briefing held to launch the Ghana Hotels Association’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.
“I see innovation and technology as one of the things that we can use to support. If you talk about data collection, customer service, quality measures — how do we come in at GTDC to help you collect customer satisfaction data, for example, so that you could see where you are performing and how you can upgrade? ” he quizzed.
Professor Mensah said his outfit is focused on rolling out a strategic digital platform — the Ghana Tourism Marketplace — designed to connect local industry players directly with global audiences and reduce dependency on foreign Online Travel Agencies (OTAs).
According to him, international OTAs have long dominated Ghana’s tourism earnings, often holding back payments to local businesses for weeks.
“We have sat here and allowed OTAs abroad to take our money for far too long. It is not going to happen again, not when I am at GTDC,” he said.
He assured stakeholders that the Ghana Tourism Marketplace platform will be built and supported at no cost to operators.
“You are not going to pay a dime, no registration fee, no whatever fee. We are going to support it with amazing innovation and technology to make sure that when they type in ‘tourism in Africa, Ghana comes up immediately,” he said, emphasising the GTDC’s commitment to making the platform a globally competitive tool.
He also commended the contributions of young tech talents in Ghana and reaffirmed his belief in their potential to drive the digital transformation of the tourism sector.
He, therefore, called on industry stakeholders to embrace the new vision, stating: “We are building a very robust, strategically oriented tourism market and I can assure you of our full support. The GTDC team is made up of quite dynamic young people, and we will put all our support behind this industry to make it work,” he said.
