Head of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Cape Coast, Professor Issahaku Adam says Ghana is at the mercy of external shocks of crises should they occur.
This he said is largely due to the country’s lack of a management plan to sustain the tourism sector which is likely to be the mostaffected in such crises.
“If you ask us what our crisis management plan as a destination is, we’ve never even thought about it. A lot of tourism businesses in the country don’t also have; they are just thinking about the next day operations and that is it. They are not thinking about what will happen if scenario A presents itself or scenario B presents itself,” he continued.
For about two years, the global tourism industry was challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While it has so far shown its resilience, the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) believes there is still the need for stakeholders to reflect more deeply on the future of the industry and to take up emerging challenges in a harmonized way.
To Prof. Adam, Ghana has more to do in terms of the resilience of its tourism sector in other to withstand unexpected external shocks.
He believes that the tourism sector may shut down again if nothing is done.
“If anything, COVID has taught us a lot of lessons with regards to that. We don’t have plans to that. And I’m afraid to say that if something happens, and there’s a next disease outbreak in the country tomorrow, the entire tourism sector will shut down again because we don’t have any plan to sustain it. It’s more like our approach towards everything else in this country. God will take care of everything. Let’s just take care of ourselves today,” he said.
Prof Issahaku Adam spoke exclusively to ATLFMNEWS in commemoration of the maiden edition of the Global Tourism Resilience Day on February 17.
Ghana’s tourism sector which continues to attract foreign investment remains a significant contributor to the country’s GDP and to Prof. Adam, the way to go in ensuring the resilience of the sector is by putting together a crisis management plan as a country.
He suggested saying “at the individual business levels, product diversification or service diversification, so that you don’t so much, for instance, rely on one market segment. Because if there is a problem with that market segment in terms of crisis, then you are stuck, your business collapses. But if you are looking at different product or service offering, then if there’s a problem with one, then you can switch to the other or the other can continue to sustain you for a while.”
Then you can also think about even in terms of financial and economic resilience for the businesses, what is their plan in terms of what are they thinking about in terms of maybe drop in revenue as a result of crisis? What is the strategy? So is it about maybe having some contingency fund to be able to rely on it to help me revive my business in the short term and in the long term? Or is it maybe even in terms of insurance that I will take as a business? Because these are the burning questions and if you look at what COVID has done, because these things were not thought of, so businesses shut down, no revenue coming in and it’s difficult for some to even restart at the moment because they simply lack the finances.”
Global Tourism Resilience Day
On February 6, 2023, at the 77th UN General Assembly held in New York, the birth of Global Tourism Resilience Day was announced and a resolution was passed for it to be celebrated every year on the 17th Day of February.
As such, this year’s February 17 is the world’s first Global Tourism Resilience Day and Jamaica is currently hosting the first-ever Global Tourism Resilience Conference at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Regional Headquarters in St. Andrew.
Approximately 200 persons were invited to physically attend this inaugural conference which started on February 15 but ends today February 17.
The event is aimed at enhancing competitiveness and sustainability; cross-sectorial collaborations; international funding and technical assistance; the establishment of resilience barometers; enhanced research; the adaptation of science, technology and innovation, among other areas.
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Source: Rosemond Asmah/ATLFMNEWS
