Visa Charges To Be Reduced

Ghana is considering making its visas more affordable to international tourists to make the country more competitive among other tourist destinations in Africa. The move is part of measures aimed at making the country a low cost destination to attract about one million tourists and increase the forex earnings of the country from the current $500 million to $1.5 billion by 2007.

Charges for Ghanaian visas are said to range between $50 to $90 for those in the Caribbean and America. The Minister of Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, told the Business and Financial Times newspaper that the country is at the moment, facing serious challenges from Senegal and Kenya which are seen as low cost tourist destinations in Africa.

New measures will also be instituted to reduce the high cost tourists pay for hotels and other service charges in the country. Government, through its missions abroad is currently investigating how much it costs to acquire visas of competing destinations in Africa so that Ghana can also change its procedures of visa acquisition.