The Cape Coast and Elmina castles saw a reduction in the number of foreign and local tourists who visited the facilities in 2017.

The two castles received 10, 8954 tourists last year as against 111,297 recorded 2016, indicating a decrease of 2,343.

The Cape Coast Castle recorded a total of 61,665 tourists last year as against 70,326 in 2016, a decrease in patronage of 8,661.

Tourist who visited the Elmina Castle, however saw an increase from the 40,971 figure recorded in 2016 to 47,289 in 2017.

The number of domestic tourists who visited the two castles also reduced from 87,655 in 2016 to 80769 in 2017.

The number of foreign tourists increased significantly from 23,639 in 2016 to 29,210 in 2017.

Mrs Martha Krah, the Assistant Administrative Secretary at the Cape Coast Castle, who made this known to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the number of foreign students increased from 9,525 in 2016 to 10,368 in 2017.

According to her, 1,787 of last year’s figure was made up of foreign children while 16,834 were adults. She said 33,422 Ghanaian children also visited the two castles.

A total of 458 VIPs also visited the castles last year as against 386 the previous year.

Mrs Krah said despite a slight increase in domestic tourism over the years, school children were the major patrons with very little interest from adults.

She appealed to Ghanaians to show interest in domestic tourism by visiting the tourist sites to have first-hand information on the slave trade.

Ghanaian adults were charged GHC5.00, foreign adults paid Gh¢40.00 and non-Ghanaian students with ID cards paid Gh¢30.00 when they visit the castles.

Again, non-Ghanaian children paid GH¢5.00 and Ghanaian students in the primary and junior high school were charged GH¢1.00 each while senior high school students paid GH¢2.00 and tertiary students with ID cards paid GH¢3.00.

Mrs Krah, however, was not able to disclose the total revenue accrued from the visits, but was optimistic that if the number of visitors continued to increase, it would benefit the Ghana Monuments and Museums Board and the nation at large.