A GNA Feature by Hannah Asomaning

Accra, May 7, GNA - China in recent times has been described by many people all over the world with different adjectives depending on how they see that country.

Some call it the industrial arm of the world; others call it the world's business hub, among other names. The number of Chinese businessmen visiting many countries in the world keeps increasing and Africa, especially Ghana, is no exception. In Ghana currently there are several projects and programmes being undertaken by the Chinese.

The Chinese are building the Bui Dam and there is no doubt that most Ghanaian businessmen are travelling to China to strike business acquaintances with Chinese counterparts. Even many goods on the Ghanaian market these days are from China. The tourism sector in Ghana is poised to take advantage of the China revolution and to attract more Chinese tourists, Mrs Bridget Katsriku, Chief Director of the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, told the GNA.

Ghana, therefore, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China in 2007 that allows Chinese visitors into the country. Many countries in the world including the United States of America have signed the Approved Destination Status (ADS), which allows Chinese visitors into their country. Ghana's participation in the Chinese Outbound Travel and Tourism Market (COTTM) exhibition is one of the many strategies that the tourism industry has undertaken to attract more Chinese tourists into Ghana. The fair, which hosted more than 2,000 travel trade professionals, is used as a platform to source new products and destinations and build on existing relationships.

Outbound tourism is used to describe travellers who travel from their home countries to other countries.

Africa is said to be the fastest growing destination for Chinese tourists currently and Ghana must take advantage since most Chinese visitors are high spenders, Mrs Katsriku said. Mr Matt Thompson, Project Director of the China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market (COTTM), said the tourism industry was of fundamental importance to China's economic growth. Quoting the United Nations World Tourism Organization, he said travel and tourism were the world's largest industry and had continued to show significant growth.

International tourism arrivals expanded by six per cent in 2007, representing 898 million international tourist arrivals. Mr Thompson said China was now Asia's largest outbound market with about 40.9 million people travelling abroad and noted that they were still on course to achieve the World Tourism Organization's expectation of about 100 million Chinese travellers by 2020. The tourism sector in Ghana believes that Ghana must have her own share of Chinese visitors to Ghana. Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Former Sector Minister, puts it no differently. He said Ghana is unexploited in terms of tourism and therefore invited the Chinese to visit Ghana, the gateway to Africa. A Chinese Outbound Travel and Tour Operator noted that African countries had been accepted by a lot of Chinese tourists but urged African governments to endeavour to improve infrastructure especially roads that led to tourists attractions. He said Chinese tourists had special needs and there was the need for tour operators in Ghana to research and identify the needs of the Chinese tourists to enable them to provide satisfactory service and give them value for their money.

Against this backdrop there is no better time to discuss a marketing strategy for the tourism industry than now. The industry players in Ghana have agreed that more money was needed to market Ghana as a preferred tourism destination in the world Major challenges identified in the promotion of mother Ghana as a tourism destination of choice includes the need to train experts in various fields including language, attitude and the behaviour to accept and believe that in deed the tourism dollar has trickled down effects to the very last person in the country. Attracting Chinese has become Ghana's latest target in tourism and all stakeholders must get on board to make Ghana a destination of choice to Chinese tourists, Mr Asamoah-Boateng said.