The Chief Operations Officer of Maestro Africa Group, Francis Doku, has said the Ghana Tourism Authority’s data collection model fails to accurately capture tourism’s contribution to Ghana’s economy.

He has therefore urged the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) to upgrade its model for data collection.

Francis told Joy FM’s arts and culture journalist Kwame Dadzie on 8 August 2026, during the ninth Showbiz Roundtable, that because the Authority has not properly set up its Tourism Satellite Account, it is unable to capture the real value of tourism receipts.

“What we need to work on going forward is to improve how we collect the data. There is something called Tourism Satellite Account, which is what separates your tourism revenue from any other thing that will come into the market, like your own people outside who remit money into country, other things that you get from revenues and all that.

If you set up your account properly, you are able to properly know. I think that because we have not properly set up our account, we are picking figures that do not properly represent the true picture,” he said.

He cited Ghana Tourism Authority's 2025 annual report which says about 1.3 million people arrived in Ghana in the year and each of them spent an average of GH¢3,320. That, he argued, produces an unrealistic figure.

“It’s very defective,” he noted.

Francis Doku also indicated that how the tourism revenue is calculated is a bit difficult because "if we got 3.84 billion dollars coming into the economy in 2025, a lot of the problems that we are financially will be solved."

He advised that if the Tourism Satellite Account is properly set up, every amount of money that comes into the country through tourism will be reflected in the account.

The ninth Showbiz Roundtable was themed “Assessing 20 Months of Government’s Impact on Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts.”

The programme examined the government’s commitments to the sector, assessed the level of implementation, measured the impact of policies and explored the road ahead for Ghana’s creative economy.

The discussion featured industry figures including Chief Operations Officer of Maestro Africa Group, Francis Doku; Lead Consultant at Jesse Agyepong and Associates, Jesse Agyepong; pop culture journalist Olele Salvador; and Joy FM broadcaster Ken Addy.

Also in attendance were comedians Lekzy DeComic, Kojo Pjay, Percy Obrempong, James Brown and Jacinta. Others were broadcasters Austine Woode and Kojo Preko Dankwah, while tourism professional Emmanuel Frimpong was also present.

The discussion was moderated by broadcaster and arts and culture journalist Kwame Dadzie. It was produced by Philip Nai, with support from Anita Teye and Idah Lamaire.