Ghana Tourism Marketplace (GTM), a digital tourism ecosystem developed by the Ghana Tourism Development Company (GTDC), is gaining global traction, with inbound tourists booking varied experiences and various events ahead of the December festive season, and paying for these services via the platform.

International visitors from Portugal, the United States, France, Germany, and other countries in Europe and Africa have been booking tourism-related services on the fully functional national tourism digital marketplace.

Speaking at the Volta Investment Summit, a novel event designed to promote tourism investment in the Volta Region of Ghana, Prof. Kobby Mensah, CEO of the GTDC, noted that: “The Ghana Tourism Marketplace is already facilitating real-time bookings and payments from inbound tourists.

With over 90 per cent of tickets for the popular “Accra by Night” tour, it sold online to both domestic and international travellers using bank cards issued in Lisbon, New York, Paris, and Berlin.”

Yet, even as the GTDC’s platform gains traction, the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), the agency mandated to market the tourism products developed by its subsidiary GTDC, is proposing to build a new digital platform that would offer identical services.

GTA CEO Maame Efua Houadjeto announced at the summit plans to introduce a “Visit Ghana” app to allow tourists to experience Ghana virtually, make online payments for tourism services, and book tourism products.

Industry observers were quick to question GTA's rationale for wanting to develop a parallel system rather than scaling the already-proven GTDC platform.

With inbound tourism numbers expected to spike in December, the issue of digital alignment between the GTA and GTDC has gained renewed urgency.

Prof. Mensah explained that the GTDC will engage the GTA to streamline the two entities' digital roles and ensure that the state’s investment in tourism technology delivers maximum value through a single GTM platform.