The Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi has emerged as the leading tourist attraction in the Ashanti Region, since the beginning of 2026, surpassing the Kumasi Zoo.

The Kumasi Zoo has enjoyed significant popularity in recent years, ranked fourth nationally and first in the Ashanti Region in 2025, attracting 118,764 visitors last year and over 20,000 so far in 2026.

Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Fredrick Adjei Rudolph, speaking on Luv Fm, highlighted recent tourism data showing a surge in patronage at the historic palace museum, with a difference 2,000 visitors, putting Manhyia Museum ahead of Kumasi zoo.

“This year, Manhyia Museum is beating Kumasi Zoo,” he revealed. “Manhyia Museum has so far recorded 120,000 visitors, while Kumasi Zoo stands at 118,000,” he said.

Mr Rudolph emphasized the strong local interest in the region’s attractions, noting that domestic tourism continues to drive patronage at most sites.

“In 2025, Manhyia Palace recorded visits from 102,000 Ghanaians compared to 17,900 foreign tourists. At Kumasi Zoo, Ghanaian arrivals reached 117,000, while foreign visits numbered just 933,” he added.

Turning his attention to Lake Bosomtwe, Mr Rudolph lamented that many Ghanaians have yet to fully appreciate the potential of the natural lake.

He proposed several initiatives to transform Lake Bosomtwe into a premier destination, including ecotourism, scientific and educational tourism, cultural events, and water-based recreation.

“It can be turned into a place where we can have nature tourism: Bird watching, hiking, cycling and any water friendly spot. That place is also good for scientific and educational tourism. It is ideal for cultural tourism where we can have festivals, traditional storytelling, local craft and food experiences, community run guesthouses and the last one is water base recreation,” he established.

He noted that with the successful and effectively implementation of these initiatives, Lake Bosomtwe could generate more revenue for the country than the Kwame Nkrumah Museum in Accra.

“Kwame Nkrumah Museum is just about Kwame Nkrumah and everything about Kwame Nkrumah. If you are able to make 10million in a year and we are talking about Lake Bosomtwe which is going to have about four diversions, I am not a mathematician but I belief we could make more than 10million from Lake Bosomtwe,” he stated.

He also identified key challenges facing Lake Bosomtwe, including poor access roads, waste management and pollution issues, and incidents of extortion, all of which have contributed to declining visitor numbers.

“I can cathegorize the problems into three. The first one obviously is the access, the second one has to do with waste management and pollution and another thing has to do with extortion,” he concluded.