Ghana's tourism numbers for 2025 tell a story of steady, not explosive, growth but look past the headline arrival figures and a more interesting shift shows up in where people are choosing to sleep.

According to the Ghana Tourism Authority's 2025 Tourism Report, the country recorded 1,306,962 international tourist arrivals last year, a 1.4 percent rise on the 1,288,804 arrivals in 2024. Tourism receipts hit an estimated $4.34 billion.

Hotels are still the dominant choice, used by roughly half of all international travellers. But private homes, the category that includes Airbnb-style stays, accounted for 28 percent of accommodation used by visitors, with platforms like Airbnb specifically capturing a 12 percent share. Visitors, on average, stayed 13 nights.

That average length of stay is the detail worth sitting with. Thirteen nights is not a weekend layover, it's closer to how someone stays when they're house-hunting, working remotely for a stretch, relocating for a job, or visiting family for an extended period. It's a pattern that favours apartment-style stays with kitchens, laundry, and room to actually live, over a standard hotel room. It also lines up with Accra's growing profile as a base for the diaspora, NGO and embassy staff, and a rising number of digital nomads using Ghana as a soft-landing point in West Africa.

A case in point: North Legon's apartment-rental scene

That demand is visible on the ground in areas like North Legon and East Legon, where a small but growing number of operators have built products specifically around the long-stay, semi-furnished-to-furnished middle ground positioned between a hotel room and a full property lease.

Wayo House, an apartment-rental operator in North Legon Agbogba, is one example of how that middle ground is being built out. Its units offer two ensuite bedrooms, a guest toilet, pantry and utility room, air conditioning throughout, balconies, and shared access to a 340 square-metre rooftop terrace, alongside on-site security, management services and free parking. The operator prices furnished units at GHS 12,000/month (≈ $900 ) a month for stays of a year or more, and semi-furnished units at GHS 10,000 a month on the same term, with reduced nightly rates for guests staying without a year-long commitment, a structure that mirrors exactly the kind of flexible, mid-length stay the GTA's 13-night average points to.

It's part of a wider three-tier operation, Wayo House for apartments and short stays, Wayo Residence for villa-style stays in the Aburi hills, and Wayo Hotel for boutique hotel service, reflecting how operators in this space are increasingly trying to cover the full range of what "staying in Ghana" can mean, from a weekend trip to a year-long relocation.

“What we’re seeing at Wayo House is that most guests aren’t looking for a hotel room, they’re looking for a home base in Accra. Diaspora families, remote workers, and relocating professionals want the freedom of a full apartment, a kitchen, a rooftop to unwind, and the security of on-site management. North Legon puts them 20 minutes from the airport, but still close enough to explore all of Ghana when they’re ready.”

Why this matters beyond one property

The bigger picture here is a hospitality sector that's diversifying in response to who's actually travelling to Ghana now. Half of international visitors still choose hotels, and that's unlikely to change soon. But a rental market built around month-plus stays with the security, WiFi, and management support that used to be hotel-exclusive suggests operators are reading the data on visitor behaviour rather than just building more of the same.

If Ghana’s tourism sector keeps growing the way 2025’s numbers suggest, the real story next year might not be arrivals but it’ll be where those arrivals choose to sleep. Operators like Wayo House are already placing their bet on the answer.