- Tourism Receipts Hit US$4.34 Billion as Top 10 Attractions Draw 1.38 Million Visits
Ghana’s 10 most visited tourist attractions recorded nearly 1.38 million visits in 2025, accounting for about 77.00% of all recorded attraction visits and highlighting both the growing economic significance of tourism and the heavy concentration of activity around a relatively small group of destinations.
Figures disclosed by the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Dzifa Abla Gomashie, show that the top 10 attractions attracted 1,377,588 visits during the year. The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra emerged as the most visited site, followed by Kakum National Park and Bonsu Arboretum/Eco Park.
Cape Coast Castle ranked fourth, while Manhyia Palace in Kumasi was fifth. Kumasi Zoo, Accra Zoo, Elmina Castle, Shai Hills Resource Reserve and Aburi Botanical Gardens completed the list, demonstrating the continued strength of Ghana’s historical, ecological and cultural tourism assets.
The figures come as Ghana seeks to make tourism a more important source of foreign exchange, employment and private-sector investment. International tourist arrivals reached about 1.30 million in 2025, up from more than 1.20 million a year earlier, while international tourism receipts were estimated at US$4.34 billion.
Domestic tourism also strengthened, with visits rising 7.00% from 1.68 million in 2024 to 1.79 million in 2025. Together, the numbers suggest the visitor economy is gaining weight within Ghana’s services sector and becoming increasingly important to efforts to diversify growth beyond gold, cocoa and oil.
But the concentration of 77.00% of recorded attraction visits in only 10 destinations raises a more important policy question. Ghana may be succeeding in drawing visitors to its best-known sites, but the bigger economic prize lies in spreading that traffic and spending across more regions and communities.
Tourism’s value cannot be measured by gate receipts alone. A visitor to Kakum National Park or Cape Coast Castle can also generate demand for hotels, restaurants, taxis, tour guides, craft sellers, entertainment businesses and local food producers, allowing a single trip to support several layers of economic activity.
That multiplier effect is what makes tourism particularly attractive for an economy seeking employment-intensive growth. Unlike extractive industries, where substantial export earnings can coexist with relatively limited direct employment, tourism can distribute spending across numerous small and medium-sized businesses.
The challenge is therefore to increase not only visitor numbers but spending per visitor and length of stay. A tourist who spends three nights instead of one, visits several attractions rather than a single site and purchases locally produced goods creates a far larger economic footprint.
The Central Region illustrates the opportunity. Kakum National Park, Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle are already among Ghana’s leading destinations, providing the foundations for a stronger tourism circuit connecting heritage sites, beaches, restaurants, accommodation, festivals and community experiences.
Similar tourism clusters could be developed around Accra, Kumasi and the Eastern Region. Linking flagship attractions to lesser-known sites through improved roads, coordinated tour packages and digital marketing could redirect part of existing visitor traffic towards destinations that currently capture little of the tourism economy.
This would also help address the geographical concentration of private investment. Investors are more likely to build hotels, restaurants and entertainment facilities where consistent visitor traffic exists, meaning stronger tourism circuits could stimulate economic activity beyond the country’s established tourism centres.
Infrastructure will be central to that strategy. Roads, sanitation, reliable electricity, broadband connectivity, security and digital payment systems can determine whether a promising attraction becomes a commercially viable destination.
The US$4.34 billion generated from international tourism is particularly important because tourism functions effectively as an export industry. Instead of Ghana shipping a product abroad, foreign consumers travel into the country and spend money on accommodation, food, transport, entertainment and cultural experiences.
Those receipts can therefore support the country’s foreign-exchange position while generating income in sectors that are deeply embedded in the domestic economy. But the developmental impact depends heavily on how much of each tourist dollar remains in Ghana.
If hotels import large amounts of food, equipment and other inputs, some tourism revenue quickly leaks back out of the economy. Greater domestic sourcing from farmers, manufacturers, creative businesses and service providers would allow Ghana to retain more of the value generated by international visitors.
Domestic tourism is similarly important, even though it does not directly generate foreign exchange. A stronger local market can provide hotels and attractions with year-round demand, reduce seasonal volatility and make tourism businesses less dependent on international travel cycles.
The broader policy challenge is therefore changing from simply attracting tourists to building an integrated visitor economy. Ghana has already demonstrated that its heritage, natural and cultural assets can generate substantial interest.
The next test is whether those assets can be converted into longer stays, higher spending, stronger local supply chains and wider geographical distribution of tourism income.
For Ghana, the importance of the US$4.34 billion headline lies not merely in the size of the receipts. It demonstrates that tourism is increasingly capable of becoming a meaningful pillar of foreign-exchange generation and private-sector growth.
But the 77.00% concentration among the top 10 attractions is also a warning. If tourism growth remains centred on a limited number of sites, much of the country’s potential will remain commercially underdeveloped.
The next phase of Ghana’s tourism strategy must therefore move beyond counting arrivals and attraction visits. The more consequential measure will be how much economic value each visitor creates, how widely that value is distributed and how effectively tourism spending is converted into jobs, investment and sustainable local businesses.
