Matthew Ackah Erzoah is Ghana Tourism Authority’s (GTA) research officer

The Ghana Tourism Authority’s (GTA) research officer, Matthew Ackah Erzoah, has expressed disappointment over attempts by some industry players to discredit the 2024 Ghana Tourism Report.

During a panel discussion on Joy FM on July 12, 2025, which focused on unpacking the tourism report, some industry players questioned the credibility of the figures presented in the document.

The report, published by the GTA, disclosed that Ghana received over 1.28 million international tourists in 2024 and also estimated that Ghana earned about $4.8 billion in revenue from tourism during the period.

However, key figures in the tourism and travel industry, such as Francis Doku, CEO of Maestro Africa Group and West Africa Regional Representative of Africa Tourism Partners; Gideon Asare, CEO of Adansi Travels; and Emmanuel Frimpong, President of the African Tourism Research Network, challenged the data presented by GTA.

They described the numbers as unrealistic and questioned how Ghana could generate such high revenues, when more established tourism destinations on the continent like Kenya and South Africa were not reporting such figures.

Reacting to the development, Matthew Ackah Erzoah expressed his dissatisfaction with the treatment of the GTA report.

According to him, instead of disregarding the report or trying to discredit it, industry players should be looking at how the data can be used to support and grow the sector.

“I am disappointed that industry players are trying to rubbish the report by GTA… I was expecting industry players to accept the report and think of how best they can use the figures or the numbers in the report to help the industry but here we are. It’s like we are here to critique the report and look at the gaps. I don’t think it is something that we need to condone,” he said.

Matthew acknowledged that it is acceptable to criticise a report but he was also firm in stating that attempts to question the credibility of the report is unfair.

He explained that the data presented was not manufactured but was gathered through proper research.

“They can critique the report, that would be okay but what they are doing is trying to paint the picture that the report presented cooked figures that have no basis. Any figure that is mentioned, they argue that ‘how is it possible? Because when you go to Kenya, it’s not like that, when you go to South Africa too it’s not like that.’

“Who even made Kenya or South Africa the standard when it comes to tourism or tourism statistics? The fact that Kenya and South Africa did not record a particular number, does that mean that Ghana can’t? I don’t get the connection in their argument,” he stated.

Matthew also mentioned that the figures in the report were credible and not concocted. He insisted that proper research was done with data to back every number that was published.

“This is what we have got and it is not something that we cooked. It is based on data we gathered… So, it’s not like something we have cooked or we just formulated it,” he said.

He admitted that researchers, like everyone else, are human and can make mistakes, but said it was unfair for people to act as if the report was entirely wrong or baseless.

“Researchers can make mistakes, everybody can make mistakes. I’m not saying that we are infallible but to paint the picture as if these figures were some desktop research is what I’m trying to dispute.

“I want to reiterate that whatever we have in this report is credible and verifiable. If you think there is something fishy, you can come to GTA and we can give you the raw data so you can go and do your own independent analysis,” he added.

Meanwhile, you can watch GhanaWeb TV’s exclusive interview with Arathejay below:

AK/VPO