Gauteng and Ghana Tourism Authorities sign a Memorandum of Understanding
The Gauteng Tourism Authority (GTA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Ghana Tourism to implement tourism promotion and development initiatives. With this collaboration, the two parties seek to leverage each other’s marketing and communication ventures, campaigns, and platforms. The agreement is for a period of 5 years, and parties may, at their discretion, renew this MOU for a further period of 5 years.
The MOU was signed by GTA CEO Sthembiso Dlamini and Ghana Tourism CE Akwasi Agyeman on 19 August at the inaugural Ghana week in South Africa. The key areas of collaboration include air access, film and media, events, packages, and campaign marketing. The Gauteng Air Access network has been working tirelessly to reinstate the routes lost due to Covid restrictions and attract and retain new air routes. This collaboration will look at the establishment of the Washington-Accra Johannesburg route to increase two-way traffic visitor numbers for the United States source market, which is one of the top 4 source markets for South Africa.
West Africa has also been identified as a source market for strong potential growth. More than 21 000 Ghanaians visited South Africa in 2019, and in the same year, South Africa was Ghana’s sixth-largest source market. At the signing of the agreement, Gauteng Tourism CEO said that Africa as a continent is very important to Gauteng. Our numbers indicate that about 70% to 80% of arrivals come from the rest of the continent, Dlamini added.
Major and signature events are the key offerings of Destination Gauteng. The two parties will facilitate meetings with events organisers in the respective countries and Gauteng province. The creation of travel trade packages with experiences that speak to the two markets is also a desirable performance outcome, and so is the strengthening of tourism, trade and investment relations between the two countries. The agreement is an opportunity to ensure the full recovery of the tourism sector by promoting the destinations, their cultures, and their heritage.
