The tourism industry, just like other sectors, had borne the brunt of the global pandemic with many recreational sites receiving a less significant number of visitors. However, operators are hopeful of an increased turn out this year.

The Shai Hills Resource Reserve located at Doryumu in the Shai Osudoku District in the Greater Accra Region, for instance, used to record about 27,000 to 30,000 visitors annually but that figure had reduced to 16,000 as of December last year.

Mr Prince Anane Agyei, Park Manager of the reserve, who indicated this in an interview with The Spectator, said they had started lots of publicity last year and were expecting more visitors but the lockdown and travel restrictions had affected their plans.

He said the numbers only started improving in the last quarter of 2020 and the facility as of January 2021 was making further progress.

Mr. Agyei projected more patronage by the second quarter of this year, adding that the reserve was adopting other publicity and marketing strategies to attract more local visitors.

He noted that a chunk of visitors to the site were non-Ghanaians which to some extent, accounted for the drop in their figures.

“COVID-19 has taught us that we will have to target more domestic tourism. We need to boost publicity and education on the various sites across the country to attract more people,” he said.

The park manager admitted that lots of Ghanaians did not have enough disposable income hence were reluctant in visiting tourist centres.

Nonetheless, he said, their rates remained affordable and the facility would continue to provide visitors quality and memorable experience.

“Entrance fee for adults range from at least GH25.00 and there are other attractive packages for children, and other groups of individuals,” he said

Background

The Shai Hills Resource Reserve provides an opportunity to experience Wildlife without having to move far away from the capital city, Accra.

The dry evergreen savannah forest with a size of 51km sq. allows tourists to enjoy a unique combination of wildlife, nature and an amazing landscape.

The Reserve, which is one of the 16 Protected Areas, under the Wildlife Division (WD) of the Forestry Commission (FC) is one worth seeing for its natural beauty.

It is home to a wide range of plants and animals with the baboon being its major attraction. A walk into the Park gives a tourist the chance to see the beauty of animals such as the Zebras and ostriches, antelopes, green monkeys, spot-nosed monkeys, Olive baboons amongst others, living in their natural habitat.

It is a bird haven also with over 150-bird species. The Reserve has a rich cultural history and heritage of the people of Shai who were once occupying the place which has a museum of natural and cultural history with a wide scope of artefacts.

The park has accommodation facilities and tourists are able to explore the various hills and caves in the park by way of adventure.

By Ernest Nutsugah