Ebola scare affects number of foreign tourists to Cape Coast Castle

The number of foreign tourists who visited the Cape Coast Castle last year declined due to the scare of Ebola disease, the division of Forts and Castles at the Ghana Museum and Monuments Board in Cape Coast has said.

In the year under review, the Cape Coast Castle recorded a total 16,092 foreign tourist as against 21,325 the previous year, showing a decline in patronage by foreigners.

Mr Mark Amenyo-Xa, the Assistant Administrative Secretary at the Cape Coast Castle who made this known to the GNA on Monday, said the Castle was badly affected by the Ebola scare as tourism operators cancelled bookings to the Castle and others had their visas withheld because of the Ebola.

He said the number of domestic tourists who visited the Castle also declined from 66,515 in 2013 to 52,563 in 2014 which he attributed to the lack of interest in tourism by the local people.

Mr Amenyo-Xa said though domestic tourism had increased slightly over the years, school children were the major patrons with very little interest from adults.

He said Ghanaians had not embraced domestic tourism and appealed to all to show interest in domestic tourism by visiting the tourist sites

Mr. Amenyo-Xa expressed worry about the bureaucratic procedures where some of the revenue generated could not be used for maintenance work on the Castle until it had been sent to the head office in Accra for approval.

He said government subvention, which is not forthcoming, had been one of the greatest challenges facing management of the Castle.

A total of 87, 7840 tourists visited the Cape Coast Castle in 2013 and 68,658 visited last year.

Source: GNA