Elmina, Cape Coast castles record low patronage in 2017

The Cape Coast and Elmina castles saw a reduction in the number of foreign and local tourists who visited the facilities in 2017.
    
The two castles received 108, 954 tourists last year as against 111,297 recorded in 2016, indicating a decrease of 2,343.
     
Mrs Martha Krah, the Assistant Administrative Secretary, Cape Coast Castle, who made this known to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the Cape Coast Castle recorded a total of 61,665 tourists last year, as against 70,326 in 2016, a decrease in patronage of 8,661.
     
The Elmina Castle, however, saw an increase from the 40,971 figure recorded in 2016 to 47,289 in 2017.
     
The number of domestic tourists who visited the two castles also reduced from 87, 655 in 2016 to 80, 769 in 2017.
     
The number of foreign tourists increased significantly from 23,639 in 2016 to 29,210 in 2017.
      
She said the number of foreign students increased from 9,525 in 2016 to 10,368 in 2017.
      
 According to her, 1,787 of last year’s figure was made up of foreign children while 6,834 were adults adding that 33,422 Ghanaian children also visited the two castles.
     
A total of 458 VIPs also visited the castles last year as against 386 the previous year.
      
Mrs Krah said despite a slight increase in domestic tourism over the years, school children were the major patrons with very little interest from adults.
      
She appealed to Ghanaians to show interest in domestic tourism by visiting the tourist sites to have first hand information on the slave trade.
      
Ghanaian adults were charged GH¢5.00, foreign adults paid GH¢40.00 and non-Ghanaian students with ID cards paid GH¢30.00 when they visit the castles.
     
Again, non-Ghanaian children paid GH¢5.00 and Ghanaian students in the primary and junior high school were charged GH¢1.00 each while senior high school students paid GH¢2.00 and tertiary students with ID cards paid GH¢3.00.
       
Mrs Krah, however, was not able to disclose the total revenue accrued from the visits but was optimistic that if the number of visitors increased, it would benefit the Ghana Monuments and Museums Board and the nation at large.

Source: GNA