Ghana’s accommodation industry has substantial room capacity but is not fully utilising the available supply, with wide differences in occupancy across regions, establishment types and accommodation categories, according to the latest Accommodation Unit Survey (AUS) by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
The report, covering November 2024 to February 2025, shows that while the country’s accommodation sector maintained relatively stable national occupancy levels, significant unused capacity persisted during the four-month period.
Available room-days increased from about 5.03 million in November 2024 to 5.21 million in January 2025 before falling to 4.69 million in February. Occupied rooms, meanwhile, rose from about 2.25 million in November to 2.42 million in December, before declining to 2.30 million in January and 2.10 million in February.
The GSS said the figures suggest that the key challenge for the industry is not simply increasing the number of accommodation facilities, but improving the utilisation of existing capacity.
Wide differences in occupancy
Although national occupancy remained relatively stable, the survey found major differences between accommodation segments.
Hostels recorded room and bed occupancy rates of approximately 91 to 95 per cent during the period, while hotels recorded room occupancy of roughly four in every 10 available rooms.
Standard hostels recorded particularly high utilisation, with room occupancy ranging from about 96 to 99 per cent.
In contrast, some hotel categories experienced substantially lower utilisation. One-star hotels recorded room occupancy of 28 per cent and bed occupancy of 24 per cent in February 2025.
The survey also found significant differences based on establishment size. Facilities with 100 rooms or more recorded room occupancy rates of between 83 and 86 per cent, while establishments with 90 to 99 rooms recorded room occupancy of just 10.2 per cent in February.
The figures indicate that accommodation businesses face markedly different market conditions, with high utilisation in some segments occurring alongside considerable unused capacity in others.
Hotels dominate supply
Hotels remained the largest source of accommodation capacity, providing more than three million available room-days each month and accounting for about 70 per cent of total room supply.
They also accounted for approximately 55 to 60 per cent of occupied rooms during the period.
However, other segments played an important role in meeting accommodation demand. Budget hotels and guest houses jointly accounted for more than two million available room-days and bed-place nights each month.
Standard hostels recorded the highest number of guest nights among hotel and hostel categories, exceeding 750,000 guest nights in January 2025.
The survey also identified substantial activity among unlicensed establishments, which recorded approximately 430,000 to 577,000 occupied room-days per month.
Domestic tourism drives demand
Domestic visitors formed the backbone of accommodation demand during the reference period, substantially outnumbering foreign guests.
Hostels were particularly dependent on domestic travellers, with domestic hostel guests exceeding 934,000 in January 2025.
Standard hostels recorded 729,392 domestic guests during the month, the highest volume among the hotel and hostel categories.
Foreign visitors, meanwhile, were more concentrated in hotels and higher-end accommodation. Hotels recorded their highest number of foreign guests in November 2024, with 34,144 visitors and 119,195 foreign guest nights.
The report noted that the different patterns between domestic and international visitors highlight the need for tourism products and marketing strategies tailored to distinct markets.
Foreign visitors stay longer
The survey also found that foreign visitors generally stayed longer than domestic guests in hotels.
Foreign guests typically stayed between three and four nights, compared with about two nights for domestic visitors.
However, length of stay varied significantly across regions and accommodation categories. Foreign guests in budget hotels, for example, recorded stays of up to nine nights in February 2025.
The report also recorded particularly long stays among foreign visitors in some northern regions, including 31 nights in the Upper East Region and 29 nights in the North East Region in December 2024, and 27 nights in the Upper West Region in February 2025.
The GSS said longer stays could generate additional opportunities for accommodation businesses and other sectors of the tourism value chain, including food, transport, entertainment and cultural services.
Regional disparities remain significant
Accommodation activity was also unevenly distributed across the country.
Greater Accra had the largest accommodation capacity and recorded the highest number of foreign guests, reaching 30,588 in January 2025.
The Central Region, meanwhile, recorded particularly high domestic guest volumes, reaching 872,358 in January.
Savannah Region recorded the highest regional room occupancy rate, at 63.7 per cent in January 2025.
By contrast, Eastern, Bono East and Volta regions recorded room occupancy below 28 per cent throughout the four-month period.
The North East Region experienced particularly sharp monthly changes, with room occupancy increasing by 15.5 percentage points in December before falling by 19.4 percentage points in January.
The GSS said the regional variations demonstrate the limitations of relying solely on national averages when assessing the performance of Ghana’s accommodation industry.
Revenue performance weakens before February recovery
Revenue indicators also showed a decline between November and January before a modest recovery in February.
National revenue per available room (RevPAR) fell from GH¢603 in November 2024 to GH¢490 in January 2025, before increasing to GH¢524 in February.
Average daily rate (ADR) followed a similar pattern, falling from GH¢1,351 in November to GH¢1,112 in January before recovering in February.
Greater Accra recorded the highest RevPAR throughout the period, although its figure declined from GH¢1,165 in November to GH¢852 in January before recovering to GH¢935 in February.
The report noted that accommodation performance depends on the interaction between room prices and occupancy, with higher prices not necessarily producing stronger revenue when significant capacity remains unused.
GSS calls for targeted interventions
The survey recommends a shift towards more evidence-based tourism planning, with greater attention to utilisation rather than accommodation expansion alone.
Government, tourism authorities, local assemblies and destination managers are encouraged to use accommodation data to identify areas with persistent low utilisation and investigate whether the constraints are linked to accessibility, infrastructure, destination attractiveness, marketing, service quality or other factors.
The report also calls for tourism planning to reflect regional differences rather than applying a single approach nationwide.
Accommodation businesses are encouraged to regularly monitor occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, guest composition and length of stay and use the information to guide pricing, marketing, service improvements and market positioning.
The GSS also recommends greater attention to domestic tourism, given its importance to accommodation demand, while continuing efforts to attract international visitors who generally record longer stays.
Call for stronger standards and investment discipline
The significant level of activity recorded among unlicensed establishments has also prompted a call for stronger registration, licensing, quality assurance and compliance with applicable standards.
According to the report, bringing more commercial accommodation activity into the formal system could strengthen consumer protection, service standards and the quality of tourism statistics.
Investors and financial institutions are similarly encouraged to consider occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, guest composition, length of stay and regional demand when evaluating accommodation projects rather than relying solely on the number of existing rooms.
The report suggests that, where substantial capacity already exists but utilisation is low, upgrading existing facilities or addressing destination-level constraints may warrant consideration alongside construction of new accommodation.
GSS urges sustained data collection
The Statistical Service stressed that the first four months of AUS results should be regarded as a baseline rather than evidence of long-term trends.
It called for continued production of accommodation statistics to build a longer time series capable of distinguishing temporary fluctuations from persistent changes in the industry.
The agency also recommended integrating accommodation statistics with tourism, business, employment and national accounts data to strengthen Ghana’s Tourism Satellite Account.
The report concludes that Ghana already possesses significant accommodation capacity and that the immediate opportunity lies in using that capacity more effectively, understanding the markets supporting it, addressing regional and segment-level disparities and using better data to support tourism businesses and local economic development.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
