加纳霍城（Ho）作为十四世托比·阿菲德阁下领地的首府，该地区霍城机场投资 2500 万美元，目前仅用作军事等非商业行动作为停机坪。机场早已准备好投入使用却迟迟未果，而其商业发展的关键在于沃尔塔地区的旅游业。

对此，大酋长十四世托比·阿菲德阁下已要求所属加纳航空公司非洲世界航空（AWA）规划前往霍城的航线，将航班延伸至此。这可能是托比阁下在看到报道称没有航线前往霍城后提出的。

加纳航空公司非洲世界航空（AWA）建于 2012 年，由十四世托比·阿菲德阁下联合中国海航集团与中非发展基金共同成立，定位于为加纳及西非区域旅客提供安全、便捷、高品质的航空运输服务。

旅游业

加纳旅游局（GTA）在酒店从业人士论坛上大胆公布了机场的商业运营时间表。

酒店和旅游业者在航空业发展中起着不容小觑的作用，担任机场规划顾问的角色。

视时间为金钱的商业人士不愿在数小时公路旅途颠簸中损背伤腰，是霍城机场的主要目标人群；另外，目标群体不乏还有休闲、猎奇的来自不同地方的游客，他们希望享受蓝天白云，体验与别处不同的风景，因此对于淡季景点和配套设施的运营至关重要。

随第一架商业航班进入霍城机场，霍城必须做好所有准备，对酒店业做好定位，以无缝服务体验迎接游客。

做好准备

加纳机场有限公司（GACL）业务发展服务主管 Ama Faake Gadzekpo 女士在最近的会议上向利益相关人士表示，无缝同步旅行是航线发展的一大关键；为了航空业的成功，该公司计划在全国机场投入运营。我们有理由相信，在复活节期间恢复的霍城商业航班将成为恰当的转折点。

“旅游业是该地区主要盈利渠道。投资者联手提供更加实惠的旅游套餐至关重要。没有旅游业，该地经济很难维持。我们可以通过很多手段发展航空旅行。” 她补充道，灵活的旅游套餐能吸引各阶层旅客，而跨境商人也可以在霍城中转。

她还指出，霍城有无数吸引人的节日、传统庆祝活动、顶级会议和当地嘉年华等公共活动，这些都可以吸引游客。她宣布，霍城将启动有目的的媒体宣传活动，为机场的启用助力。

启动航线

AWA 营销主管 Ade Dayo 宣布，AWA 航空将以单程票价 100 加纳塞地的促销价格启动航线，每周两次。这证实了该地区航空业的经济可行性。

事实上，由于不少大学在沃尔塔地区（霍城所在地区）建立，待满足的人口需求不断增加，此地已经开始吸引风险资本家们的目光。

正如预期所计，主要城市和一些旅游地区的基础设施发展已凸显积极性。相对而言，虽然部分景点景区尚未比肩酒店行业的发展那样迅猛，但也是进入了飞速发展阶段。

数据统计结果

据加纳旅游局现有数据显示，2020 年 3 月新冠疫情爆发以来，游客数量相较 2018 年的 5.5 万人次下降到 3000 人次左右。

旅游局区域总监 Alexander Nketia 在加纳工业协会组织网络研讨会上表示，霍城仍缺乏严谨的营销和推广策略，导致它在旅游目的地版图上缺少存在感。他说，加纳旅游局技术工作委员会正重新对该地区旅游业的独特优势进行设想，包括自然景点、土著文化和与其他部门的合作等，帮助促进旅游业发展。

住宿

住宿位居旅游业先决条件，虽然 2018 年以来沃尔塔地区已经新增了 100 多家酒店，振奋人心，但未来它们将需要的进一步增设和度假设施的扩建也多到超乎想象。机场地域周边的别墅社区投资正成倍增加，而随着机场地区的开放，社区建设也即将迎来高峰。开发投资者现在开始考虑在霍城建立酒店品牌、提供所需的空间加以适应，尚为时不晚。

加纳旅游局产品开发和投资部的 Ben Anane Nsiah 说，霍城酒店业面临的另一主要挑战是大量自然景点开发。为了克服这些障碍，业界人士需要团结一心，努力使霍城成为首选目的地。

不过，政府正在对霍城旅游业发展提供帮助，地区议会和私营部门也加入合作参与该行业。

阿卡西北区议会先前促进开发了加纳第二大鳄鱼池景点，后疫情时期，各利益相关机构正共同努力以重回运营状态。

世界银行旅游支持项目也正在开发霍城西区山区的瀑布等景点。

加纳最高处居民地 Amedzofe 就位于霍城西山区中，是游客理想和主要的一大中转地。

Amedzofe 特殊的气候环境极适合爱尔兰马铃薯和茶叶种植，适合疗养生息，投资人不妨着手于此。

山后几公里处有举世闻名的塔菲猴保护区，数千只蒙娜猴已在这里居住数百年，占领并保护着一整片原始森林。

整修项目

政府在猴类保护区和霍霍埃市的顶级景点 Wli 瀑布开展了一系列整修项目。

霍城当地还有咖啡生产业和阿戈蒂姆-克佩托的肯特族工业。

奥蒂地区的阿克帕福山前景广阔，其含铁洞穴的冶炼技术可追溯到几百年前。

据旅游专家介绍，该地区连绵的山脉是发展缆车运输、天幕漫步、滑翔伞等休闲、旅游和商务活动的理想地带。

另外，该地区也适合发展远足、露营等极限户外运动，只要通过适当包装就能够吸引游人。

该地区南部海滨覆盖海岸线，为游客提供无尽的放松场所，沃尔塔三角洲也欢迎各种休闲投资。

政府还考虑帮助该地区手工艺村项目，使其恢复活力。Kpando Fesi 和 Adidome 的陶艺家们需要得到支持来互动。

往返于霍城和阿克拉等其它地方的商旅常客就能通过商业航空令该机场繁忙起来，而机场与航空公司的成功取决于这个城市自身的魅力。

霍城必须优秀的清洁环境之外，增加其他吸引，使之与众不同，在全球旅游目录上取得吸人眼球的地位。

在鼓励行业参与者“在国内旅游中发挥创意”时，Nketia 先生已将霍城置于首要位置。

Tourism Industry Bets to Sustain Air Traffic to Ho

The tourism industry in the Volta Region will become a key component of the business case for the Ho Airport yet to be made operational although long readied for service. The 25-million-dollar facility is being turned into a landing site for military and other non-commercial operations. It took the request of the Paramount Chief of the traditional state that controlled the Ho Municipality, Togbe Afede XIV for Africa World Airlines (AWA), a domestic air carrier company he chaired, to access the facility, and express intent to extend its flights to the city. This probably followed reports around the time that no airline was willing to ply the Ho air route.

The Industry

The boldest announcement of a timeline for the commercial operationalisation of the airport was made at a forum with hospitality industry players, put together by the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA). The choice of hospitality and tourism sector players as consultants on the airport’s use was as a result of the immovable role they possessed in the aviation industry’s development. The bet is on corporate persons with no time to spare and who wouldn’t like to risk spine on hours-long road rages to the city. The bet however is heaviest on the thousands of leisure and thrill seekers who would readily traverse the skies to savor the world in its variety. The unique classes of tourists are known to keep sites and support facilities in operation beyond holiday seasons. As the first commercial flight approaches the airport, the region must be found ready, which involves positioning the hospitality industry to serve visitors with seamless experiences.

Readiness for Flights?

Madam Ama Faake Gadzekpo Head of Business Development Services of the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) told stakeholders at a recent meeting that seamless and synchronised travel was one of key strategies for developing flight routes, and that the success of the aviation sector was prompting the Company to operationalise all airports in the country. Believing the Easter launch of commercial flights to Ho was apt and a turning-point. “With tourism as a major selling point for the Region, it was crucial for investors to come together to provide more affordable travel packages,” adding, “Without it, it will be impossible to sustain. “There is a lot that can be harnessed to grow air travel,” she said. Madam Gadzekpo said such flexible travel packages must attract the various classes of commuters, and also consider cross-border traders using Ho as a possible transit point. The Executive also pointed out the countless eye-catching festivals and traditional celebrations, as well as first-class conferences, crusades and other public events could serve as the pull-factor. She announced that a purposeful media campaign would be activated to buckle the launch of the airport.

Activation of Flights

Ade Dayo, Head of Marketing at AWA, who announced that the airline would activate two flights per week at a one-way fare of GHC 100 for a start confirms the economic viability of the aviation industry in the Region. Indeed, with a couple of Universities homed here; Volta is catching the eye of venture capitalists seeking to meet the needs of its growing population. There is some visible aggressiveness in the development of physical infrastructure in the major cities as expected, and also in some tourist enclaves. Tourism relatively is shooting up, just that some sites and attractions are not as pampered as their lodging counterparts.

Some Statistics

Available data from the GTA showed a helpless fall in visitor numbers from 55,000 in 2018 to about 3,000 prior to the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020. Mr Alexander Nketia, Regional Director of GTA said at a webinar organised by the Association of Ghana Industries, that the Region lacked strong presence on tourism destination maps, and that the absence of a rigorous marketing and promotional strategy was the anticlimax. The GTA, he said, has a technical working committee that is among other things re-imagining tourism’s unique strengths in the Region, which include natural attractions, indigenous culture and pursuing collaborations with other sectors that could help promote tourism development.

Accommodations

Accommodation ranks top of the list in the world of travel, and although it is refreshing to realise that more than 100 new hotels was added in the Volta Region since 2018, and further additions and resort facilities needed to be expanded beyond imagination. Investments are multiplying in gated estate communities around the airport enclave and construction is set to spike with its opening. It’s not too late for development investors to consider the Region’s hospitality brand, and help provide the needed space to suit.

Mr Ben Anane Nsiah of the Product Development and Investment Department of the GTA said another major challenge to the hospitality industry in the Region was development of natural attractions, although they abound. To conquer the hurdles, industry players must consider themselves as a combined entity working to make the Region the destination of choice. Government nevertheless, is supporting the tourism development in the region with some district Assemblies and the private sector collaborating to be industry players.

The Akatsi North District Assembly has advanced the nation’s second major crocodile pond, but since that freak accident, stakeholders are working feverishly to correct the initial mishap to relaunch. A World Bank Tourism Support project is also developing Waterfalls and other attractions in the mountainous regions of the Ho West District.

In the area lies Amedzofe, the highest settlement in Ghana, making the highlands an ideal and major stopover for visitors. Amedzofe by its peculiar weather that supports the cultivation of Irish potato and tea also could become an avenue for convalescencing patients. The private sector can pry on this. A few kilometres after the mountains lay the world-renowned Tafi Monkey Sanctuary, where thousands of Mona monkeys reside for centuries, have claimed and preserved a virgin forest.

Face-Lifting Projects

Government has assumed some face-lifting projects at the monkey sanctuary, and also the Wli Waterfalls in the Hohoe Municipality-top attractions in the Region. There are also indigenous coffee production industries in Ho Municipality, the Kente industry at Agotime-Kpetoe and also the iron bearing caves, which holds massive prospects for smelting technology dating back over several hundreds of years in the Akpafu Mountains, located in the Guan District of the Oti Region. Tour experts describe the Region’s chain of mountains as ideal for the development of cable transportation networks, canopy walks, and paragliding activities for leisure, tour and business. The Region also passes as a spot for extreme outdoor sporting activities such as hiking and camping, all which could be properly packaged to entice the wanderlust. The waterfronts covering the southern coastline of the region offers endless relaxation, and the Volta delta has also invited leisure investments of sorts. The government must therefore consider supporting the many craft villages and projects in the Region and revive them, with potters of Kpando Fesi, Adidome requiring some support to gel. Individuals on constant transit could afford to keep commercial airlines using the airport and the success of the airport and its airlines will surely depend on the city’s appeal. Ho must add to its clean city status, other lures that would set it apart and grant it prominence on travel directories worldwide, and Mr. Nketia placed it best when he charged industry partakers to “become creative around domestic tourism.”

来源：GhanaWeb

编译：Anita

扫码关注迦纳术略微信公众号，每日更新加纳新闻: