The General Manager of the National Tourist Board (NTB) Cecil Williams has disclosed estimated contribution of tourism to the Sierra Leone economy in 2011 has significantly jumped to a massive US$36,926,920.
This is an increase of 36.2% over the 2010 estimates of $27.1m
Mr Williams explained that the number of visitors or tourists to the country is determined by the arrival slips which non resident passengers fill in at the airport when they arrive. He classified the arrivals in to five main groups which cover those on holiday, those visiting family and friends, business, conference and others.
Estimating the amount spent on accommodation, Mr Williams explained that for those coming on holidays, he says they will stay in hotels and with hotel rates at an average of 80 dollars, when that is multiplied by 7 days which is the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) average then the estimated revenue is reached.
Further he explained that those who are visiting friends and relatives, will either stay in their relative’s homes or in the hotels. The average for this category is $40 dollars a night multiplied by 7 nights.
For those on Business over 90% or 99% would stay in the hotel, they are not price sensitive and will pay an average of $90 but that $90 includes those who stay at the high end of the market and even those coming from the regions like people coming from Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria.
For those attending conferences, 99% will stay in the hotels because they are being paid to come to the conference. $70 dollars is used as an average because they are price sensitive they are trying to save money because they are coming from Europe or Africa.
On the last category of ‘others’ who are people who come for other reasons $60 dollars is used as the mean between the highest and the lowest.
Along with the accommodation cost Mr Williams gave the example of a World Bank consultant coming to the country. He says the consultant will probably “hire a jeep for maybe $60 or $70 a day they will eat more than $60 or $70 per day at the end of the day when they are going away they will buy souvenirs so we use an average of $200 per day so you add that $200 to the accommodation and multiply by 7 days.
The Tourist Board Manager disclosed that according to their estimates the “total revenue for the 2011 is nearly 37 million dollars.”