By: Audrey Raymonda John
The Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, in partnership with key agencies such as the National Tourist Board (NTB), the Monument and Relics Commission (MRC), and supported by the World Bank’s Sierra Leone Economic Diversification Project (SLEDP), has officially launched a five-day training workshop aimed at strengthening the country’s tourism data systems.
This specialised workshop, which began on February 10, 2025, is designed to enhance the capacity of staff across various institutions, including Statistics Sierra Leone, the Bank of Sierra Leone, and other stakeholders. The overarching goal is to improve data collection, analysis, and reporting within the tourism sector to facilitate more informed policy decisions and strategic planning. The training aligns with the Ministry’s 2025 Year of Ecotourism initiative, designed to track the sector’s progress while connecting communities, culture, and conservation.
In his opening remarks, Permanent Secretary Edward Kwame Yankson emphasiSed that this training is crucial to achieving the government’s Big-Five agenda, particularly in strengthening the data systems used to measure tourism’s contribution to Sierra Leone’s GDP. He noted that reliable data is essential for identifying challenges and creating strategies to foster tourism growth.
The Director of Tourism, Travel, and Exchange Programmes, Mohamed Jalloh, further reinforced the importance of tourism statistics, pointing out that such data is vital for assessing tourism’s impact and enabling the government to make informed decisions that support sustainable development in the sector.
Lead consultant Kevin Millington expressed optimism about delving deeper into tourism statistics and the development of a Tourism Satellite Account over the course of the week. He acknowledged the existing base of tourism data in Sierra Leone and stressed the need to refine and expand it for better analysis.
In her keynote address, Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs Nabeela Tunis underscored the significance of this training in bolstering the ability of stakeholders to generate precise and timely tourism statistics. This, she said, would not only attract more government investments but also increase donor support. Tunis highlighted the resilience of the tourism sector since 2018, with notable progress in 2024, including a rise in arrivals, increased website traffic, and higher social media impressions, particularly as a result of the Tourism for All Campaign.
Despite Sierra Leone’s rich historical and cultural tourism assets, Minister Tunis acknowledged that the sector remains underdeveloped due to challenges in statistical management. To address this, she emphasised the Ministry’s commitment to establishing a robust Tourism Satellite Account and creating a comprehensive data system that tracks everything from source markets and spending patterns to the social and environmental impacts of tourism.
She also pointed to the recent International Tourism Trade Fair in Spain, where Sierra Leone saw a high demand for ecotourism, cultural heritage, and adventure tourism. This, she said, reinforces the need for disaggregated statistics to support the necessary policy shifts for the sector’s growth.
Encouraging full participation in the workshop, Minister Tunis called on attendees to contribute to strengthening the accuracy and reliability of tourism statistics. She urged that these efforts would help build a data-driven tourism sector, capable of fostering sustainable growth and achieving the long-term impact necessary for the success of the Year of Ecotourism initiative.
The training workshop focuses on vital aspects of tourism data, including visitor numbers, tourism receipts, GDP contributions, employment, investment, and visitor satisfaction. Through this initiative, Sierra Leone aims to establish a robust framework for monitoring and driving the development of the tourism sector.
