Attention may not always be on domestic same-day travel, but it may be the new economic booster because in 2023, it quietly moved millions of people and billions of cedis across Ghana’s economy.

New data from the Ghana Statistical Service’s 2023 Domestic and Outbound Tourism Survey (DOTS) reveals that in a single year, Ghana recorded approximately 6.6 million domestic same-day visits, trips lasting less than 24 hours outside one’s usual place of residence.

These journeys generated an estimated GHS 1.83 billion in expenditure.

So what many consider routine trips, funerals, family visits, business errands and shopping, are in fact a powerful driver of local economic activity, income circulation and regional connectivity.
The data shows that domestic mobility is most intense among Ghana’s working population. Adults aged 25–44 years accounted for the largest share of same-day travellers across all quarters, reflecting the central role of economically active citizens in sustaining domestic movement.

Women made slightly more trips than men, accounting for 52.4 percent of all same-day visitors. Travel peaked sharply in the first quarter of the year, coinciding with Ghana’s dense social calendar of funerals, festivals and family gatherings. This seasonal spike confirms that domestic travel patterns are rooted in social and cultural life rather than leisure tourism cycles.

Social Obligations Dominate Ghanaian Travels

Purpose of travel data reveals a striking reality: nearly 70 percent of all domestic same-day trips were for visiting friends and relatives and attending funerals. These trips are not discretionary leisure choices but social obligations, reinforcing the idea that mobility in Ghana is as much cultural as it is economic.

Despite representing a smaller share of trips, business and professional travel stands out economically. Per-capita on-trip spending for business travel peaked at GHS 514 in the third quarter, significantly higher than for social or religious travel.

Cumulatively, business and professional trips generated over GHS 230 million in on-trip expenditure, indicating strong but underdeveloped potential for structured domestic business tourism.

Shopping also emerged as a high-value activity. Per-capita spending on shopping consistently exceeded other purposes, reaching over GHS 1,000 per trip in some quarters.

Regional Patterns and Value Creation

The survey shows that 96.7 percent of trips were self-arranged, with minimal use of tour operators or packaged experiences. This informality reflects resilience and adaptability but also exposes a major gap in value creation.

Travel flows were heavily concentrated between Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions, which consistently ranked as both the top origins and destinations of same-day visitors. However, the data confirms that every region participated in same-day travel. In some quarters, travellers from regions such as Western, Volta, Bono and Oti recorded notably high per-capita spending, suggesting that distance, purpose, and access costs significantly shape spending behaviour.

This uneven pattern points to missed opportunities for regional tourism development, particularly in less-visited regions that already attract spending but lack deliberate tourism infrastructure or product development.

Road transport dominates almost entirely. Buses and minibuses carried about 60 percent of same-day travellers, making transport the single largest component of on-trip expenditure. In 2023 alone, transport and shopping each accounted for roughly one-third of total on-trip spending, directly channelling money into transport unions, fuel vendors, traders and roadside economies.