Hotel de Se-Manhyia opens in Kumasi

Hotel de Se-Manhyia has officially opened, adding to the number of hotels operating in Kumasi, to serve the people of Kumasi and its adjoining areas with the pledge, “hospitality beyond measure”.

At the inaugural ceremony, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the hotel, Mr Kofi Arhin, popularly known as Nana Se-Manhyia I, who was joined by his General Manager, Mr Ujjawal Shukla, emphasised the need for the hotel to provide the best customer service.

He said the hotel, which is situated in the business community, would ensure  “high quality” customer satisfaction. He urged the public to patronise it.

The Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Andy Osei Okrah, was joined by the Akuapem Brekuso Apagyahene, Nana Addo Otu Afom, to cut the tape to open the hotel.

He said the Ashanti Regional Co-ordinating Council was pleased to be associated with all service providers in the hospitality industry.

Tourism has become the largest and fastest-growing industry world-wide and stimulated other sectors such as agriculture, finance and manufacturing.

Apart from generating foreign exchange earnings and revenue for governments, he said tourism had the potential to become a powerful tool in pro-poor development strategies.

Increase in tourist arrivals

He observed that international tourist arrivals in Ghana had increased in spite of global economic downturn over the years, pitching tourist arrivals in 2014 to 1,093 which generated a receipt of $ 2,066.50

Since 2012, he said, tourism had contributed immensely to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), revenue and employment generation.

Research in the country indicates that tourists spent 32 per cent of their money on accommodation, while 17.5 per cent is spent on entertainment and recreation and 15 per cent was on food and beverage, he noted.

he Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the hotel

Management skills

The deputy minister noted that the hotel industry had become competitive in Kumasi and that hoteliers would need to be abreast of the current hotel management skills to meet the challenges of providing quality and innovative services to their customers.

“Today international tourists have become demanding and discerning, and as such they expect services that give value for money. This means that staff must be well trained and well motivated to render the required level of services as pertains elsewhere in the world”, he stated.

He pointed out that professionalism and customer services were necessary ingredients for a sustainable hotel industry, and urged management of the hotel to ensure that only qualified people were employed to run the hotel.

Payment of Tourism Levies

The Ashanti Regional Manager of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Mr Sampson Ekow, said the government had passed into Law, the Tourism Development Fund through Tourism Levy Regulation 2012, LI 2183.

He said the objective of the fund, among other things, was to provide funding for tourism and tourism-related projects and programmes.

He said tourist-operating organisations could apply for the fund in the areas of marketing and promotion of tourism, capacity building, market research and development of tourism infrastructure, tourism education and training, development and promotion of other entrepreneurial activities.

Mr Ekow called on all patrons of tourism facilities to support the payment of the Tourism Levy to speed up tourism development in the country.