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Bunso canopy walkway accident: Tour operator raised safety concerns

Bunso canopy walkway accident: Tour operator raised safety concerns

In March of this year Landtours' General Manager and I (Mona Boyd) visited the canopy walkway at Bunso and came away with serious concerns about safety.

Our General Manager, Mawuli Dzebu sent an email (see the email below) to the Head of the Tourism Authority and copied the Minister of Tourism and the Chairman of the Tourism Authority. None of them responded to our email.

This information is news worthy and should be printed to prevent this kind of incident from happening again and the individuals responsible for ensuring safety at tourism attractions in Ghana should be held accountable for this accident.

Mona Boyd, CEO, Landtours Ghana Limited

Below is a copy of the email which was sent on March 16, 2015 to raise safety concerns about the walkway

Dear Sir,

Our company is excited about the new canopy walkway at Bonsu and would like to add it to the list of attractions that our clients patronize. In preparation for this, we visited the site but felt before we bring visitors to experience the attraction we should verify the following.

• Has this site been licensed by the Ghana Tourism Authority?

• Have the owners developed and posted rules for using the attraction ( such as how many people can be on a bridge at one time)?

• Has the attraction been inspected by a structural engineer?

• Has the attraction been certified for safety by the appropriate governmental body?

As you are aware the tourism industry is struggling to come back from the Ebola crisis. I do not have to explain the impact on our industry if there was a catastrophic accident on the walkway and it was found that the walkway did not go through a thorough and comprehensive safety inspection. Surely such news would spread to the international news market, which would result in causing serious harm to Ghana's brand and especially Ghana's flagship attraction, Kakum National Park and its canopy walkway.

In order to ensure that our clients would be engaging in an activity that is safe, we would be grateful if your organization would provide answers to the queries above as soon as possible.

Looking forward to your cooperation and a timely response from you.

Sincerely

Mawuli Dzebu
General Manager
Landtours Ghana Limited
Tel: +233 (0) 302 761752
Cell:+233 (0) 241 271 412

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