29 Service providers in tourism sector rewarded
The Executive Director of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Mr Charles Osei Bonsu, has expressed grave concern about the lack of quality service in the hospitality industry which is disproportionate to the increasing rate of investment in infrastructure.
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He gave examples of waiters at hotels and restaurants not knowing the difference among coffee, milo and tea, while others considered first time customers as aliens who should be treated as second fiddle to regular customers.
Mr Bonsu was addressing industry players at the Ashanti Regional Tourism Awards at the Golden Bean Hotel in Kumasi. In all, 29 hotels, restaurants, tourist sites, car rentals and local chop bars were honoured.
He cited another instance where a foreigner he introduced to a restaurant was made to stand in a queue for a very long time while others went past him to be served and when he enquired, he was told that he was a new customer, while those being served were regular customers.
Remedy
Mr Bonsu said to address the problem, the GTA had developed a training manual for all categories of personnel in the tourism industry, especially front desk officers, house keepers and food and beverage servers.
He said through the Tourism Development Fund, the GTA would provide capacity building and training for all categories of personnel and urged management and proprietors of facilities and services to ensure that their staff availed themselves of the opportunities.
Heavy investments
Mr Bonsu stated that over the last few years, Ghana, especially the Ashanti Region, had witnessed huge investments in hotel and tourism infrastructure which were of high standard.
The Adontenhene of Asanteman, Nana Adu Gyamfi, called for deliberate efforts to maintain environmental cleanliness especially around tourism sites both in rural and urban centres.
He explained that clean sites would be welcoming to visitors who would carry away the impression that tourists sites were well maintained to help tourists achieve the objectives for which they travelled.