GTB bares teeth

Page 25, August 22

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

THE Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) has warned that it will use punitive actions to compel players in the hospitality industry to operate within approved standards.
Such actions, the board said, would include the lowering of the star rate of hotels, the imposition of heavy fines, the withdrawal of licences and prosecution.
The Executive Director of the GTB, Mr Martin Mireku, who sounded the warning when the board met with the players in the industry in Accra yesterday, noted that feedback from some guests who participated in some international conferences in the country were not encouraging; they were abysmal and unacceptable.
The meeting was to afford the players and the regulator the opportunity to brainstorm on how to move the industry forward in the face of the growing number of international conferences being hosted by Ghana and the quest of the government to make the country the tourism hub of the sub-region.
Mr Mireku described as unfortunate the refusal on the part of many of the hotels to heed to advice given them by the board after their premises had been inspected.
“We do our regular inspections and note down all the faults we detect. We notify them of their mistakes but we have realised that most of them refuse to correct them”, he added.
He said the board had noticed that most of the hotels employed people to sit at the front desk without requisite knowledge of the industry.
“In the end, they perform poorly to the extent that they put their guests off”, he added.
He reiterated the resolve of the board to get tough on the recalcitrant players as part of measures to streamline the operations of the hotel industry to meet the acceptable standards.
Mr S.J. Parker-Allotey, Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in his report, said some of the hotels, particularly the high star-rated ones, were not living up to expectation.
He mentioned poor security, lack of maintenance of facilities, poor services and the general lack of proper management of the hotels as some of the key challenges within the industry.
Mr Parker-Allotey urged the industry players to work harder to take advantage of the growing potential in the industry as well as avoid the rod of GTB.