By James Amoh Junior
Tema, Sept. 24, GNA – The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) says it would, in the coming weeks, clamp down on unlicensed, unregistered and illegal enterprises to guarantee sanity in the tourism sector.
Mr Charles Buabin, Regional Director, Ghana Tourism Authority, Tema, said the authority in the coming weeks would mount an enforcement exercise to ensure strict adherence to mandatory requirements.
The Tourism Act, Act 817 of 2011, requires the Authority to register and license tourism enterprises and individuals shall not operate tourism enterprises without a valid license by the Authority in respect of that tourism enterprise.
He was speaking at the 2019 Tema Regional Tourism Awards which recognised excellence in the sector, raise standards and encouraged healthy competition among industry players to firmly position tourism as a vibrant economic sector.
According to him the Regional Director, unlicensed enterprises who operated with impunity had been identified and efforts were being initiated earnestly to clamp down on them.
He advised patrons of tourism to at all times ensure that the establishments they patronized and did business with were registered and licensed in accordance with Tourism Act – Act 817, 2011.
Mr Isaac Adomako-Mensah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Finance and Administration, Ghana Tourism Authority, while reiterating similar sentiments, said as regulators, the authority was confronted with challenges of illegal operators and efforts were being made to ensure that standards were taken a notch higher.
He, therefore, called on prospective operators not licensed by the Authority to get in touch with regional officers to regularize their operations, and said, “the Tourism (Tourist Sites) Regulation, 209, LI 2393 which seeks to regulate and license all tourist sites has come into force.”
He entreated all tourism industry players to co-operate with the Authority in the implementation of the regulation on tourist and attraction sites.
Mr Adomako-Mensah noted that, under the Ghana Tourism Development Projects, with sponsorship from the World Bank, the GTA through the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture was working collaboratively with stakeholders to set up a Hospitality Training Institute.
This, he added would ensure service excellence among industry players and promote service delivery in the country’s hospitality industry.
