By Maxwell Awumah
Ho, Oct. 23, GNA – Professor Christopher Mensah, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Ho Technical University (HTU) has strongly advocated for the inclusion of sexual harassment and intimidation into the national tourism policy.
Mr Mensah urged the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) and other regulators to deploy and display these policies as an upholder and safeguards for licensing approvals and renewals for industry players.
He, therefore urged the regulators to support guesthouses and budget hotel facilities, to underwrite the sexual harassment policy to shore up standards at that level.
He insisted on better remuneration of approved minimum wage for industry workers and the need to run awareness training regimes.
Prof. Mensah made these observations during the University’s second inaugural lecture at Ho, denoting his ascension to full professorship status.
The lecture was on the theme; “Hidden Curriculum: Toxic Socialisation in Ghana’s Higher Education and Hospitality Sectors.”
It was attended by Madam Dzifa Abla Gomashie, Minister of Tourism and Creative Arts and Vice Chancellors of University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) and Cape Coast Technical University (CCTU), Prof. Kwaku Adutwum Ayim Boakye, HTU VC, Prof. Ben Q. Honyenuga, Management and Faculty members, students, staff, as well as family and friends.
The lecturer urged regulators to train complaint handlers at the hotel level, protect the vulnerable and reduce the tip dependence, which sometimes led to sexual advances, harassment, abuses and intimidation.
Prof. Mensah noted that sexual harassment, bullying, humiliation and other forms of interpersonal mistreatment remained persistent concerns in higher education and hospitality workplaces.
He said these settings were often examined separately obscuring the possibility that universities may serve as an important pipeline through which workplace cultures, power relations and behavioural norms were transmitted, reproduced and normalised.
The Pro-Vice Chancellor said international arrivals rose to 1.31 million visitors in 2025 from the 2020 and 2005 figures of 355,108 and 392,500, respectively.
He said average international spending per visitor stood at US$3,320, US$3,743 and US$3,747 for the 2025, 2024 and 2023, correspondingly, though receipts fell by about US$480 million, despite more arrivals.
He noted that on international visitor’s expenditure, accommodation took 31.6 per cent; food and beverages 25 per cent; shopping consumed 17.4 per cent ; local transport 8.4 per cent; recreation 5.8 per cent; domestic air 2.3 per cent; sporting 0.3% and other services 9.2 %, with accommodation, food and beverages accounting for 56.6 per cent of the total spending.
Prof. Mensah enumerated forms of sexual harassment (SH) in Ghanaian Universities to include; persistent request for relationships, pressured outings, attempted or forced kissing, provocative touching and sex demands for grades.
The lecturer said hospitality workers reporting sexual harassment was a widespread phenomenon with Cameroon recording 98.8 per cent; Zimbabwe 78 per cent; Taiwan US 58%; South Africa 14% and Accra 49 per cent.
He quoted Bondestam and Lunqvist (2020) which showed that about one-in-four female students experienced SH on an average.
Prof. Mensah said statistics on mistreatment at Ghana’s Technical Universities showed that 92.2% of 344 students experienced at least one of 26 mistreatment behavior including shouted or yelled at 55.3%; talked about to others 53.4%; gossip and rumoured about 49.9%; unfair grade 49.1%; insulted 48.8% and humiliated and belittled 44.2%.
He indicated that university undergo forced or coerced sex with 26% female College of Education students recording 25.3% with between 25% to 60% of students suffering sexual harassment depending on population and definition.
Prof. Mensah pointed out that research had also shown that workers in Accra hotels also experienced harassment behaviours, with majority of cases being women and mostly harassed by guests, co-workers and supervisors.
He noted that by fostering critical awareness, ethical leadership, dignity and respect, universities could serve as key sites for disrupting these cycles.
The lecturer invited educators, hospitality professionals, students, policymakers and institutional leaders to reconsider a fundamental question of what students were truly being taught and what they were learning from the methods and environment in which they were being educated.
Prof. Mensah has presented scientific papers and several academic conferences and has over 65 publications including journal articles, encyclopaedia entries with some of his works published in the Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism, the Services Industries Journal, Journal of Food Service Business Research, Journal of Culinary Science and Technology and Journal of Academic Ethics, among several others.
He is a member of International Council on Hotels, Restaurant and Institutional Education (ICHRIE), Institute of Hospitality, Ghana, and married with a son.
GNA
Edited by Christabel Addo
Reported By: Maxwell Awumah
Email: [email protected]