By Daniel Adu Darko
Accra, July 27, GNA- Chief Executive Officer of Hospitality Plus Limited, Dr Joseph Mensah Ansah, has asked the government to support the tourism and hospitality industry to fully recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and become the major foreign exchange earner.
Dr Mensah Ansah said the tourism and hospitality industry despite the woeful impact of COVID-19 had witnessed a quantum leap with an average tourist expenditure increasing from US$ 1,300 in 2021 to US$2,700 in 2022, an increase of over 100 per cent within a year.
Speaking as the Chairman of Ghana Hotels Association 3rd National Executive Council Meeting 2023 on.the theme: “Sustaining The Hotel Industry in Ghana Post COVID-19, ” Dr Mensah Ansah noted that even though the tourism and hospitality industry was the most hit by COVID-19, its recovery after the pandemic was encouraging.
He said that the accommodation sector of the hospitality industry generated 31 per cent of the revenues accrued and 11 per cent also came from the food and beverage sector, making the hospitality industry alone contributing 42 per cent of the revenues generated by the tourism industry in Ghana.
“This is only the beginning of the industry’s recovery after COVID-19”, he said when giving his closing remark at the opening ceremony of the Ghana Hotel Association 3rd NEC Meeting inAccra.
Dr Ansah indicated from the UNWTO 2022 Report on World Tourism Index that Africa and the Americas recovered about 65 per cent of these pre-pandemic levels but Ghana alone did 81 per cent, attributing the growth to the efforts of the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Mohammed Awal.
He was, however, certain that Ghana would be registered in the next World Tourism Index Report as the first country to have hit 100 per cent recovery of the pre-pandemic levels.
“On the basis of these facts, the tourism and hospitality industry needs more practical attention and support than it is receiving now if we are to meet our target as a major foreign exchange earner for our dear country and also to recover fully in 2024”, he called.
Dr Mensah Ansah, however, said that the sustainability of the hospitality industry in Ghana should be looked at from two perspectives; external factors and internal factors.
He stressed the external factors, being the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and its compatriot Russia-Ukraine skirmishes, the industry had little control except to adapt its operational and financial strategies to survive but not without some casualties.
“We are aware that some of our colleagues have lost their hotels, some of them are in court for staff layoffs and many other challenges that came with COVID-19. These external challenges will always be with us and we only have to manage them by managing the external environment”, he said.
The internal factors that hamper the sustainability of the hospitality industry, he said, were many with the quality of utility services and charges, and the availability of quality manpower intertwined with manpower development as some of them.
He said the recent 167 water tariff slapped on the hospitality industry by the PURC had created a serious problem for the operations of the industry as many operators run into huge debts with Ghana Water Company threatening to disconnect them.
Regarding quality manpower and its development, Dr Mensah Ansah urged the government to revive the proposed Ghana School of Tourism and Hospitality which had been on the drawing board since 1991.
“The proposed Ghana School of Tourism and Hospitality has been on the drawing board since 1991 and the humble request of the Ghana Hotel Association is that we need our school. Every profession that is making progress has its school. We need to revive the hotel school concept”, he pleaded.
Another internal factor crippling the sustainability of the hospitality industry is access to quality finance from financial institutions.
“We need some interventions from the government level so that we can get the quality financial support that will enable us to double our rooms but double our room numbers to hit the 100,000 that we are envisaging,” he appealed.
To enhance the operations of the hotel industry, Dr Joseph Mensah Ansah urged hoteliers to make good use of digitalization, by capturing every information of their clients on their computers for their own protection in the future.
He said even though the hotel industry had more control over the internal factors, the industry players would need the support and positive collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and Ghana Tourism Authority.
“Together we need to take much more decisive steps to resolve them with the sustainability of our industry”, he said.
Touching on the mandatory membership of the Trade Associations, Dr Edward Ackah-Nyamike, President of Ghana Hotels Association, implored the Ghana Tourism Authority, which gives licenses to the various trade associations to operate, to make it compulsory for operators to register with the appropriate trade associations before they were given licenses to operate.
This, he said, would help them to have the mandate to bite a bit when it comes to the administrative roles of the industry to ensure the right practices at the facilities.
“This is an industry that is very sensitive. When international visitors come and they go to lodge in a hotel and there is a challenge it will be a challenge not only for the hotel but for the country as a whole. We want a situation where the trade associations can perform some administrative roles with regard to the administration of tourism and hospitality in Ghana”, he said.
He urged the industry regulatory bodies to embrace the digitalization drive to make registration and payment easier for the hoteliers.
He said that some regulatory bodies were still going the manual way, and pleaded with them to go digital so that issues like license renewal or acquisition could be done online.
GNA