By Prince Acquah
Cape Coast, Feb 12, GNA – The Ridge Royal Hotel, a leading hospitality facility based in Cape Coast, has introduced a special fumigation exercise against bedbugs to prevent an invasion of the parasitic insect in hotels.
The hotel, though not affected by the blood-sucking insects, has introduced a bi-annual disinfection to further secure the health and safety of its guests and enhance their experience to promote tourism.
Already, the facility runs quarterly fumigations to control rodents, pests and insects outside of the hotel and to eliminate those inside but the special one against bedbugs has been introduced due to their resilient nature.
Executed by Busters Apex Limited, a fumigation and pest control company, the first was carried out at the end of January this year and the second is scheduled for the end of June.
Bedbugs hide and breed in mattresses, bed frames, sofas, cracked walls, bags and carpets, among other spaces and are spread by guests when they latch onto suitcases, clothes, and linens.
Their ability to survive for well over a year without food helps them spread even in adverse conditions and over long distances.
They cause allergic reactions leading to difficulties in breathing, abdominal pains, swollen faces as well as insomnia and anxiety.
Nana Obiri Aduama, the General Manager of the Hotel, said the preventive and control measures against pests and insects had become necessary to ensure the health and safety of guests.
Nana Aduama, also the Nkosohen of the Oguaa Traditional Area, said the presence of such insects in hospitality facilities could destroy the hospitality sector and collapse tourism.
“And so hotels and guest facilities should take fumigations seriously to reduce the pests in the system.”
“It will increase our cost marginally but the cost of not doing it will be far higher,” he cautioned, and said the disinfection must be carried in a measured manner to avoid harming the staff and guests.
Nana Aduama called on authorities to make frequent fumigations compulsory for all hotels to protect guests and save the industry.
In the specific case of the bedbugs, he said it behoved on all hotels to adopt the fumigation to keep the insects away because no one could easily stop it from multiplying.
“People will definitely move from one hotel to the other and you do not know what they carry, so let’s all come together to put these preventive measures in place so that we will be safe,” Nana Aduama urged hotel managers.
He said the hotel managements and association, the Ghana Tourism Authority and the Food and Drugs Authority should collectively make fumigations an integral part of their health and safety protocols for their collective good.
GNA