Tourism promotion in Ashanti Region impaired

Tourism in the Ashanti Region is faced with a major drawback as its growth is said to be impaired by the lack of adequate hotel accommodation. The lack of a big capacity hotel is affecting the industry, Mr. E. Owusu-Mensah, Regional Manager of the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), has said.

Tourism in the Ashanti Region is faced with a major drawback as its growth is said to be impaired by the lack of adequate hotel accommodation. The lack of a big capacity hotel is affecting the industry, Mr. E. Owusu-Mensah, Regional Manager of the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), has said.

The Ashanti Region has a total of 183 hotels, including five three-star rated ones, 16 in the two-star category and 22 one-star, with the rest being budget hotels, but Owusu Mensah said they are not enough for tourism.

He explained that the hotels with bigger facilities have less than 30 rooms and said the GTB has had to resort to distributing a group of 100 tourists among the hotels, much to the inconvenience of tourists, tour operators, GTB and hotel managements.

According to him, the Ashanti Region, being the cradle of Ghanaian culture, receives the bulk of tourists to Ghana and stressed the need to map out strategies to develop tourism in the region.

Owusu Mensah also raised concern over the non-existence of night-life in Kumasi and mentioned that there was no credible souvenir shops in the region.

The GTB manager said the city was too congested and dirty at the expense of tourism development. Manager Owusu Mensah, however, disclosed that the GTB was liaising with the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) to address issue of promotion of tourism at the metro level. The tourism sub-committee would organise conventions and conferences to generate tourism revenue.

He also announced that GTB had begun negotiations with the Asantehene to embark upon profitable projects that would make the city tourist friendly.

Meanwhile, Owusu Mensah has sugested the establishment of souvenir shops where cultural items, like miniature Golden Stools and Komfo Anokye swords, could be sold to tourists and the public.

Mr. Ekow Sampson, the Assistant Manager of GTB, says GTB is collecting data of hostels in Ashanti for analysis and will make sure management of hotels comply with the mandatory requirements.

This, he said, is a move to raise standards in the hotel industry. Each category of hotel, Sampson said, is to be assessed by a checklist of expectations and requirements set out by the GTB.

According to Sampson, hotels which do not comply and improve upon standards would face sanctions which might range between demotion and closure.