By Edward Adjei FRIMPONG, Sunyani
The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has advanced a process to introduce a single window system to incorporate every actor in the tourism industry on the ‘one-stop shop’ platform to boost promotion and marketing in order to enhance socio-economic returns from the industry.
“The system will advertise every tourism actor still doing business in the dark. It will give vivid information about climatic conditions at the various destinations and traffic situations there as well as where to catch a bus or airline to these places,” Acting Chief Executive Office on GTA, Gideon Aryeequaye, said.
The tourism single window system, he explained, will give the country a competitive edge over other tourism-oriented countries on the continent, adding, “we are starting this initiative immediately; the Authority has already given out the contract.”
Mr. Aryeequaye was speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Sunyani. The meeting which formed part of his familiarization tour of the Brong Ahafo Region was to afford him the opportunity to abreast himself with the developments in the region.
He entreated the private sector to capitalize on the enormous economic opportunities in the tourism industry. “The private sector should be able to appreciate the number of tourism sites across the country and build required facilities there to make them more attractive to tourists.”
Common issues that came up at the meeting included multiplicity of taxes, astronomical utility tariffs, poor infrastructure such as lack of recreational centres at tourism sites and bad road network to most of the tourism centres in the Brong Ahafo Region. The region is blessed with many of tourism destinations but accessibility has always been a challenge; some sites are still in their raw diamond state.
Mr. Solomon Frimpong of the African Origin Travel and Tour said: “The poor nature of the roads leading to tourism centres in the region makes it very difficult to facilitate domestic tourism in this part of the country. Lack of direct flight from Accra to Sunyani has also been a huge disincentive to the industry.”
For his part, Andrews Kofi Oteng, Chairman of the Brong Ahafo Traditional Caterers Association appealed for more funding to support the education and periodic training of practitioners in that sector. He said frequent training programmes for staff and owners of traditional catering are very imperative to raise their standard of operation.
Meanwhile, the GTA Boss and his entourage later visited the Boaben-Fiama Monkey Sanctuary in the Nkoranza North District, Fuller Waterfalls and the Kintampo Waterfalls.
The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has advanced a process to introduce a single window system to incorporate every actor in the tourism industry on the ‘one-stop shop’ platform to boost promotion and marketing in order to enhance socio-economic returns from the industry.
“The system will advertise every tourism actor still doing business in the dark. It will give vivid information about climatic conditions at the various destinations and traffic situations there as well as where to catch a bus or airline to these places,” Acting Chief Executive Office on GTA, Gideon Aryeequaye, said.
The tourism single window system, he explained, will give the country a competitive edge over other tourism-oriented countries on the continent, adding, “we are starting this initiative immediately; the Authority has already given out the contract.”
Mr. Aryeequaye was speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Sunyani. The meeting which formed part of his familiarization tour of the Brong Ahafo Region was to afford him the opportunity to abreast himself with the developments in the region.
He entreated the private sector to capitalize on the enormous economic opportunities in the tourism industry. “The private sector should be able to appreciate the number of tourism sites across the country and build required facilities there to make them more attractive to tourists.”
Common issues that came up at the meeting included multiplicity of taxes, astronomical utility tariffs, poor infrastructure such as lack of recreational centres at tourism sites and bad road network to most of the tourism centres in the Brong Ahafo Region. The region is blessed with many of tourism destinations but accessibility has always been a challenge; some sites are still in their raw diamond state.
Mr. Solomon Frimpong of the African Origin Travel and Tour said: “The poor nature of the roads leading to tourism centres in the region makes it very difficult to facilitate domestic tourism in this part of the country. Lack of direct flight from Accra to Sunyani has also been a huge disincentive to the industry.”
For his part, Andrews Kofi Oteng, Chairman of the Brong Ahafo Traditional Caterers Association appealed for more funding to support the education and periodic training of practitioners in that sector. He said frequent training programmes for staff and owners of traditional catering are very imperative to raise their standard of operation.
Meanwhile, the GTA Boss and his entourage later visited the Boaben-Fiama Monkey Sanctuary in the Nkoranza North District, Fuller Waterfalls and the Kintampo Waterfalls.
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