Tourist Board cautions commercial drivers

Accra, 12 Jan. GNA - Mr. Martin Mireku, Acting Executive Director of Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) on Saturday urged commercial drivers to be disciplined, courteous, and dress decently during the Golden Jubilee Commemoration to enhance the country's image.

He said commercial drivers, especially rental car operators, taxi cab drivers and other transport operators serve as the first contact for visitors and therefore portray the image of a nation, hence the need to educate and sensitize them with the necessary information to erase any negative notion, psyche the visitor for enjoyable and eventful stay in the country.


Mr Mireku made these observation in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on preparations of GTB towards the Golden Jubilee celebration of the country.


The GTB Executive Director said the board had instituted an outreach programme to educate and provide key stakeholders information on tourist site, road map of major cities, location of hotels, restaurants, chop bars, beaches, and access numbers of the GTB information centers.


He said GTB organized training programmes for some taxi drivers and tour operators in an attempt to broaden their knowledge base, in terms of map reading and in-depth lecturers on the history of these tourist sites and the country as a whole to be able to give correct account to visitors.


"We believe this initiative would equip the institutions to gear up for the celebration," he said and urged executives of Drivers Union to ensure that their members abided by its rules and regulations. He urged District Assemblies to pass the necessary by-laws to compel taxi drivers to wear uniforms to project their good image and the nation among the august visitors who will be flocking in during the festive period.

Mr. Mireku said during the celebrations the country would witness an influx of tourist who might need the service of these taxi drivers and "people who come into contact with tourists should be modestly dressed to create good impression for themselves and the country as a whole."


On preparations towards the celebration, he said the whole commemoration depends on tourism, the Board was putting in place all the necessary measures and structures that would make the tourist industry live up to expectations during the period of celebration. He said although the board had not received any Programme line up for the celebrations from the Ghana@50 Secretariat they have developed their own agenda to fit into the national celebrations.


In an attempt to draw more foreign exchange from the celebrations, the various tourist sites in the country were seeing some facelift in terms receptive facilities and accessibility. He said the Board was setting standards that would regulate the operations of hoteliers and tour operators, not only in terms of facilities but also service delivery.


Mr. Mireku expressed worry about the sanitation problem in the country presently and appealed to metropolitan and municipal assemblies to make sure that, at least, tourist sites are clean.


He said school children could be mobilized for clean-up exercises as their contribution to the country's Golden Jubilee celebrations adding, "visitors cannot come and live in filth".

He said Ghana has the resources to take a big share of the revenues generated through tourism this year if "we market the Golden Jubilee commemoration effectively through the provision of adequate and reliable information on the country."


Mr. Mireku, noted "these resources are being exploited making it unattractive for investment ... human activities on the beaches is bad its impact is very negative, and called for pragmatic methods to be adopted to prevent such exploitations." The GTB Executive Director also urged private tour operators to market tourism products during the period as sales agents would market any other export commodity to enable foreigners to recognize Ghana as a good tourist destination.


"Marketing of our tourist product is the key to entering the international market. It is therefore important for the country to participate in tourism fairs and exhibition internationally," she said.