Hoteliers to train staff, or else ...

....would not be licensed -GTB Tema, April 27, GNA - The Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) in conjunction with the Ministry of Tourism and Modernisation of the City will, from next year, implement the ECOWAS Standardisation Programme for all hotels in the country.

Under it, staffs of hotels are mandated to receive adequate training in hotel management to improve upon their knowledge, Madam Comfort Opoku-Ware, Acting Greater Accra Regional Manager of the GTB, said on Tuesday.

She said new hoteliers who do not meet the requirement will not be licensed while those already in existence will equally not have theirs renewed.

Speaking to newsmen at the close of a five-day seminar on hotel management for 36 front desk staff drawn from hotels in Tema, she said this would prevent the poaching of trained staff from one hotel to another by some managers.

She said the GTB is preparing its staff in the form of adequate training towards national programmes like the CAN 2008 and the 50th anniversary of Ghana's independence.

Mr Charles Osei-Bonsu, Acting Deputy Executive Director in charge of Finance/Administration of the GTB, said 8,000 front desk staff nation wide would be trained in hotel management.

He said the training programme followed complaints about unsatisfactory services that prompted the GTB to conduct a nationwide survey that revealed that the front desk staffs were the problem. The Executive Director said staffs like food/beverage servers are the first people to meet and any display of poor human relation definitely have negative impact on the whole industry. Mr Osei-Bonsu said 2,700 people would be trained in the Greater Accra Region.

They would be trained in professional ethics, human relations, and customer confidentiality, selling skills, communication hygiene/food security, customer care and first aid among others.