Most hotels in Volta Region below standard -GTP

Most hotels in the Volta Region do not meet standards set by the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) for the tourism industry.

Miss Diana Edu-Owusu, Resource Officer of the Board disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Ho on Monday.

She said out of a total of 66 registered hotels in the region, only 17 are rated by the Board, with the Lorneh Lodge at Tegbi and Villa Cisneros Resort at Sogakope, as the only three- star hotels.

Freedom and Chances Hotels, both in Ho and Green Star Hotel at Hohoe are two-star, with the remaining rated as one-star.

Miss Edu-Owusu said, "if we are to go strictly by our standards most of the hotels would have to close down"

She described the general state of the hospitality industry in the region as unsatisfactory and incapable of promoting the ambitious tourism agenda of the GTB and the Volta Regional Co-ordinating Council, (VRCC).

She corroborated GNA survey findings that many of the drinking bars in Ho do not have urinals.

She complained of lack of interest of the proprietors in sponsoring their workers for training, which compelled the GTB to cancel a training session last year.

Miss Edu-Owusu said a similar course for this year to expose hotel and restaurant workers to house keeping and front office management, among others, has been scheduled for May.

She noted that proprietors are sometimes hostile towards the GTB, when it offers to train newly employed staff of tourism establishments.

Miss Edu-Owusu said restaurants in the region couldn't avail themselves of the assistance of the GTB because none of them has registered with the Board.

Mr Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa, Volta Regional Minister, in an address at a training workshop for tourism facility workers in Ho last week, called on stakeholders to address the issue of poor service at such facilities in the region.