Promoting Tourism: Hospitality industry advised to provide quality service to customers

Ekow Samsom, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), has advised players in the hospitality industry to provide quality services to their customers to promote the tourism sector.

He said good customer service was required at every point of the sector, be it hotel, restaurant, travel agency, or airline, to make customers get value for their money.

Mr Samsom gave the advice during a stakeholders’ engagement and customer service training for informal caterers in Tamale to enhance their capacity for better customer service.

Customer service was directly related to tourism and without customers companies would not get the expected income, he said, adding that customers must get the satiisfaction they dreamt of for every venture.

Mrs Yvonne Ohui MacCarthy, Consultant for GTA, advised the participants to be friendly to customers and build good relationships, which would entice them to always yearn to come back.

She said; “If tourists get good service in a well-known catering service, then they will consider that hotel chain first whenever they travel again and will recommend it to others within their social circle.”

“Marketing in the tourism and hospitality industry requires an understanding of the differences between marketing goods and marketing services.”

Mrs MacCarthy said organisations needed an understanding of the unique characteristics of the motivation and behaviours of travelling consumers to take advantage of every opportunity.

Miss Annabelle McKenzie, the Director of Beyond the Return at the GTA, called on catering service providers to introduce Ghanaian foods to their customers as part of promoting made-in-Ghana foods globally.