Two-day hotelier management conference underway in Accra

Over 100 hotel practitioners, policy makers and regulators are participating in a two-day international management workshop to enhance the capacity and boost the performance of hoteliers.

The workshop, which opened in Accra on Thursday, would also dwell on linking the hotel business to tourism development and to create a conducive corporate climate and culture to optimise quality and efficiency in the industry.

Senior Minister Joseph Henry Mensah in his address said the government was aware of the enormous potential of the hospitality industry and the important contribution that it could make to the country's socio-economic development efforts.

The government, he said, was, therefore, adopting special measures to help develop the sector. Mr Mensah said a major concern was the country's poor road network and gave the assurance that the government had secured the necessary funding to build major roads that linked Accra to other centres.

High on the agenda is the Accra-Kumasi and Accra-Yammoransa roads. Also to be tackled is the high spate of armed robbery in the country to ensure that tourists did not carry away any bad experiences to deter others from visiting the country.

In this, connection, Mr Mensah asked the practitioners to engage the services of highly qualified security personnel to avoid incidents that could impact negatively on their reputation. He also tasked managements of hotels to provide detailed development training for their staff to remove any traces of bad service that could hamper their quest for growth.

The Minister of Tourism, Madam Hawa Yakubu said the tourism sector was plagued with numerous problems, especially the lack of funds to carry out their development programmes.

Mr Charles Minor, Management Development Director of African Management Services Company (AMSCO), organisers of the workshop, said when given the necessary backing tourism could catch up with other sectors as the country's major foreign exchange earner.