"Government committed to alleviate the effect of COVID-19 on tourism businesses"-Bono GTA boss assures.

The Bono Regional Manager of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) Joseph Appiagyei said Government aims at alleviating the effect of the coronavirus on tourism establishments as the pandemic has had a devastating effect on the sector.

He said the Ghana Cares Obaatanpa program was a nationwide project to train hotel personnel, car rentals officials, the catering sector, tour guards, and tour operators, among others in the sector for free at the expense of the state.

He said the government has put in place strategies and interventions to catalyze the quick recovery of the sector, as well as to boost post-COVID-19 economic transformation.

Mr. Appiagyei disclosed a day training organized by the Bono Regional Office of the Ghana Tourism Authority under the Ghana Cares Obaatampa Program for tourism operators.

The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Bono Regional Office has organized a day training program for hospitality operators under the COVID-19 Alleviation Revitalization of Enterprise Support (Ghana Cares) program, a government of Ghana initiative.

He said, as part of the plan to improved their operations, the training was formulated to build the capacity of the hospitality operators, adding that, they realized that the stakeholders might not have the requisite capacity to train their workers.

He said when untrained personnel manned such facilities, it affects standards of operation, besides, when, standards were raised through such training more people patronized the facilities.

Meanwhile, Mr. Appiagyei expressed dissatisfaction over the low patronage of the hospitality operators within the Sunyani enclave. According to him, he was expecting more operators at the training but it seems the operators outside Sunyani were dominating the program.

He, however, called on the telecommunications network to improve on their service to reach larger people to enhance the work of the hospitality operators.

The Co-founder and Creative Director of Mega Eye Group, an IT group, Mr. Dredd Kingsley Azaletey advised players in the hospitality industry to take advantage of the growing internet and do their businesses online.

He said they can push businesses to people online and increase their sales revenue. He encouraged them to be mindful of the things that they post online.

He said, rich and good content attract people to visit the various internet sites. 

Some of the participants expressed gratitude to the Ghana Tourism Authority for such an educative program and called for a series of such programs to equip them with new ideas.