Tourism Institute

THE Deputy Executive Director of the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), Mr Charles Osei-Bonsu, has urged service providers in the hospitality industry not to compromise on their professional ethics and standards in service delivery.
“Your service to the customer should reflect the type of training you had, your work policy should be customer-oriented and customer-driven to win the loyalty of your customers and retain them,” he stated.
Mr Osei-Bonsu, who was speaking at the launch and first graduation ceremony of the International Travel and Tourism Institute of Ghana (ITTI GH) in Accra, advised the graduands to exhibit good inter-personal relationship, punctuality, smart turnout, teamwork and respect for their customers.
He entreated tourism institutions in the country to create job placement centres to assist their personnel in job acquisition because of the difficulty involved in securing jobs after training.
Wing Commander C. O. Addo(retd) a retired Air Force officer, cautioned the graduands, who would be working in the aviation industry, to ensure that the country’s security was paramount in all duties.
“You should be wary of customers who might try to induce you with money,” he advised, noting that they would meet all kinds of people from different countries and ethnic backgrounds in the course of their work.
Wing Commander Addo also challenged the graduands to apply all that they had learnt during their training period and strive to serve their country in the best way they could.
He encouraged the graduands to strive to upgrade themselves in the various fields in which they would find themselves, adding that there was the need for continuous education so that they would keep abreast of modern trends and developments in the hospitality industry.
He urged the management of ITTI GH not to give up in the face of increasing challenges in the hospitality industry and encouraged them to do their best to overcome those challenges, stating that success could be achieved through hard work and discipline.
In all, a total of 60 students received certificates of achievement in various customer service disciplines, including Travel and Tourism, Hospitality Management and Passenger Handling.
Special awards were given to four students who excelled in various fields.
Awards for best students in Travel and Tourism went to Patrick Prince Mills, while that of the Hospitality Management was received by Augustina Quansah, with Naomi Anang and Mavis Amissah winning the best students in Passenger Handling and Aviance respectively.
Aviace Ghana, the first Ghanaian Ground Handling Organisation to join the world-wide Aviance alliance has confirmed ITTI GH as their Aviance Training Partners and has also accepted the best 30 students from the institute for an automatic Three-month attachment at the Kotoka International Airport.