Reliable national airline needed for hospitality industry

THE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Golden Beach Hotels (GBH), Mr Yaw Kwarteng, has called on the government to provide a reliable national airline as a potential marketing tool for the hospitality industry in the country.
He said countries that were reaping the maximum benefits from their tourism sectors were doing so because of the contributions of their national airlines and cited Kenya as an example of those countries which had a very big market for tourism.
Mr Kwarteng made the call at an annual awards ceremony organised by GBH for some tour operators who have contributed to the success of the hotels over the last year at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra last Friday.
He said a national airline was symbolic, to the extent that even the inscription “Ghana Airways” on the airline sold the country more than any publicity the country could afford.
Acknowledging the contributions of the tour operators to the operations of the hotels, he said it was impossible for the hospitality industry to work in isolation, especially without tour operators.
"This awards ceremony is in your honour; you contributed in making our business what it is today and we are happy," he said.
To foster a cordial relationship between the hotels and the tour operators, Mr Kwarteng said the hotels were expanding their operations to serve their customers better with new packages, both for tour operators and GBH’s own customers across all three hotels in the group.
For her part, the Marketing Manager of La Palm, Mrs Jean Donkor, attributed the low pace of growth of the hospitality industry to the inability of regulators to create the enabling environment for operators.
She emphasised that some countries in Africa offered free visas particularly to leisure seekers which, to a large extent, helped in the creation of jobs in those countries.
She again said Ghana abound in a lot of tourism potential than most countries that were making it both in the hospitality and the tourism industries.
"We can also develop our country through tourism; others are doing it and we can also do it and better too,” she added.
In the awards itself, Connect World, Land Tours and Sun Seekers went home with various prizes for their contribution to the hotels.