President John Agyekum Kufuor on Saturday inaugurated the 21.2 million-dollar refurbished Golden Tulip Kumasi City, formerly the City Hotel, one of the nation’s foremost prized assets in the hospitality industry.

With this, Kumasi, which is one of the venues for the “Ghana CAN 2008” Tournament is now ready to play host to its expected share of match officials, national teams and large army of soccer fans.

The facility has 160 guestrooms; an a la carte restaurant; a lobby bar; swimming pool; health club facilities; conference and meeting rooms with total seating capacity of 500 people.

The Ghana Libyan Arab Holding Company (GLAHCO), an investment company established in the early 1980 by the Government of Ghana and the Peoples Socialist Libyan Arab Jamahiriya under a bilateral and investment agreement, owns it.

Inaugurating it, President Kufuor said the Government was determined to buy back some of the state-owned hotels sold out under questionable conditions and sale terms.

He said they were resolved to “salvage these national monuments, which must not be allowed to decay further and get ruined completely”.

He noted that despite the recent additions, the number of hotels, especially those in the star-rated category fell far below the national requirement given the country’s growing investment and business attraction.

President Kufuor said it was in the light of this that the re-birth of the City Hotel, was so much appreciated.

He used the occasion to draw attention to the need for hotel operators, no matter the level of star ranking of their facilities, to operate under clean environment and to provide quality service.

Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Finance Minister and Chairman of the GLAHCO, said the facility was a manifestation of the confidence the country’s partners continued to have in the Ghanaian economy and especially in the rapidly improving business environment.

“The progress made towards this objective also fulfils the aspiration of the leaders of the two Sovereign States, Ghana and Libya, towards mutual co-operation.”

He said it should not be lost on anyone that a well functioning and internationally star-rated hotel would enhance the reputation of Kumasi and contribute significantly to its economy.

He announced plans to rehabilitate Golden Tulip Accra to bring it to modern standards and said this would start in May, 2008 and was expected to be completed in six months.

Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, asked the workers of the Hotel, to ensure that service delivery was up to standard; avoid pilfering and to see themselves as part of the ownership.

Mr Abdulhamid Karmus, Managing Director of the GLAHCO, said the opening of the Hotel was yet another success story of the joint co-operation for economic development between Ghana and Libya.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Emmanuel Asamoah Owusu-Ansah, challenged the Management of the facility to create the necessary environment and avenues for the promotion of domestic tourism, conference tourism and to help to project the rich Ashanti culture.

Twenty new hotels have applied for registration in preparation towards Ghana 2008 in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis.

Additionally, individuals have registered 20 home lodges and several guest facilities to accommodate the fans.

Mr Mike Kpimgbi, Principal Resource Officer of the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Takoradi on Friday.

He said all the new applicants would be scrutinised to ensure that they conform to standards, adding that already the metropolis has accredited 50 hotels and guesthouses.

Mr Kpimgbi said the home lodges are only being made available for the tournament and would be reverted to homes when the tournament is over.

He said presently, there are several hostels at Takoradi New site, and Essipong, that would also cater for some of the accommodation needs of the thousands of football fans.

Mr Kpimgbi said though several new facilities have applied for licenses, but unfortunately, some had not undertaken fire, safety, environmental and security measures and had also not registered with the Registrar General’s

Department to warrant the licenses the want.

He said the licenses are granted depending on the types of facilities available at the hotel and these usually included the number of rooms, car park, swimming pool and other amenities.

Mr Kpimgbi stressed that the GTB would ensure that all the facilities meet international standards so that more tourists would visit Ghana after the tournament.

“We will not compromise on standards” adding that chop bar operators and drinking bar owners within the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis and at Elubo would be trained in hygiene and customer service.

He said plans were underway to educate commercial and taxi drivers within the metropolis to be courteous to passengers.

The Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations would in the middle of this year commence a comprehensive training programme for artisans in the country.

The programme is meant to upgrade the skills and build the capacity of artisans to ensure that they adopted the best of practices in their works.

Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, the sector Minister disclosed this in a speech read on his behalf at the inauguration of a Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedi Tourist Centre at Bonwire in the Ejisu-Juaben District in Ashanti region at the weekend.

The Centre was funded by the Ministry in collaboration with the Ejisu-Juaben District Assembly and would be managed by Makham Eglington Company.

It is, among others designed to be stocked with all the necessary information, historical and traditional background of the kente cloth with the view to preserving the Kente cultural heritage and also promote the kente industry for the patronage of both domestic and international tourists.

The Minister announced that the training programme would be sponsored by the Ministry in collaboration with Aid to Artisans Ghana (ATAG), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).

Mr Asamoah-Boateng said, among the topics to be treated during the year-long programme include marketing, packaging, branding and finishing and added that the project was necessitated by persistent complaints by tourists about the shoddy work of most artisans, especially craftsmen and artists.

He stated that his Ministry attached immense importance to the development of tourist attraction sites as a way of boosting tourism in the country and therefore appealed to NGOS and stakeholders to support the ministry in its efforts to upgrade the infrastructure and requisite social amenities in those sites.

This, according to the Minister, would help stimulate private sector investments in hotels, lodges, restaurants, souvenir shops, recreational and entertainment centres.

Mr. Yaw Ahenkora-Afrifa, Ejisu-Juaben District Chief Executive (DCE), noted that the assembly was committed to refurbishing the Yaa Asantewaa Museum at Ejisu, which was gutted by fire some time ago.

The refurbishment he said is to bring facilities at the museum to standard to help generate the needed patronage for the site.

Mr. William Ayambire, the Northern Regional Manager of the Ghana Tourist Board, has appealed to food vendors and drinking bar operators to take advantage of the 2008 African Cup of Nations to held in the country this month to market popular Ghanaian dishes.

He cited that Fufu, Banku and Tuo Zafi,(TZ) prepared with groundnut soup and guinea fowl meat could be well packaged for foreigners who would be in the country for the tournament.

Mr. Ayambire was speaking at a two-day training workshop organised by the Tourist Board in collaboration with Cook Art Ghana, for food vendors and chop bar and drinking bar operators in Tamale on Saturday. The workshop was aimed at educating participants on how to improve upon their service delivery and the need to ensure personal and environmental hygiene, especially at the areas of operations.

Mr. Ayambire asked service providers to be polite, avoid cheating their customers and to entertain them with Ghanaian music and traditional dances to portray Ghanaian culture during the event. He also cautioned service providers not to engage the services of teenagers, which could be misconstrued as child labour by foreigners who might not understand Ghanaian culture.

Madam Bella Ahu, National Coordinator of Cook Art Ghana, said the group in collaboration with the Tourist Board had trained over 3,000 Chop bar and drinking bar operators throughout the country in preparation for the tournament.

The annual ‘Djama’ or street procession of fishermen’s groups with songs and other artistic performances to climax the Christmas and New Year festivities was held at James Town in Accra at the weekend.

A total of 13 cultural groups in their colourful jerseys provided for the occasion by the MP for the Odododiodoo constituency, Mr Jonathan Nii Tackie Komme, took part in this year’s event.

The groups in their distinctive bright colours with songs, some composed intuitively led by their various masquerades paraded some of the principal streets of the area and converged at Swalaba where they competed among themselves as to which of them could put up the best performance.

Addressing the groups and the spectators, Mr Tackie Komme, who grew up within the vicinity announced his bid to seek re-election to represent the constituency in Parliament in this year’s election. He enumerated his achievements within the two years that he had represented the constituency since his election in a by-election in 2005.

Mr. Tackie Komme said he used almost half of his GETFund, HIPC and Common Funds for the provision of school infrastructure.

Notable among the projects were the repairs of the ceilings of three classrooms at the Bishop Girl School, provision of a computer laboratory for the Holy Trinity Secondary School and the roofing, electric wiring and provision of ceiling fans for some classrooms at the Independence Avenue ‘2′ Basic school.

Other achievements included the completion of a canteen and roofing of some classrooms at the Ayalolo Cluster of schools and assistance towards the building of a two-storey building at the Bishop Mixed Junior Secondary School. Mr Tackie Komme had also provided financial assistance towards the building of three classrooms at the Akwei Memorial school and the provision of part of the prizes for the speech and prize diving day of schools in the area to encourage students and pupils in the area to take their studies seriously.

He also financed the holding of evening classes for Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in 2006 and 2007 for all Basic school children in the area, assistance towards the Accra Metro Best Teacher award, a library project at the Accra Royal School and a computer laboratory for the Accra Sempe ‘2′.

Mr. Nii Tackie Komme also awarded scholarships to a number of needy but brilliant students and said he was rehabilitating the compound of the Bishop Girls’ School and provided jerseys and sporting equipment to groups to promote sports development in the area.

He appealed to the people to support his re-election bid to enable him to complete his development plans for the area. The MP said, he had contacted a number of non-governmental organisations both in the country and outside for assistance to ensure the development of the area and to provide financial assistance for women’s and other identifiable groups to expand their business ventures.

Speaking to the GNA, an opinion leader in the area said the songs by the groups were used to commend people, especially the MP, who contributed to community development in the past year and to spur them on.

Mr. Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, on Thursday urged Ghanaians to take advantage of the hosting of the 2008 African Cup of Nations tournament and showcase the country’s rich cultural heritage to promote tourism.

He also appealed to hoteliers to demonstrate the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality to visitors who would come to the country for the event, scheduled for this month.

Mr Baffour-Awuah was speaking at the launch of the Committee of Kumasi Venue Organizing Committee of Ghana CAN 2008 tournament, in Sunyani.

He said government was committed to promoting sports in the country and charged the Committee to work hard to ensure the success of the continental tournament.

Mr. Baffour-Awuah said the event would present a great challenge to the country since a number of visitors and football enthusiasts would flock into the country and urged Ghanaians to demonstrate high sense of civility to project the nation ’s image.

He expressed dissatisfaction that the launch by the Committee, scheduled to commence at 1100 hours was delayed till around 1230 hours.

Mr. Baffour-Awuah said, “This is highly unprofessional and unacceptable if we want to promote the development of sports in the country, especially if we want to stage a successful tournament.”

Nana Agyemang Gyau III, Atimpimhene of the Berekum Traditional Council, urged Ghanaians to contribute their quota towards the success of the tournament.

He cautioned taxi drivers and other service providers not to take advantage of the ignorance of visitors and charge exorbitant fares because that could cause a dent on the country’s image.

Mr Kwamina Sambani, a member of the Committee, expressed gratitude to individuals and organisations in the region that contributed to the development of sports in the country.

He said the Committee would provide giant screens to enable sports enthusiasts in the region to watch live coverage of matches involving Cameroon, Sudan, Egypt and Zambia, which would be based in Kumasi.

Four teams in the region, comprising Aduana Stars, B/A United, Tano Bofoakwa and Bechem United will take part in a football gala on Friday, January 4, to create interest and awareness of the people about the tournament, as part of the launch.

Aduana Stars will play Bechem United in the first match whilst B/A United will engage Tano Bofoakwa in the second match with the winners meeting in the final, all at the Coronation Stadium in Sunyani.

Stakeholders in the tourism industry met on Wednesday to evaluate the just ended PANAFEST/Emancipation and Joseph Project celebrations and agreed, among other things that, the activities needed more publicity and promotion to achieve the desired impact.

The stakeholders made up of government officials from the Ghana Tourists Board and the sector Ministry as well as private tour operators including owners of hotels and restaurants, owners of car rental organization, chop bar operators and night club operators made the evaluation based on a survey by the Ghana Tourists Board to know how tourists saw the events. The participants also pointed out that the programmes for PANAFEST/Emancipation and the Joseph Project needed to be re-packaged to make it “more attractive not only to foreigners but to Ghanaians and our African neighbours.” Nana Twum, Head of Research, Statistics and Information Department at the Ghana Tourists Board, presenting the result of a survey conducted in Cape Coast, Elmina and Assin Manso by his department on the PANAFEST/Emancipation and Joseph Project celebrations said about 236 tourists were interviewed out of which about 87 per cent participated in the celebration for the first time.

The survey focused on the total visitor experience, which touched on marketing of the events, its organization, visitor characteristics, impressions and recommendations in addition to visitors’ comments. Nana Twum said out of 236 non-resident visitors 63.1 percent had the desire to spend less than 14 nights, 27.1 intended staying 14 nights or more and 9.3 percent intended to stay less than seven nights.

He said the events were promoted mainly by word of mouth since about 30 percent of visitors said they learnt of the events first from friends or relatives Nana Twum mentioned the lack of good sanitary conditions, poor time management, regimental nature of the programmes, lack of local community participation and poor customer service as areas where visitors complained about most.

Mr. Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, Deputy Minister of Tourism and Diasporean Relations noted that importance of Public-Private partnership in the tourism sector and said the industry could not be driven by government alone neither could the private sector alone handle it. He called on tour operators to make efforts to satisfy tourists that came to the country even as the country prepared for Ghana 2008 football tournament and said the success of the CAN 2008 depended largely on the tourism sector.

The Deputy Minister pledged government’s commitment to the development of tourism in the country Osabarima Kwesi Atta, Omahene of Oguaa Traditional Area, who chaired the forum, lauded the Ghana Tourists Board and the Ministry for the survey and urged operators to learn from past mistakes and improve to attain the highest practices. Mrs. Bridget Katsriku advised operators in the industry to do the right thing because doing things anyhow was not good for the growth of tourism industry.

Multichoice Ghana recently donated 100 bags of cement to the officials of the Accra Zoo as its contribution to the relocation of the Accra Zoo to the Achimota Forest.

At the handing over ceremony, Ms. Anne Sackey (Public Relations Executive), of Multichoice Ghana (MCG), revealed that as broadcasters of channels such as Animal Planet and National Geographic, the company is sympathetic to environmental and wildlife issues and is proud to lend a hand towards the relocation and expansion of the Accra Zoo.

She went on to say that in the same way that these channels are educating many viewers, both old and young on nature and animals, he hopes that the new zoo will help to educated Ghanaians on the diverse number of animals in Ghana.

To receive the contribution was the Deputy Minister for Lands, Forestry and Mines (Hon. Adjei Yebiah) as well as the Ms Gytha Nuno of Friends of the National Zoo as well as representatives of the Department of Game and Wildlife.

THE CONCERNED Citizens Action Front has urged the government to take advantage of the rare opportunity of hosting CAN 2008 to showcase Ghana’s rich cultural heritage to the outside world and enhance tourism.

Mr. K. Nimako-Amprako, chairman of the movement in a statement issued in Kumasi, noted that the pace of preparations towards the soccer fiesta by the Local Organizing Committee and sponsors was slow.

According to Chairman Nimako-Amprako football is the most important national pastime, which has become a national passion for which reason promotional advertisements should have acknowledged the role our culture plays in national settings by depicting some portraits of our cultural heritage in the billboards, posters and other advertisements on national television.

The Movement regretted that billboards and posters currently being displayed were stale because they do not give any meaning to what Ghanaians stand for.

The chairman explained that Ghanaians are a people of cultural heritage and anything that takes culture away from them is of no benefit to them and therefore would receive less patronage.

Following this the Movement has appealed to organizers and sponsors of the tournament to, as a matter of urgency, come out with new posters, gimmicks and billboards that would take into account our national image as a culturally-inclined people.

It suggested that chiefs who are the repositories of our rich culture and land owners should be taken onboard during these preparatory stages in order that they galvanize their elders and people to embrace the soccer fiesta to its logical conclusion.

Mr. Nimako-Amprako pointed out that the Movement’s suggestion was worth considering because CAN 2008 is a national event and the nation’s interest reigned supreme, hence the need to seize what he described as a golden opportunity to sell our national image to the outside world through advertisements at all entry points to the country.

Government has been asked to develop and adopt policies to create an enabling environment to promote tourism in the country. These policies would allow the country to exercise greater control over the product and services offered on the international market. The Chief Executive Officer of Starline Travel and Tours and Training Institute, Nana Prempeh Anin-Bonsu was speaking at the inauguration of the Starline Travel Agency and Starline Training Institute in Kumasi.

Mr. Annin-Bonsu who is also the president of the United Nations World Tourism Organization said activities outlined for next year such as the hosting of the African Cup of Nations, the 12th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the Summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, are likely to draw thousands of visitors from around the world to the country.

He however, pledged the institutes commitment to provide quality training to suit the growing demands of the hospitality industry.

The Chief Director of the Ministry to Tourism and Diasporan Relation, Bridget Katsriku said tourism creates jobs and reduces poverty. She said in line with the preparations towards the Ghana 2008, the tourism sector has initiated a training programme for hoteliers, restaurants and traditional caterers to help upgrade their skills in service delivery.

Madam Katsriku called for collaboration among tourism practitioners to help them provide quality service to tourists.
The Juabehene, Nana Otuo Sereboe who deputized for the Asantehene commended the management of the Starline Travel Agency for opening a branch in Kumasi and hoped the staff will work hard to uplift the image of the tourism and hospitality industries.