The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) is set to close down about 203 tourism businesses in the Ashanti Region for non-compliance with regulatory requirements. According to Mr. Frederick Adjei-Rudolph, the Ashanti Regional Director of GTA, the exercise aims to ensure fairness and a level playing field among industry players.
The GTA is guided by the Tourism Act 817 of 2011 and relevant Legislative Instruments. Section 25 (1) and (2) of the Act states that a person shall not operate a tourism enterprise without a valid license issued by the Authority.
The exercise will cover various categories of tourism enterprises, including accommodation, travel trade, food and beverage and entertainment.
The Regional Director indicated that the objective of the exercise is to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, enhance industry standards, protect guests, patrons and consumers and promote fair competition.
The Enforcement Team, comprising inspectors from the Authority, officers from the Ghana Police Service and the Press, will visit all identified illegal operators in the region and enforce closure of their facilities.
The team will sign a closure undertaken with the management of the affected facility, post closure stickers at visible and vantage places of the facility, confiscate keys where necessary and provide a list of enforced facilities to the Ghana Police Service for monitoring until the facility complies with the reason for the closure.
The GTA called on stakeholders, including industry associations and the media, to support the exercise by sensitising their members and the public on the importance of compliance with regulatory requirements and assured of its commitment to promoting a well-regulated and sustainable tourism industry in the region.
Mr Adjei-Rudolf hoped all stakeholders would work towards achieving this goal.
