Industry players in the tourism sector who attended the Inaugural ceremony of the Advisory Board of the Chamber for Tourism Industry Ghana have bemoaned the impact of the frequent fluctuations in fuel prices on their operations.
According to the President of Tour Operators Union of Ghana, Alisa Osei-Asamoah, there are ongoing discussions with stakeholders to cushion industry players.
This comes on the back of a recent report by the Institute for Energy Security predicting that fuel prices are likely to hit ¢7 per litre, as a result of 30 pesewas to 40 pesewas per litre increment at the pumps.
Speaking to Joy Business after the inauguration of the Advisory board of the Chamber for Tourism Industry, Ghana, Alisa Osei-Asamoah called on government to stabilise fuel prices.
“The fuel prices affected us but the fortunate thing is we are negotiating for a reasonable percentage. The recent increases did not really affect us, so we took up the cost but we’re hoping they (government) stabilize it so that it doesn’t affect us,” she said.
Also, speaking after the ceremony, Chief Executive officer for the Chamber, Emmanuel Treku urged the public to patronise local tourism.
The CEO further stated ‘’the inauguration of the new board is a milestone for the chamber and also the tourism business fraternity in Ghana. It is timely that we have an astute board to govern the chamber. COVID-19 has done us a disservice, but it has shown us that it is time we promote domestic tourism with designed marketing concepts and this is where we need all and sundry to get on board,”
Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Jones Nelson stated that the industry is bouncing back, but indicated that more needs to be done to revive the sector, following the advent of COVID-19.
“Gradually we’re picking up the bits and pieces. In December 2019, Ghana brought a lot of people [tourists] and industry players cashed in. in 2019, we cashed in ¢3 billion but COVID-19 affected us. However, we are picking up,” he said.
President of BlueCrest College, Dr. Anand Agrawal, disclosed that the school is embarking on projects to promote tourism.
“There are a lot of peculiar strengths of Ghana we need to promote. In promoting tourism further, we have a very strong school called School of Fashion and Design for exchange programmes,” he revealed.
