Ahead of the ‘December in GH festivities’, the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) along with key companions has organised a stakeholder engagement and customer service training programme in Tamale, targetting the casual sector in a bid to advertise home tourism.
The programme was organised with help from the Ministry of Tourism, Art and Culture and the Ghana Tourism of Federation (GHATOF) in partnership with stakeholders from the tourism trade, together with the Traditional Caterers Association (TCA) and Beyond December Secretariat.
It introduced collectively greater than 60 individuals from the casual sector, notably from the meals sub-sector. Other individuals embrace employees of the Centre for National Culture, musicians, tour-guide associations and officers from the Ghana National Fire Service in Tamale.
Deputy Chief Executive Officer of GTA, Mr. Ekow Sampson, in an interview with the B&FT famous that in 2019 about 1.1 million vacationer arrivals had been recorded in Ghana – which helped generate roughly US$3.3billion {dollars} for the tourism trade from the Year of Return initiative.
“Since then, we have implemented a number of programmes including ‘Beyond the Return’ which is a 10-year plan. Out of it, we have also come out with ‘December in GH’ – and for the past three years it has been one of the major drivers of tourist arrivals in Ghana. Due to this, Ghana has been named one of the top holiday destinations in the world,” he mentioned.
He additional famous that it’s a part of the GTA’s efforts to advertise home tourism, therefore training for the casual sector since they’re promoters of native Ghanaian meals and in addition shall be coping with vacationers instantly. The casual sector’s actions can both appeal to or drive away vacationers, and the teachings realized needs to be utilized past the end-of-year festivities.
He additionally disclosed that the training has already taken place in different locations throughout the nation, together with Accra and Kumasi.
A consultant of the Director-Centre for National Culture, Tamale, Antoinette Dzorgbenyuie Lesta, counseled GTA for constructing the casual sector’s capacity to boost high quality service supply.
She known as on casual caterers to place into efficient follow no matter they’ve been taught. She additionally suggested them to incorporate different features of Ghanaian tradition – comparable to music, dance and gown – whereas rendering their providers.
The training facilitator, Yvonne Ohui MacCarthy, famous that the periods centered on 5 key components of client service – feel and look, portraying a very good angle, data acquisition, processes and procedures, in addition to upselling and cross-selling.
“We believe that the training will go a long way to prepare them adequately for their prospective customers, who will be coming from December all the way to mid-January in 2023 and even beyond,” the facilitator mentioned.
Source: thebftonline.com
