The hotel sector in Ghana: Hopes and fears
In February 2007, I was approached by Nanabanyin Dadson, then editor of the Graphic Showbiz to review a book about the hotel industry in Ghana for publication in the Daily Graphic.
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I felt honoured. Having studied tourism and having undertaken years of hotel inspection, courtesy the Ghana Tourism Authority, I found the exercise quite routine albeit academic. But what I hadn’t prepared for was that by the time I was done with the task, I had had a whole master class about the hotel industry.
Since then my interest in the area has increased. A key learning from that book, ‘Tourism in Ghana: The Accommodation Sub-Sector’ written by Prof. Oheneba Akyeampong of the University of Cape Coast, was that the hotel is the most tourism specific element of the tourism component. An implication is that our hotel performance is a valid way to gauge tourism growth in Ghana.
What is the current situation facing the sector in Ghana? From a humble beginning of less than two dozens members, the Ghana Hotels Association (GHA) can presently boast of over 1,000 members made up Budget, Guesthouse and one to five star hotels spread across the 10 regions of Ghana.
As the National President of the GHA, Herbert Acquaye, said at their maiden awards event last weekend, the industry has come a long way in its 50-year history in the country.
Currently, hotels are estimated to contribute 250, 000 direct and indirect jobs to the economy. They also provide the largest chunk of the 1 per cent tourism levy.
But there is more that the sector can do for themselves and the rest of the nation. For a local industry, the Ghanaian’s participation in hotel services could be much better. From my personal experience many are the folks who approach me to undertake a domestic travel or another only to back out because of the cost of accommodation.
The fact is that hotel tariff at a standard facility for one night does tremendous damage to the average Ghanaian’s salary.
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The hotel sector is also bedevilled with perception problems. Tell a friend you are meeting someone at a hotel and eye brows would be raised. (Yes, that still happens). Recent happenings of men taking undue advantage of young ladies within our hotels haven’t helped the image either.
In my mother tongue, for instance, the word for prostitute is ‘heteli-tor’ which is a derivative from ‘hotel’. Indeed, as I recall, the last time I quarrelled with my grandmother was over a hotel matter.
I had passed through the village after spending time on a project at Keta. The moment she knew I had spent a night elsewhere she asked a question I least expected. She looked at me as if I was a boy who has just been lifted from the playground and dusted up.
‘‘So, in whose house did you sleep last night?’’
‘’Whose house? We slept in a hotel.’’
‘‘A-hoteli?’’ she asked looking plainly scandalised. ‘‘If you ended up in Keta, don’t you know we have a family at Dzita?
As a place that serves hospitality needs the hotel needs to be much more embraced and patronised. We must concede, though that changes in social and job demographics have brought hotel closer to some sections of Ghanaian society.
Today, this setting is the venue for a range of activities including launches, conferences and retreats.
We have to give credit to our gospel musicians who, perhaps, started the demystification by standing at the beautiful entrances of hotels for their music videos. I shall return to hotel issues later in the year but let me cite two more.
As this stands the investor in hotel business has more than a handful of state agencies to deal with which comes with cost. These public agencies that directly or indirectly regulate the industry are Registrar General’s Department, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, Environmental Protection Agency, Food and