GTA inaugurates ex-staff association

The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has inaugurated an ex-staff association in Accra.

The GTA Ex-Staff Association represents a pool of former staff and retirees of the GTA with institutional memory and specialised skills who would mentor, train and offer help to boost and improve the tourism industry.

It has the former Manager, Quality Assurance and Head of Human Resource Department for GTA, Adeline Boateng, as President, and the former Central Regional Office Manager, Rev. J.B. Lomo-Mainoo, as the Vice-President.

The other executives include former Tema and Greater Accra Regional Manager, Gifty Irene Kwansa; former Head of Finance and Audit, Godwin Asante; former Eastern Regional Manager, Kwabena Asante-Donkor; former Corporate Affairs Manager, Ben Ohene-Ayeh; former Administrative Officer, Comfort Owusu, and former Head of Legal Department, Martin Mireku.

Goal

Mrs Boateng, in an inaugural speech, said the association's main goal was to create and maintain an effective link between GTA and former employees of GTA to promote better understanding and welfare among members and to dialogue on matters of mutual interest.

Again she said the objective of the association was to advance the tourism industry and make their expertise and experiential understanding available to the public and private sectors of the industry.

“We look forward to building a much closer relationship as we develop and appreciate tourism, arts and culture in Ghana,” she said.

Mrs Boateng added that one of the areas they wanted to advocate as an association was for more proactive measures to improve road travel safety and security for the travelling public in the country, as well as foreign tourists.

“From hindsight as retired staff of the GTA, we feel an even more compelling sense of responsibility for the safety of both domestic and international tourists in general, beyond the travel and tourism business,” she stated.

Logistics

The Chief Executive Officer of the GTA, Akwasi Agyeman, pledged the authority’s support for the activities of the association, particularly by providing logistics to enable the latter to carry out the road safety project and embark on their campaign. 

“We know that the project that you have taken upon yourself is a project that requires a lot of interaction and movement, and so we will provide some logistic support for the association to carry out the programme that you envisage to embark on which is the road safety campaign,” he said. 

Mr Agyeman said the authority would also provide monetary support to promote domestic tourism and together with the association, ensure that the roads were safe for tourists so people would have the confidence to travel without being anxious.

The Deputy Global Chairperson of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Doreen Owusu-Fianko, encouraged the association to collaborate with the Institute of Logistics and Transport to undertake the road safety travel project. 

She implored the current management team of the authority to consider the role played by the ex-staff within the value chain of the tourism industry to develop the local capacity for the industry value efficiency.