Hoteliers deliberate on hospitality industry

Techiman (B/A) Feb. 27, GNA - A hotelier in Techiman in Brong Ahafo has appealed to his colleagues to avoid inflating the prices of their products and services in order to make life bearable for their customers. He asked them not to take undue advantage of the recent minimal price hike in fuel to arbitrarily put up charges above the pockets of people in the low income group, Mr. Kofi Ntiamoah, Techiman zonal chairman of Brong-Ahafo Hotels Association said.

Addressing a meeting of members of the Association at Techiman, Mr. Ntiamoah, who is the director of Tano River Lodge Hotel, noted that some hotels in the municipality charged 250,000 cedis per night, which he noted was just unbearable for the ordinary traveller. He said some hotels also charged more than 9,000 per a bottle of beer as well as other brands and stressed the need for hoteliers to be human-centred in their operations to win more patronage. Mr. Ntiamoah appealed to tax collection agencies to avoid the duplication of taxes as the practice hampered the operations of hotels and other business ventures.

He cited the hotel licences collected by Ghana Tourist Board, as well as metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies. The zonal chairman commended the proprietor of Cemartins Lodge in Techiman, Mr. Paul Bismark Gyasi, for the low tariffs despite the facilities available at the hotel.

Mr. Frimpong Yaw-Takyi, Treasurer of the association and Manager of Emmanuel Inn appealed to hotel operators to come together to strengthen the association so that they could jointly fight to achieve the association's goals.