The Ghana Hotels Association is pushing for a portion of the Tourism Development Levy to run its operations.
The Association contributes almost 70 percent of the levy which had accrued to about GhC40 million as at January this year.
All hotels in the country are expected to contribute 1 percent on goods and services consumed by patrons.
The new President of the Association, Dr. Ackah Nyamekeh said a comprehensive proposal will be sent to the Tourism Authority to look into the matter.
He added that the Association will need about 400,000 cedis to run effectively and help support the Tourism Authority’s operations.
“What we are saying is that the Hotel Association or the private sector plays a very crucial role. There are a lot of things that we do that the Tourism Authority cannot do. We are on the ground; when we talk about standards. The tourism Authority comes around once a year to do assessment because they don’t have the men on the ground. So the rest of the year; we are on the ground so we play the supervisor role,” Dr. Nyamekeh said.
The Association which began with less than two dozens of members, presently boasts of over 1000 members made up of directors, proprietors, general managers or accredited representatives of budget, guesthouse, and one to five star hotels spread across the 10 regions of Ghana.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Osei Owusu Amankwaah
