Traditional caterers in Western Region undergo training

The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has organised a day’s training programme for traditional caterers in the Western Region to sharpen their knowledge and skills in their work.

The training, which formed part of series of programmes and activities organised by the “Beyond the Return Secretariat” under the auspices of the GTA, was also to prepare them on how to receive visitors, guests and revelers, to their facilities as part of the “December-in-GH” activities organised by the Authority.

Mr Henry Yeleduor, Western Regional Director of GTA, said the training was meant to give participants some skills on how to attract, satisfy, maintain and keep their guests as they come by their restaurants and bars.

He noted that there was no way one could divorce successful business practices from quality services, adding that it was a common cause that good customer service surely built enduring customer loyalty, which is an important element for sustainable development and success in business.

Mr Yeleduor encouraged all tourism practitioners to remain focused on increasing the quality of services and challenged the participants to become ambassadors of service excellence in their areas of operation through skills transfer and mentoring other similar establishments.

He said between 2019 and 2021, the sector was confronted with COVID-19 forcing some operators to close down while others engaged in cost-cutting measures to weather the crisis.

Mr Samuel Emmanuel Manukure, Western Regional Chairman of the Ghana Tourism Federation (GHATOF), urged the participants to learn all about customer care to enable them to improve their operations.

Mr Socrate Sarfo, Community Engagement Liaison at the Beyond the Return Secretariat, explained that the focus of the “December-in-GH” was to advertise Ghana in the diaspora to citizens and non-citizens who might want to visit home or for tourism.

He mentioned some of the benefits of the Beyond the Return initiatives and said the Secretariat has a lot of programmes that would improve upon the quality of business operators in the sector.

Mr Manukure further implored the participants to take advantage of the programmes at the Secretariat to better their operations.

Mr Ekow Sampson, Deputy Director of Operations of GTA said the Beyond the Return initiative had yielded heavy returns to the government and helped improved the operations of actors in the sector.

He said the benefits of tourism returns did not only go to the government but largely to the operators in the service value chain.