The Eastern Regional office of the Ghana Tourism Authority with strict adherence to its mandate and responsibility to maintain standards in compliance with ACT 817, is embarking on an Enforcement Exercise to clamp down on all illegally operating facilities throughout the Region.
Physical closure of all identified Accommodation and Catering establishments that are operating without a Valid Operational License issued by the Ghana Tourism Authority will be carried out.
This was contained in a release signed by the Regional Manager, Frederick Adjei-Rudolph.
He said the exercise will cover all tourism and hospitality facilities in the units that have failed to collect their 2018, operational licenses.
Units which have being granted provisional licence but have failed to submit all their suitability reports for over a year, Units that have not registered at all by the Authority but are operating, among others.
The Exercise is scheduled to commence on Monday, June 3 to June 17, 2019.
According to him, the enforcement team will comprise staff of the Authority, Officers from the Regional Police Command and selected members of the Regional Tourism Press corps.
An effective collaboration of major tourism and hospitality stakeholders i.e. regulators, operators and the public is essential for the success of the Tourism industry.
He called for strong partnership to weed out recalcitrant illegal operators and advance confidence in the tourism industry in the years ahead.
He said a total of 36 illegal operators have been identified for the exercise.
The Ghana Tourism Authority is authorized and entrusted to register and licence every tourism business and hospitality facility in Ghana by Tourism Act (817) and its relevant Legislative Instruments.
