The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) fears the likely shut down of hotels in the country due to the ongoing power crisis will have dire consequences on the country’s revenue.
[contextly_sidebar id=”LRdhiWQBDP0TTBxOI3I6gzCdqNn6Da26″]The Hotels Association of Ghana has warned close to twenty hotels are likely to shut down within the next six months if the current power crisis continues.
Hundreds of hotel staff across the country have already been laid off following the crisis.
Vice President of the Hotels Association of Ghana Bruce Potter earlier told Citi Business News its members are struggling to stay afloat.
“Am worried because if it continues much longer you will see hotels closing down. No business wants to fail and provide inferior service and the association will not be able to tell you how many hotels will closed down but you are likely to have close to 15 to 20 which overnight can be closed down by the close of the year if the situation continues. This is because the banks are not ready to help and so far the situation does not seem to be improving.”
But the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Samson Donkor has appealed to the hotels to continue to manage the situation.
He tells Citi Business News shutting down will affect the tourism industry which has the potential of being the country’s number one revenue generator.
‘It hasn’t come to our attention yet but we know that they are having difficulties so we have been meeting them.
We do appreciate the difficulties in running their facilities because of the high operational cost as the result of the ‘dumsor’ but some of them are trying to keep their head above water just to keep the business afloat to be able to break even. we are giving them some technical support by taking them through the processes and impressing on them to manage the situation.”
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Samson Donkor told Citi Business News that it was going to be difficult for any of the hotels to close down since it was going to be very difficult for them to re-enter the market when they are ready to re-launch or open again.
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By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana
