Tourism Authority closes down 11 facilities in Accra over non-compliance

The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) on Thursday closed down 11 facilities – hospitality centres and eateries for operating without a GTA license.

These include WoodCote Guest house, Gold 7 Guest house, Akorli's Hotel, Safcal Lodge, and Luna Gardens. 

Others are Kleine Park Event Centre, Akorli's Inn Restaurant, Eduanipa, The Catfish Grill, Adziban Fast Food, and The Cencor Venue. 

This comes after officials of the Authority undertook a compliance enforcement exercise seeking to ensure that hospitality centres and other facilities complied with section 25 (2) of the Tourism Act 2011 (Act 817). 

That part of the Act states that a person shall not operate a tourism enterprise unless that person holds a valid licence issued by the Authority in respect of that tourism enterprise.

Commenting, the Director of Corporate Affairs at the GTA, Jones Aruna Nelson said the purpose of the exercise was to have records on all operators of tourism centres. 

“We do not intend to destroy their businesses. As much as possible, we operate with the private sector. There is a public-private partnership and so we just want to come together and make sure everyone is working within the standards.”

“Once you are recognised in our books as a registered tourism enterprise and paying the one per cent levy alongside your licence fee, we are able to come to your aid in any situation,” he said further. 

In the Ahafo, Bono, and Eastern Regions, a similar exercise led to the closure of six, 70, and 12 facilities respectively.