GATTA INDUCTS NEW EXECUTIVE (SPREAD, JUNE 17, 2010)

The Ghana Association of Travel and Tourist Agents (GATTA) has inducted a six-member newly elected national executive into office with a call on members to make branding the country a major responsibility.
The Deputy Minister of Tourism, Mr Kwabena Acheampong, who made the call at the ceremony, said branding the country would help in attracting more tourists into the country.
This, he said, would boost the yearly tourist visit of 748,000 to the estimated 1 million visit by 2011 with repeated visits.
Mr Acheampong said GATTA had a mandate to identify and market services that would boost the tourism sector of the country.
He noted that proper packaging of the tourism sector had been a major challenge for the country. He, therefore, urged the association to help package the country in a more appealing way.
Mr Acheampong advised the association to also make customer service delivery one of its major responsibilities, as it played a vital role in the tourism sector.
He urged members of the association to work diligently to make the country’s tourism sector one of the best in the sub-region.
In a speech, the Zimbabwean Ambassador to Ghana, Mrs Pavelyn Tendi Musaka, said inadequate information and lack of ignorance had contributed immensely to African countries losing out in the tourism sector.
She, however, believed that proper collaboration between sister countries in the sub-region could boost the sector.
She said the Zimbabwean government was ready to facilitate a joint venture partnership with Ghana to boost the tourism sectors of both countries.
This, she said, would promote intra-African trade and investment between the two countries and other countries within the sub-region.
She congratulated the association on the good work and promised her support to it.
For his part, the newly elected President of GATTA, Mr McCash Hillarius Akpah, urged members of the association to adopt professional, ethical and legitimate profit-making practices to make meaningful impact on the sector.
He said “the executive in consultation with the general council will map out a strategic partnership module that will seek the common interest of both the trade and the specific work ethics such as the airlines and airport authorities”.
He outlined, strategic partnerships, knowledge-based staffing, product re-creativity and branding as part of the structures the executive would put in place to help move the tourism sector forward.
“GATTA as a trade association needs to be a strategic business-oriented platform for its members to make profit through regional alliances and partnerships for incoming and outbound tours and large group arrivals,” he noted.
The executive, he said, would make accountability and growth their hallmarks.
Other members of the executive are: Mr David Gray, Ms Tina Osei, Mrs Vanessa Ayivi, Mr Victor Fiakuna and Mr Ebenezer Noramegbor.