In Accra, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced the opening of a cutting-edge school for tourism and hospitality training.
This, according to the President, is in accordance with government initiatives to turn the nation into the investment and tourist center of West Africa and all of Africa.
With the $10 million initiative, employees in the tourist and hospitality value chain will receive training to improve customer service and other industry best practices.
On Friday, September 30, 2022, President Akufo-Addo announced this during the ceremonial opening of the Alisa Hotel Tema. He said the school's construction will be funded by the Ghana Tourism Development Project, which is backed by the World Bank.
He said that the project was a component of initiatives to create a robust tourist industry where hospitality, the arts, and culture would be employed as a vehicle for economic development.
For his part, Kwame Fosu Bamfo, Chief Executive of Alisa Hotels Group, thinks Alisa Hotels embodies Ghanaian hospitality to the fullest extent.
The CEO explained how he founded the Alisa Group by saying, "Housing my principals from Holland during the early days of Sikkens, when they visited Ghana to educate local craftsmen in vehicle spraying, was a difficulty."
At this time, the concept for Alisa Hotels was born, and the 14-room boutique hotel in Labone joined the team. When it was finished, I thought it was fitting to name it after my adored mother, Alice.
In order to satisfy our growing foreign and local clients, the hotel acquired additional property in North Ridge in Accra. What initially started as a niche market soon garnered more demand.
He said further that "As time went on, we were aware of the significant need for conferences and events, and we established a strategy to market Alisa North Ridge as Accra's Business Haven. To accommodate various business, residential conferences, and social functions, we developed many conference rooms. We now offer 278 rooms and 14 conference and meeting spaces in Accra's North Ridge and Labone neighborhoods.
He claims that over the past 20 years, the Alisa Hotels group has developed into a reputable name that provides the highest level of comfort at each of its distinctive locations, particularly Alisa Tema.
The significance of Tema in my path as a businessman cannot be overstated, according to the Chief Executive of Bamson Group, which includes Sikkens Paints, Glostal Aluminium, and Alisa Hotels. My business's basis was established in Tema. Before introducing Sikkens to Ghana in 1983, when I was just 20 years old, I used to supply Tema's industrial center with building supplies including iron rods, galvanized pipes, copper pipes, steel plates, bolts, and nuts, among others.
He said that his company has expanded, changed lives, and endured because it has been able to employ over 750 people as a whole, with Alisa alone employing up to 500.
He has consequently urged the government to provide some assistance to the tourist sector in the form of loan availability and low interest rates.
"Mr. President, the hotel sector is a significant source of employment prospects. One in ten jobs worldwide is supported by travel and tourism, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. Ghana is no exception, and the hotel sector has excellent chances of helping the government accomplish one of its main agenda items—creating jobs. I'd want to use this occasion to ask the government to give the industry some leeway in terms of loan availability and low interest rates.
He said this would enhance business operations in the sector and generate employment opportunities for our teeming youth, both skilled and unskilled.
He was certain that the Alisa Hotel Group expansion project would meet the growing demand from visitors from outside and advance Ghana's reputation as a desirable travel destination after the government's Year of Return and Beyond the Return initiatives.
Regarding his intentions for the future, he mentioned that his hotels would be growing since the North Ridge branch will be getting a specialized convention center with 1000 seats as well as more rooms to compliment the existing Alisa Hotel Tema.
Mark Okraku Mantey, the deputy minister of tourism, art, and culture, praised the Alisa Group for their progress.
He told them that the government would help them and provide a favorable climate for their business to succeed, and he said that his organization is now training about 8,000 people.
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In Accra, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced the opening of a cutting-edge school for tourism and hospitality training.
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