According to him, the levy, paid by users of tourism establishments or units in the form of indirect tax, is ultimately to the benefit of tourist operators.

He has dismissed the assertion that the tourism industry in Ghana is laden with too many taxes, indicating, “If you want to have a vibrant tourism industry in this country, then there is the need for us to get the levy in order to market and promote Ghana’s tourist attractions”.

Yaw Essah was speaking to journalists today (Thursday) at a gathering of Ghana Tourism Authority officials and representatives of member associations of the Ghana Tourism Federation (GHATOF) in Elmina, Central Region.

The forum was organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, and was aimed at sensitising tourist operators in the Central Region on the 1% Tourism Levy stipulated in the Tourism Act 817 of 2011.

A second phase is to train operators on customer service, safety and security in their operations, as a way to boost Ghana’s hospitality and related services.

The Fund Administrator revealed, “people are not finding it difficult to pay, but the most important thing we need to do is sensitization because you go to some establishments and some of them find it difficult computing the percentage, and we will be taking them through how the computation is done”.

The National President of GHATOF, Okatakyie Nana Anim I, on his part, appealed to the government to tackle energy cost to tourist operators and to better road infrastructure in order to enhance access to tourist sites across the country.

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By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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