Forty hotel and restaurant owners and managers in the Central Region have participated in a three-day training workshop in Cape Coast to equip them with the requisite knowledge to effectively manage their facilities.

The workshop, which was organised by the Integrated Tourism Development Department (ITDD) of the Central Region Development Commission (CEDECOM) was to equip the participants with knowledge and skills to enable them to deliver quality services and also ensure effective running of activities in their various establishments.

The participants were taken through topics like; "Guarding your Investment - A Case for Maintenance and Engineering, Systems and Diagnosis of Financial Status of Operations, Developing and Conducting Effective Orientation for Staff, and Operating Policies Towards Improving Customer Service”.

Mrs Georgina Bentum, Assistant Head of ITDD, addressing the closing ceremony on Thursday, said her outfit recognised the important role hotels and restaurants played in the tourism industry and it was for this reason that the Commission decided to organise the workshop for the participants to enable them improve upon services they provided to their clients.

She said the workshop was also to enable the participants to re-orient themselves and formulate policies and programmes that would help them guard their investments and enable their businesses to grow and attract more tourists to their facilities.

The expected outcomes of the workshop was to improve attitudes and behaviours towards maintenance, orientation of employees and using records to track all transactions of their operations as well as introduce new procedures on enhancing current procedures and positive impacts on operational results, she said. Mrs Bentum advised the participants to make maximum use of the training by holding in-service training for their employees to make a positive impact on their operations.

Mrs Egi Gaise, a consultant and a resource person, tasked hotel managers to invest in their employees who she described as the “eyes” of their facilities by giving them the requisite training that would enable them to deliver quality service to their clients.