The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) on Wednesday held a tourism levy sensitization workshop for stakeholders in the travel-trade industry to enlighten them on the implementation of the tourism levy, in Accra.

The workshop was also to inform stakeholders about some few transformations in the GTA to enable the agency execute its new mandate as an authority.

Mr Abraham Tetteh, Tourism Fund Administrator, GTA, said the fund is to stimulate accelerated development of the sector in order to reap the identified benefit of the tourism industry.

He said the fund comprises of seed capital from government, one per cent tourism levy payable by patrons, donations, grants and money earned by the promotion of any project but currently the one per cent tourism levy was the main target.

He said the tourism levy became operationalized in October 2012 and its collection applies to every enterprise in the industry and the collection period is within one month.

Mr Tetteh said the fund is to be used for infrastructural development, research and marketing, education and training and tourism trade-oriented activities for the development of the sector.

He noted that enterprises certified to collect the tourism levy includes banqueting facilities, conferences, night clubs, theaters and all other tourist attractions, adding that enterprises can only commence business after registration.

He said “the certification is yet to be extended to the travel agencies, tour operators, car rentals, site guide operator’s hostels, high rest stops, home lodge, home stays among others”.

Mr Tetteh noted the Unibank, Universal Merchant Bank and the Ghana Commercial Bank are the approved banks for payments of the levy.

He said the fund has enormous potentials of generating funds to advance the developmental agenda of the tourism industry and this requires a concerted effort to ensure that all establishments identified by the tourism act are registered and certified for the levy collection purpose.

My Sampson Donkor, Deputy Executive Director, Finance and Administration, GTA said the tourism levy collection was introduced in 2012 and has been able to cover over 95 percent of the accommodation and catering service in the industry.

He said the travel-trade was the next sector the levy would be introduced to and that the workshop forms part of activities lined up to introduce the levy to stakeholders in that sector.

He said the GTA is mandated to register and license all tourism enterprises and sites including accommodation, catering facilities, night clubs, theaters, travel-trade enterprises, banqueting facilities, conference facilities, resorts and spa as well as all other tourist attractions.