French classes for 2,000 commences

– To serve French speaking tourists better -Dr Awal

By Elvis DARKO, Accra

The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has begun a three-month French language training programme for premium frontline hospitality personnel and industry players.

The project seeks to improve the ability of industry players to attract tourists from the sub region and beyond, as well as provide hotels with multilingual staff who will be receptive to French speakers.

The initiative is part of the Ghana Cares “Obaatanpa” Programme’s Tourism Sector Skills Revitalization Project.

It is part of a comprehensive language training programme to enhance the country’s overall tourism experience for international visitors in a bid to solidify Ghana’s position as a welcoming destination in the sub-region.

Series of training courses

A series of training courses had earlier been held in areas like customer services, digital marketing, and tourism product knowledge to build the capacity of tourism practitioners.

One of the criticisms levelled against Ghana as a destination for travellers is that everyone must speak English, which does not enhance the country’s tourism position.

It is expected that by the end of the three months training, participants will be able to speak French well enough to interact with French-speaking clients and make them feel at ease.

Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal told journalists that a large number of tourists frequenting Ghana’s tourist sites originate from French-speaking nations.

Consequently, he said the language training programme has been strategically designed to empower frontline personnel across the tourism sector with bilingual proficiency to enable them engage effectively and cater to the specific requirements of visitors, particularly those hailing from French-speaking countries.

“Ghana is surrounded by francophone countries. As you know there are about eight francophone countries in West Africa. West Africa’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) is about $880 billion with 448 million people.

“Ghana cannot achieve its target of two million international tourism with corresponding tourism receipt of $3.8 billion this year if we don’t expand ourselves to the francophone countries.

“We have Cote d’Ivoire who is among the top 10 visiting countries to Ghana, we have Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, e.t.c who always come to Ghana.

“For us in tourism, the most important thing to us is repeat tourism. If a tourists visit Ghana this year, next year, he brings his family and friends along and stay longer and spend more money that can support our economy.

“We realized that we could get more tourists if we open ourselves in terms of French language and we are equipping our frontline staff, be it drivers, front desk attendants and tour guards so that once you become bilingual in English and French, we are able to attracts tourists,” Dr Awal said.

The Minister explained that the training programme has been meticulously, planned and organized into several phases.

According to him, a select group of 100 staff members from upmarket hotels in Accra are participating in the inaugural phase which commenced this month and will continue until December 2023.

He noted that the ongoing training serves as a pilot programme designed to ensure comprehensive training and assessment before the initiative is expanded on a larger scale.

Dr. Awal said government’s vision extends beyond this initial phase, stressing that the ultimate objective is to provide training to a total of 2,000 hospitality staff members in line with government’s broader objective of making Ghana a more appealing destination for a diverse array of tourists.

He said such investments in skill development are crucial for the long-term growth and success of the tourism sector assuring Ghanaians of government’s unwavering dedication to enhancing service quality and improving tourist centers in the country.