Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Sekondi
Some operators in the hospitality industry in the twin-city of Sekondi/Takoradi and the Sekondi-Tokaradi Venue Organising Committee (STVOC) are trading accusations for their inability to reap the benefits from the ongoing Ghana 2008 tournament.
While the operators are blaming the local organising committee for the low patronage of their hotel facilities by allowing the visitors to check into school dormitories, the STVOC is also accusing the operators of hiking the prices of their services to scare the visitors away.
According to the hotel operators, the venue organising committee gave an indication that more than 60,000 supporters would be trooping to the metropolis to support their teams.
As a result, those in the industry also increased their facilities in readiness for the said number of supporters only for the metropolis to receive not even quarter of the expected number.
That aside, they blame the local venue organising committee for not allowing them to first check into the available hotels before going to schools when they had negotiated with some of the supporters unions in advance.
To the operators, although it was right to prepare the classrooms for the soccer tourists, the local venue organising committee should have first ensured that the hotels in the metropolis were full before considering the school facilities as a second option.
The Sekondi/Takoradi local organising committee has shifted the blame on hospitality service providers, whom they accused of hiking the prices of their services beyond the pockets of the visitors.
“Even we as the STVOC in collaboration with some private people invested millions of Ghana cedis into the preparation of beds and mattresses which we expected the supporters to pay less than GH¢5 to lodge but they refused,” one official said.
He said through the instrumentality of the chief executive of the Skyy Group of companies, they managed to secure about 3,500 student mattresses while plumbers and carpenters were contracted to prepare beds and replace toilet bowls at selected schools for the visitors.
“We at the STVOC are battling the same problems, since we have to find a way of settling the money we invested in fixing of the toilets, beds and other facilities at various schools we selected but which the supporters refused to use,” he said.
When this reporter visited the St Johns School, one of the schools in the metropolis where the supporters from Benin lodged, some of them said they did not mind sleeping on the floor till the next football day. We are just supporters but Ghanaians want to make all the money from us, we don’t have the money so we have brought our own food and cooks,” they said.
They said they had paid high amount for the tickets and were expecting that the prices of hotels and other accommodation facilities would be cheaper, but rather the prices were high.
One of them who gave his name as Afevia and spoke to this reporter in Dahomey Ewe said he would have wished to sleep in a hotel or a guest house but the prices were too high. He said he preferred to sleep on the table in the classroom until their team was eliminated.
Interestingly, the Ivorians who came in their numbers said the behaviour of those in the hospitality industry was too bad and, therefore, considering the proximity of their country to Ghana some decided to make a return trip after every game.
The Ivorians managed to negotiate for a huge space near the Takoradi Polytechnic which was well fenced and named the Ivorian Village where all Ivorian foods were served.
That, according to them, was far cheaper than staying in a hotel irrespective of the risks involved in commuting to and fro and sleeping under tents.
“We will go and come every day, Ghana is not far from Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana is also our home besides we have a village here where we can eat all our traditional foods, so there is no need for such avoidable expenditures here in Ghana,” they said.
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