TWIN-CITY HOTELIERS, TRADERS COUNT COST (Page 30)

Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Sekondi

Traders and some hotel operators in the twin-city of Sekondi/Takoradi began counting their losses a day after the Sekondi Sports Stadium ceased to be one of the venues for the competition as the tournament headed for the semi-finals.
The venue witnessed its last game when the Ivorian national team, the Elephants, walloped their Guinean counterparts 5-0.
A cross-section of traders who spoke to the Daily Graphic were bemonaing the heavy losses they incurred during the period and wondered how they would be able to offset them.
Some of them said they had to borrow at very high rates of interest to sustain and expand their business during the period.
Most of the traders and hoteliers anticipated a windfall in the sale of Ghanaian and continental dishes to the large Ivorian and Nigerian fans that followed their teams to the competition as well as from lodging facilities.
However, it turned out that most of the patrons of the tournament were not familiar with the foods that were sold by Ghanaian food vendors. Besides, most of the supporters also lodged in classrooms throughout the period or made return trips to and from the country when their teams were playing.
The hardest hit were those who went to the extent of acquiring parcels of land at very high cost to mount structures to attract customers. They claimed they failed to break even.
Also, some hotels had constructed large car parks and employed security guards 24 hours but no vehicle parked there during the period.
The foreign fans also complained of high hotel bills, which they described as prohibitive.
The buses which transported the fans from Cote d’Ivoire to Sekondi to support the Elephants during their matches were ready to take the supporters back to the newly created Ivorian Village near the Takoradi Polytechnic after the matches, where different varieties of Ivorian cuisine were sold by Ivorian food vendors, leaving their Ghanaian counterparts to compete for the few Ghanaian fans who patronised their food.
Some Nigerian and Ivorian supporters came with their own cooks and after every game they had buses to carry them to the villages they created around the stadium and in Takoradi.
It was also learnt that the Beninois nationals who followed their teams to the metropolis established their village near the St John’s School in Sekondi, where their cooks prepared various Beninios dishes for them.
The patrons of the villages located near the stadium, the Polytechnic Park, Bompe Senior High School Park and the St John’s School in Sekondi said things were too expensive in the metropolis.
Auntie Maggie, a food vendor, who had acquired a space at the Ivorian village to sell, said “from today, I am thinking about how to repay the loan I took in the hope that I would make some money to repay.”
However, their Ivorian counterparts were happy because, to them, they knew what their Ghanaian counterparts were selling would not appeal to their target groups.
Madam Ahawa Konne said Ivorians were different and they would not eat anything when they had access to their traditional food.