The Ghana Tourism Federation (GHATOF), on Thursday held a stakeholders' workshop for tourism and hospitality practitioners in Accra.

The workshop, on the theme, "Developing Tourism infrastructures for sustainable tourism", was to critically evaluate the status of the industry and the reason for the poor rehabilitation syndrome.

Nana Barima Croffie, Lead Consultant, PrimeCon Consult, said the workshop was also to identify strategies and measures to use to transform the industry and how best to bring tourists' sites to an appreciable level and propose measures of injecting professionalism into the industry.

He said the tourism and hospitality industry was a very vibrant one, but had not been able to reach its fullest potential due to the way it was being managed by industry players.

Nana Croffie mentioned limited understanding of the sector as a tool for economic development, inadequate investment in the sector, poor infrastructure and tourism support services at tourist sites as major setbacks to tourism development in the country.

He therefore underscored the need for government and practitioners to invest in tourism facilities and services as well as tourism support infrastructure to grow the sector.

Mr Micheal Kpingbi, Acting Manager in Charge of Operations, Ghana Tourism Authority said prior to COVID-19, the GTA together with practitioners were collectively working to make tourism the number one foreign exchange earner in the country.

He said they would continue to engage the private sector practitioners to identify ways to raise the sites to international standards after COVID-19 and called for support.

Mrs. Bella Ahu, President GHATOF, entreated members to adhere to all COVID-19 protocols in their respective facilities and also take advantage of Government's stimulus package through the National Board for Small Scale Industries to grow and expand their enterprises.