The Ashanti Regional office of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) is on a month-long enforcement exercise, going after 203 identified illegal tourism enterprises in the region.

The move forms part of the 2025 enforcement of the regulatory compliance exercise.

The exercise is covering categories of tourism enterprises, including accommodation, travel and tour, tourism levy defaulters, food and beverage/entertainment.

The aim of the exercise is to ensure that tourism businesses operate in accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards, as well as ensuring a level playing field and fairness to the many operators that are compliant.

At a press briefing, the Ashanti Regional Director of GTA, Frederick Adjei-Rudolph, said the exercise was in compliance with the Tourism Act 817 of 2011 and other relevant Legislative Instruments emanating from the Act.

He said it would involve facilities that have been licensed by the authority but have not obtained their operational licence for a period of three months or more, as the law requires all licensed tourism enterprises to display their valid operational licence at the reception of their facility.

Others, he indicated, were facilities operating without any form of registration and said these categories of illegal operators were the most dangerous to patronize by unsuspecting clients because no form of assessment had been done by any regulatory body and therefore safety and security cannot be guaranteed in such facilities.

Further, he mentioned that other affected facilities were registered and have obtained operational licence at a point, but in the cause of renewing their licence after expiration, did not meet the minimum requirements expected for the renewal.

On tourism levy defaulters, Mr Adjei-Rudolph, said sadly, some operators were in default of the levy for a period ranging from three months to three years and stressed that all efforts to retrieve the collections had proved futile, hence the need to include such facilities in this exercise.

He called on all stakeholders including the Ghana Hotels Association to support this exercise by sensitizing your members and non-members to ensure they obtain a valid operational licence from the Authority before operating.

“It is difficult to undertake such exercise because it borders on temporary disruption of businesses. However, as difficult as it seems, it must be done for the larger good of this enviable but delicate industry” he said