According to the GTA Boss, the initiative will help keep Ghana's sites and attractions clean, as well as train local tour guides to ensure good tourism service delivery.

This call to action by the GTA was in reaction to a viral video that surfaced online showing a local tour
guide allegedly extorting money from a tourist in the James Town area in Accra.

Following a visit to James Town, Independence Arch, and Laboma Beach to interact with some tour guides, Mrs. Houadjeto stressed the urgent need to train the local tour guides who engage these tourists regularly.

"The local tour guides are doing well, and we want to encourage their self-volunteerism, but I think we need to guide them to ensure proper service delivery.

"Since we are regulators in the industry, it is important we initiate these steps to correct the wrongs at the grassroots of our tourism sector.

"In the following weeks we are going to launch the Tourism Police' to help solve the sanitation issues we have at our tourist sites, especially the beaches, which are one of our key tourism products," she told pressmen.

Mrs. Houadjeto rallied the support of all tourism stakeholders to ensure the effective use of 'Tourism Police' in cleaning our sites and educating tourists about Ghana's heritage.

Mr. Gilbert Abeiku Aggrey Santana, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer, lauded Madam Houadjeto's zeal of going to the grassroots of tourism to know some of their challenges.

"We know the importance of all the tourist sites in preserving our heritage, and it is crucial to keep them clean and attractive to the tourists.

"I want to laud the CEO for visiting some tourism sites to identify the challenges so that we can address them to help improve tourism service delivery.

"The 'Tourism Police' would be a key component in changing the face of our tourism, especially at the grassroots, as we provide them with training on how to engage tourists," he said.

Abeiku Santana also stressed that keeping the beachfront alive the whole day aligns with President John Mahama's 24- hour vision and that stakeholders in the tourism sector would play a crucial role to make it a success.

Dr. Botchway Tetteh Albert, Chief Executive Officer of Laboma Beach Resort, praised GTA's impending 'Tourism Police' initiative, emphasising that it would simplify the sharing of correct information with tourists.

"One of the key challenges of our beach front is keeping it clean, but at Laboma we have managed to keep it clean, but it has not been easy, and you can't say the same for other beaches.

"We support the idea of the 'Tourism Police' especially in keeping our beach frontages clean and also sharing the right information about our heritage and providing services to enhance tourism delivery," he said.