Best Boutique Hotel in Africa is Proudly Ghanaian: La Villa Boutique Hotel

Interview with Leeford Quarshie, General Manager of La Villa Boutique Hotel

Concerning the trends in Ghana’s tourism and hospitality industry, especially since this is a boutique hotel that caters for business clientele, can you tell us about MICE tourism in Ghana nowadays?

The tourism industry in Ghana has evolved around business tourism and also conferences and events. A lot of companies, organisations and institutions are bringing events and conferences to Ghana because when you look at West Africa, Ghana seems to be the most stable and peaceful country. That is why a lot of conferences and events are held here. In terms of business in general, Ghana is still opening up. Recently we changed government, once again in a very peaceful manner, encouraging a lot more people to come here to look for business opportunities. The hotels would then come handy; this is what La Villa prides itself in, the fact that we mostly have business people staying with us.

How about the new government’s approach towards tourism? The Ministry of Tourism launched in cooperation with the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) a new campaign to boost tourism in the country. What more should be done to push tourism in Ghana? What is your perspective on this?

We need to localise our tourism products. There are lot of Ghanaians who don’t know their country, which is the product that we are selling at the end of the day, so that makes it very difficult to sell it to a foreigner. The government needs to invest more in domestic tourism as that would help the Ghanaians to know their own country. We also need to encourage Made in Ghana tourism, encouraging people to wear clothes made in Ghana, or to eat Ghanaian food so that we can introduce these traditions to the tourists that come here.

We need to localise our tourism products.

When you look at tourism, there are a lot of leakages, most of which come from the items that we don’t have and that we need to import. When you import these items it means that more of your foreign exchange will be going out because you are not producing, but there are some things that we can produce. We have very arable, fertile land where we can grow the vegetables we use in our kitchen services for example. I believe that the government needs to pay more attention to domestic tourism and encourage people to know their country better.

In terms of foreign tourists, there is a season for tourism activities, for example when it is winter in Europe or America and it is sunny here, that is when we have to encourage them to come. We need to develop our attractions. We have beautiful beaches but we have to make them accessible and maintain them to a certain standard so that when people come and they want to enjoy a beach life, they can have it. Really, what makes tourism enjoyable, but no one wants to talk about, are the three Ss, that is what makes tourism and we mustn’t shy away from that. In a nut shell, the government needs to encourage our citizens to be interested in domestic tourism because it has ripple effects on society. I think that some efforts are being exhibited now, we have started with a team that is promoting Made in Ghana and the government is announcing as a policy, to promote the Ghanaian culture, our festivals, our music etc. all those things that are quite interesting to tourists.

Tell us about La Villa Boutique Hotel.

La Villa Boutique Hotel started in 2011. This premises used to be the former Russian Embassy and the promoters of this business took it up. They are people who have travelled extensively. They took the building and turned it around. We started with about 10 rooms in 2011 and gradually we have expanded. Today we have 40 rooms that include 35 standard rooms, 3 executive suites and 2 apartments. It is a business that started very small but we are growing and we are excited about that.

Which segments of travellers are you targeting?

Looking at our set up, which I am very proud of, it is what I term “an oasis in the heart of the city”. You are in the heart of the city but you don’t realise it. If you were blindfolded and taken here you would think you were somewhere on an island, but in fact you are in a very vibrant city, within a very serene atmosphere. There is a lot of greenery around here.
We have evolved. Within the short time that we have been open, we have won many awards including the Luxury Hotels award, the Luxury Travel Guide awards and the Haute Grandeur Global Hotels award. I just found out a while ago, that we have once again been declared a winner for the Haute Grandeur Global Hotels awards for 2017, It feels really good and we are very excited.

It is really exciting. And in addition to the above, you are the best boutique hotel in Africa, which is a huge achievement.

Exactly. The hotel as a company has won these awards but personally I have won an award too, about two months ago I was listed among Africa’s 100 most influential people in tourism, not just in Ghana, but in Africa! It is indeed a great achievement and I wouldn’t have achieved this without the support of my staff here; I have very excellent and cooperative staff. I am very proud of them.

Lastly, tell us about the strategy for the hotel.

We are looking at expanding again; we want to add about 12 rooms. We have had requests from people who want us to replicate this in their areas. We have had requests from Takoradi, Tema, Kumasi, and even from outside of Ghana in Liberia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast etc. People have approached us and they want us to put up something like this in these places. The dream is to have a Ghanaian hotel chain with La Villa brand. For now, it remains a dream but I believe it is achievable if we work at it.

Are you looking for investors?

Definitely, when you want to do these things you need investors. Tourism is driven by the private sector. Yes we are looking for investors, the opportunities are there, the country is growing, our infrastructure is growing and so if you link all of this up, Ghana is really becoming a tourist destination. But until I see for instance, arrivals on a big scale, charter flights coming in and people coming here solely to come and holiday in Ghana, only then will we have mass tourism. That will be interesting. Now some people we speak to say that Ghana is a little bit expensive when it comes to how much tourists are willing to spend, but if we have mass tourism then I think prices will come down, since the demand will be high. One thing that the government has done which is very good, is to encourage people to get visas on arrival especially from the Ecowas countries, but we need to expand it to cover Europe and the Americas. It is still a little bit cumbersome for a lot more people to get visas on arrival, but if people want to visit our country and explore and spend, it needs to be made easier for them to do so and to get visas once they arrive here at the airport so they can have easy access and entry into the country. This will sure open up our economy and create job opportunities for the youth.

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