Feature Alert: I’ve deviated from our Hotel Management Contract series for a moment to bring you a special feature. I’ll be back to the series in our next post!
Career Development Institute (CDI) was a pioneering hospitality training institution that operated in Ghana from 1995 to 2008. Through its affiliation with the Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, it offered internationally certified courses in hotel, travel, and tourism operations—long before hospitality was widely recognized as a serious profession.
In October 2001, CDI made a bold public statement, rolling out a float through the streets of Accra, it announced its participation in Ghana’s first Educ Fair. The message was clear; today I’ll paraphrase it as: Hospitality is a Profession, Not a Pitstop.
Inside their booth were displays of career portraits, a complete line of books on hotel management and quotes. Their life seminars challenged the stigma around hospitality service work. CDI presented hospitality as a vocation—one requiring skill, care, and pride.
Yet, as reflected in the 2021 article “On Show: Hospitality Tourism Education Training”, Ghana has yet to establish a national hospitality training school worthy of the industry’s potential. The float now stands as both memory and mirror: a vision that arrived early, and a nation still catching up.
The Float Rolls Out Along the Principal Streets of Accra to Trade Fair Site, Labadi.
The industry is growing, slowly. Ghana’s warmth and culture continue to welcome the world. But the echo remains:
Training, training, training.
I’ll be back to the series, Hotel Management Contracts: The First Key, in next week’s post.