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Tourism and Ghana’s development process : problems of and prospects for creating a viable "post-industrial" service industry in a non-industrial society

University of British Columbia

The thesis questions the underlying rationale and appropriateness of adopting conventional tourism as a strategy for development in a Third World country such as Ghana which lacks the necessary capital, Western-type skilled tourism personnel and entrepreneurs, and the political stability conducive to this form of tourism. In examining Ghana's tourist industry the thesis concludes that Ghana's tourism has failed to develop and generate development even though 1) Ghana's tourism development strategy has favoured conventional tourism since the late 1950s, 2) the industry is not foreign dominated, 3) the country possesses enormous tourism resources, and 4) successive governments have made consistent efforts to develop the industry. The main reason for this paradox is the incongruence between Ghana's conventional tourism orientation and the existing indigenous economic resources, cultural values and political conditions. Based upon these findings, the thesis suggests a new tourism policy for Ghana, a policy that places greater emphasis on alternative forms of tourism which are a) more congruent with minimal tourism infrastructure, facilities and services, and b) more sensitive to issues of social justice, and to protecting local cultures and the natural environment. The main contribution of the thesis lies in its focus on a critical dimension of Third World tourism--the contradiction between the form of tourism adopted and local resources and conditions-which has been neglected by the emerging theoretical approaches in the sociology of tourism and in empirical research on tourism in Third World countries.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-04-17

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7354

Anthropology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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