The role of tourism in poverty reduction in Elmina,...

Title The Role of Tourism in Poverty Reduction in Elmina, Ghana

Name Joel Sonne

This is a digitised version of a dissertation submitted to the University of Bedfordshire.

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THE ROLE OF TOURISM IN POVERTY REDUCTION

IN ELMINA, GHANA

Joel Sonne

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

of the University of Bedfordshire

May 2010

i

Abstract

Governments and donor agencies are increasingly advocating tourism as a viable

poverty reduction option in developing countries. However, the debate

surrounding tourism development mechanisms and benefits to local people is

based upon limited empirical evidence. Much of the literature has focused on the

socio-economic impacts of tourism in developing countries, but there is

comparatively limited investment of the relationship between tourism and poverty

reduction from the perspectives of the stakeholders, particularly local people.

To build knowledge about this relationship, this research study examines the role

of tourism in poverty reduction in Elmina, Ghana. The core aim of the research is

to analyse the inter-relationship between poverty reduction and tourism from the

perspective of local people and stakeholders. The research focuses upon the

importance of tourism as a developmental strategy to tackle poverty.

The research methodology was formulated within an interpretive paradigm

utilising qualitative techniques to investigate tourism and poverty in Elmina.

Stakeholders who participated in the study included: Government; Donor

Agencies; Local People; Tourists; and the Private Sector. The data was analysed

using thematic data analysis methods. Researcher reflexivity is also integrated

into the study in view of the researcher’s experience of employment in a public

sector tourism organisation in Ghana.

The thematic findings contribute to knowledge about the relationship between

tourism and poverty reduction in Elmina and are categorised into three main

themes. Firstly, local people in Elmina define and understand poverty and tourism

opportunities in multiple ways, which differ from other stakeholders; however,

differences in meanings and understandings exist between and within individuals

and groups in Elmina. The attributes accounting for the differences in views

include: level of education; access to the tourism market; participation in

decision-making; and type of businesses. Secondly, local people participate in

tourism mainly as owners of informal tourism businesses and employees.

ii

However, a group of marginalised people, the ‘Castle Boys’, also benefit from the

support received from philanthropic tourists through the activities of begging and

informal tour guiding as ways of earning income to escape from poverty. Finally,

several barriers to participation for local people in tourism exist in the Elmina

community, which marginalises and excludes a cross-section of the locals from

the advantages of socio-economic opportunities. These barriers include: a low

level of education attainment; a lack of availability of and access to credit

facilities; and a lack of ‘voice’ in the decision-making process, indicating a general

need for capacity building.

Government and donor agencies’ neoliberal policy objectives of utilising cultural

tourism for development has failed to achieve poverty reduction in Elmina. This

issue has given rise to evolving questions of the use of tourism as a

developmental tool to reduce poverty and how to empower local people to

actively participate in emerging socio-economic opportunities. This research

subsequently contributes to furthering the understanding of the role of tourism in

poverty reduction, and theoretically comprehending the role of tourism as a

development strategy to combat poverty in local communities.

iii

Dedication

Dedicated to the memory of my mother, Elisabeth Adwoa Acquaah-Harrison

Sonne.

iv

List of Contents

Abstract ................................................................................................................. i Dedication ........................................................................................................................... iii

List of Contents ................................................................................................................... iv

List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... x

List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... xi

Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................. xiii

Author’s Declaration ........................................................................................................... xv

List of Abbreviations .......................................................................................................... xvi

Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................ 1

Overall Introduction to the Thesis ................................................................................... 1

1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Background to Tourism Development and Poverty Reduction ..................................... 2

1.3 Research Aims and Objectives ..................................................................................... 4

1.4 Rationale for the Research Study ................................................................................. 6

1.5 Elmina: The Field Study Area ....................................................................................... 6

1.5.1 Selection of the Study Area ....................................................................................... 7

1.5.2 Geographical and Political Economy of Elmina ......................................................... 7

1.5.3 Poverty Assessment in Elmina .................................................................................. 8

1.5.4 Evolution of Tourism Development in Elmina .......................................................... 12

1.5.5 The Performance of Tourism in Elmina ................................................................... 16

1.6 Organisation of the Thesis .......................................................................................... 20

Chapter 2 .......................................................................................................................... 23

Understanding the Dimensions of Poverty .................................................................. 23

2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 23

2.2 What Does Poverty Mean? ......................................................................................... 23

2.3 The Physiological Deprivation Model of Poverty ........................................................ 23

2.3.1 The Income/Consumption Approach ....................................................................... 24

2.3.2 Basic Human Needs Approach ................................................................................ 25

2.4 Social Deprivation Model of Poverty ........................................................................... 25

2.4.1 Human Poverty Approach ........................................................................................ 26

2.4.2 Social Exclusion ....................................................................................................... 27

2.4.3 Participatory Approaches to Poverty ........................................................................ 31

2.5 Approaches to Measuring Poverty .............................................................................. 33

2.5.1 Absolute and Relative Poverty ................................................................................. 34

2.5.2 Poverty and Inequality.............................................................................................. 35

2.5.3 Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches to Measuring Poverty ............................. 36

v

2.6 The Causal Framework of Poverty ............................................................................. 38

2.6.1 Human Capital Approach ......................................................................................... 39

2.6.2 Financial Capital Approach ...................................................................................... 39

2.6.3 Social Capital Approach ........................................................................................... 40

2.7 Sutainable Livelihood Approach ................................................................................. 43

2.8 Perspectives on Poverty in Ghana .............................................................................. 45

2.8.1 The Political Economy.............................................................................................. 45

2.8.2 Poverty Trends in Ghana ......................................................................................... 48

2.8.3 Poverty Measurements in Ghana ............................................................................ 49

2.9 Chapter Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 53

Chapter 3 .......................................................................................................................... 55

The Development Paradigms: Poverty and Tourism .................................................. 55

3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 55

3.2 Introduction to Development and Poverty Relationship .............................................. 55

3.2.1 Modernisation Theory .............................................................................................. 56

3.2.2 Dependency Theory ................................................................................................. 57

3.2.3 The Neoliberal Paradigm ......................................................................................... 58

3.3 Sustainable Development: Definition and Critique ..................................................... 63

3.3.1. Sustainable Development: Evolution and Meaning ................................................ 63

3.3.2 Sustainable Development: Financial, Human and Social Capital ............................ 65

3.4 Chapter Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 67

Chapter 4 .......................................................................................................................... 69

Tourism Development and Poverty Reduction ............................................................ 69

4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 69

4.2 Understanding the Nature of Tourism ......................................................................... 69

4.3 Theoretical Perspectives of Tourism Development Paradigms .................................. 70

4.3.1 Conventional Tourism Development Perspectives .................................................. 72

4.3.2 Poverty Reduction: Alternative Tourism Development Perspective ........................ 73

4.4 Tourism Development: A ‘Third Way’ Approach ......................................................... 78

4.5 Tourism and Sustainable Development ...................................................................... 81

4.6 Measuring the Contribution of Tourism to Poverty Reduction .................................... 84

4.7 The Argument for Tourism as a Tool for Poverty Reduction ...................................... 85

4.7.1 Foreign Exchange Earnings ..................................................................................... 86

4.7.2 Tourism Employment and Income ........................................................................... 87

4.7.3 Linkage Between Tourism and Other Economic Sectors ........................................ 88

4.7.4 Development of Cultural Values .............................................................................. 89

4.8 Barriers Influencing Local People’s Participation in Tourism ...................................... 90

4.9 Policy Strategies to Enhance Local People’s Participation in Tourism ....................... 93

vi

4.10 Chapter Conclusion ................................................................................................... 94

Chapter 5 .......................................................................................................................... 96

Tourism Development in Ghana .................................................................................... 96

5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 96

5.2 Evolution of Tourism Development in Ghana ............................................................. 96

5.2.1 Evolution of Ghana’s Tourism Organisations .......................................................... 97

5.2.2 Evolution of Tourism Planning in Ghana.................................................................. 99

5.3 Tourism’s Contribution to Poverty Reduction............................................................ 102

5.4 Key Challenges Affecting Tourism Development in Ghana ...................................... 107


Chapter 6 ........................................................................................................................ 111

Research Methodology ................................................................................................. 111

6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 111

6.2 Philosophy of the Research ...................................................................................... 111

6.2.1 Moving beyond Positivism to Interpretivism ........................................................... 111

6.3 Qualitative Methodological Approaches .................................................................... 114

6.4 Sampling Techniques and Criteria ............................................................................ 116

6.4.1 Purposive Technique ............................................................................................. 116

6.4.2 Snowballing Technique .......................................................................................... 116

6.4.3 Sampling Criteria .................................................................................................... 117

6.5 Data Collection Methods ........................................................................................... 118

6.5.1 Unstructured Interviewing ...................................................................................... 119

6.5.2 Semi-Structured Interviewing ................................................................................. 120

6.5.3 Focus Groups ......................................................................................................... 120

6.5.4 Participant Observation .......................................................................................... 121

6.6 Participatory Rural Appraisal .................................................................................... 123

6.7 Secondary Data ........................................................................................................ 123

6.8 Principles of Data Collection ..................................................................................... 124

6.8.1 Bricoleurship .......................................................................................................... 124

6.8.2 Triangulation .......................................................................................................... 125

6.9 Ethical Considerations .............................................................................................. 126

6.10 Matters of Reliability, Validity and Trustworthiness ................................................ 127

6.11 Researcher Reflexivity and Access ........................................................................ 129

6.12 Chapter Conclusion ................................................................................................. 132

Chapter 7 ........................................................................................................................ 133

Conduct of Fieldwork and Data Analysis ................................................................... 133

7.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 133

7.2 The Pilot Study .......................................................................................................... 133

vii

7.3 Conduct of the Main Study ........................................................................................ 139

7.3.1 The Sampling Procedure and Profile ..................................................................... 139

7.3.2 Data Collection During the Fieldwork ..................................................................... 141

7.4 Thematic Data Analysis ............................................................................................ 148


Chapter 8 ........................................................................................................................ 152

Local People’s Understanding of Poverty in Elmina ................................................. 152

8.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 152

8.2 Poverty: As Lack of Steady Income .......................................................................... 152

8.3 Poverty: As a Lack of Social Amenities .................................................................... 156

8.3.1 Lack of Access to Good Drinking Water ................................................................ 156

8.3.2 Lack of Toilet Facilities ........................................................................................... 157

8.3.3 Poor Waste Disposal Management ....................................................................... 158

8.3.4 Poverty: As a Lack of Access to Education ........................................................... 159

8.4 Poverty: As a Lack of Involvement in Decision-Making ............................................ 161


Chapter 9 ........................................................................................................................ 165

The Use of Tourism to Combat Poverty in Elmina: The Stakeholders’ Perspectives

........................................................................................................................................ 165

9.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 165

9.2 Local People’s Understandings of Tourism Opportunities ........................................ 165

9.2.1 Business Ownership .............................................................................................. 165

9.2.2 Access to the Tourism Market ............................................................................... 166

9.2.3 Employment and Income Opportunities ................................................................. 174

9.2.4 Improved Infrastructure Development and Social Amenities ................................. 177

9.2.5 Tour Guide and Artisans’ Training ......................................................................... 179

9.2.6 Promotion of Cultural Values ................................................................................. 179

9.3 The ‘Castle Boys’ and Tourist Harassment............................................................... 180

9.4 How Other Stakeholders Understand the Significance of Tourism .......................... 182

9.4.1 Government ........................................................................................................... 182

9.4.2 Donor Agencies ...................................................................................................... 183

9.4.3 The Private Sector ................................................................................................. 185

9.4.4 Tourists 186


Chapter 10 ...................................................................................................................... 191

Barriers to Local People’s Participation in Tourism ................................................. 191

10.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 191

10.2 Lack of Financial Capital ......................................................................................... 191

viii

10.2.1 Lack of Income ..................................................................................................... 191

10.2.2 Lack of Access to Credit ...................................................................................... 192

10.3 Lack of Human Capital ............................................................................................ 195

10.3.1 Lack of Education and Skills Capacity ................................................................. 195

10.3.2 Issues of Apathy ................................................................................................... 196

10.4 Lack of Social Capital.............................................................................................. 198

10.4.1 Lack of Access to the Tourism Market ................................................................. 198

10.4.2 Lack of a Diversified Tourism Product ................................................................. 200

10.4.3 Lack of Institutional Capacity: Business Registration and Regulation ................. 201

10.4.4 Lack of Involvement in Decision-Making.............................................................. 203

10.4.5 Lack of Information............................................................................................... 205

10.4.6 Lack of Co-ordination ........................................................................................... 206

10.4.7 Poor Infrastructure Development ......................................................................... 208


Chapter 11 ...................................................................................................................... 211

Analysis and Discussion .............................................................................................. 211

11.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 211

11.2 Poverty and Tourism-The Multiple Perspectives .................................................... 211

11.3 Tourism and Poverty Reduction in Elmina: A Discussion ....................................... 213

11.3.1 Socio-Economic Opportunities from Tourism ...................................................... 213

11.3.2 Barriers to Local People’s Participation in Tourism ............................................. 217

11.4 Recommendations: A Need for Symbiotic Relationship Between Tourism and

Poverty Reduction in Elmina ........................................................................................... 223


Chapter 12 ...................................................................................................................... 238

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 238

12.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 238

12.2 Failure of Macro-Economic Growth and ‘Trickle-Down’ Effects.............................. 238

12.3 Tourism’s Role in Poverty Reduction in Elmina ...................................................... 239

12.4 Recommendations for Increasing Tourism’s Role in Poverty Reduction in Elmina 241

12.5 Strengths and Limitations of the Research ............................................................. 244

12.6 Contribution to Knowledge ...................................................................................... 245

12.7 Recommendations for Future Research ................................................................. 246

References ..................................................................................................................... 248

Appendix ........................................................................................................................ 271

Appendix 1: Licensed Tourism Establishments in the Central Region: 2004-2007 ........ 272

Appendix 2: Projections for Tourism Growth in Ghana: 1994-2010 ............................... 273

Appendix 3: Registered Accommodation Establishments in Ghana .............................. 274

ix

Appendix4: Licensed Restaurants by Category in Ghana: 1995-2006 ........................... 275

Appendix 5: Licensed Catering Establishments in Ghana: September 2007 ................. 276

Appendix 6: Appropriateness of Data Collection Methods to Research Study Objectives

.................................................................................................................. 277

Appendix 7: Unstructured Interviews: Strengths, Weaknesses and Solutions ............... 278

Appendix 8: Semi-Structured Interviews: Strengths, Weaknesses and Solutions .......... 279

Appendix 9: Focus Groups-Strengths, Weaknesses and Solutions ............................... 280

Appendix 10: Participant Observation-Strengths, Weaknesses and Solutions .............. 281

Appendix 11: Bricoleurship Strength, Weakness and Solutions ..................................... 282

Appendix 12: Interview Guide Questions for the Stakeholders ...................................... 283

Appendix 14: Mailed Correspondences-Researcher Letter ............................................ 289

Appendix 15: Mailed Correspondences-Respondent’s Form ......................................... 290

Appendix 16: Thematic Process-Perceived Problems and Solutions ............................. 291

Appendix 18: Pilot Study-Semi-Structured Interview ...................................................... 294

Appendix 19: Main Study-Unstructured Interview ........................................................... 296

Appendix 20: Main Study-Semi-Structured Interview ..................................................... 298

x

List of Tables

Table 1.1: Primary schools enrolment within Elmina Circuit:

1999/2000-2004/2005 ...................................................................................... 10

Table 1.2: Identified tourist attractions in Elmina .............................................................. 13

Table 1.3: Tourism activities undertaken by the CHLDEP: 2003-2006 ............................ 15

Table 1.4: Licensed tourism establishments in Elmina: 2006 ........................................... 17

Table 2.1: Economic sectors’ share of GDP: 2002-2007 .................................................. 47

Table 2.2: Ghana’s Human Development Index in 2005 .................................................. 50

Table 2.3: Types of toilet facilities available in selected communities in Ghana .............. 51

Table 2.4: Availability of water in urban and rural areas in Ghana ................................... 52

Table 4.1: Bipolar view of tourism planning approaches .................................................. 79

Table 4.2: Tourism: aims and objectives of sustainable development ............................. 83

Table 4.3: Tourism contribution to poverty in selected developing countries ................... 87

Table 4.4: Barriers and actions to enhance people’s participation in tourism .................. 92

Table 5.1: Employment created by tourism in Ghana: 1996-2004 ................................. 106

Table 6.1: Ensuring trustworthiness in this research study ............................................ 129

Table 7.1: Focus groups with stakeholders in Elmina .................................................... 146

Table 9.1: Places and types of tourism employment opportunities in Elmina ................ 175

Table 10.1: Different permits required by tourism business operators in Elmina ........... 203

Table 11.1: Incorporate a poverty-focus into tourism policy ........................................... 225

Table 11.2: Emphasise local people’s priorities and circumstances .............................. 226

Table 11.3: Build partnerships among stakeholders ....................................................... 228

Table 11.4: Improve opportunities for the wider involvement of local people in

the supply chain of tourism products and services...................................... 230

Table 11.5: Increase access to training and skills capacity development for

local people.................................................................................................. 231

Table 11.6: Strengthen institutional capacity of identified stakeholders ......................... 233

Table 11.8: Enhance local people’s employment opportunities...................................... 236

xi

List of Figures Figure 1.1: General Map of Ghana…………………………………………………………2

Figure 1.2: The Elmina Castle…………………………………………………….………..16

Figure 1.3: Cultural Attraction: Chiefs and Queen Mothers…………………….………16

Figure 1.4: Tourist Arrivals and Revenues–Elmina Castle: 1995-2005………….........17

Figure 1.5: Organisation of the Thesis………………………………………………..…...22

Figure 5.1: The Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations

and its Stakeholders Ghana……………………..........................................98

Figure 5.2: International tourism arrivals and receipts for Ghana: 1994- 2007……...102

Figure 5.3: International arrivals by purpose of visit to Ghana in 2005………………104

Figure 5.4: Comparison of budget allocation between the tourism sectors and

Other economic sectors in 2008 …………………………………………….109

Figure 7.1: Interviews with a fishmonger………………………………………………...143

Figure 7.2: Interview with a beer bar owner……………………………………………...143

Figure 7.3: Interview with a donor agency in Elmina…………………………………...145

Figure 7.4: Fishmongers focus group…………………………………………………….147

Figure 7.5: Asafo men focus group……………………………………………………….147

Figure 7.6: Mixed women focus group……………………………………………………147

Figure 7.7: Castle Boys focus group………………………………………………….......147

Figure 7.8 Summary of thematic analysis of data into themes, sub-themes

and sub-sub-themes in the study………..…………………………….…….150

Figure 8.1: Fishing boats lying idle during low season…………………………………155

Figure 8.2: A refuse dumping site in Elmina………………………………….…………158

Figure 8.3: Children pushing truck of fish………………………………………………..160

Figure 8.4: Children breaking stones……………………………………………………..160

Figure 8.5: Abandoned rehabilitation of an Asafo Post in Elmina…………………….162

Figure 9.1: Tourists buying souvenirs in Elmina………………………………………...167

Figure 9.2: Official craft market in Elmina…………………………………………….......168

Figure 9.3: A chop bar...................................................................................................169

Figure 9.4: A drinking bar……………………………………………………………….......170

Figure 9.5: A restaurant at the Elmina Castle………………………………………….....171

Figure 9.6: Tourists buying fish from fishmongers……………………………………....173

Figure 9.7: Hawking activities in Elmina…………………………………………………..174

Figure 9.8: Tourists buying cold drinks……………………………………………….........178

Figures 9.9 Activities undertaken by the Castle Boys…………..………..…….. …..……182

Figure 9.10: A donor agency’s involvement in tourism in Elmina…………………….......184

xiii

Acknowledgement

This study was made possible by the invaluable contribution of many people who

are most deserving of recognition. I would like to express my gratitude to

Professor Andrew Holden, Professor Peter Mason and Dr. Stroma Cole, who

have given extensively intellectual guidance and support over the past three

years. Thank you to my main supervisor, Professor Andrew Holden, for giving so

selflessly of his advice, time and encouragement during my academic

experience. Thank you to Professor Peter Mason for your time and comments.

Thank you to my previous second supervisor Dr. Stroma Cole whose advice and

guidance were much appreciated. I am very grateful for the helpful suggestions of

Professors Angus Duncan and David Harrison. Many thanks to my fellow

research students for the encouragement over the years Davis Barasa, Caroline

Tie and Markus Haag. I especially thank the Academic Board of the University of

Bedfordshire for the bursary which provided me with the financial support I

needed to carry on this academic journey.

Out in the field, this study was made possible by stakeholders who participated

and shared their memories, emotions and experiences with me in their roles as

representatives of tourists, of local people, of government, private sector and

donor agency. I am particularly grateful to all those respondents who participated

in this study, whose names remain anonymous for the purpose of maintaining

integrity. I especially thank the Castle Boys, fishermen and fishmongers, owners

of tourism businesses, Asafo groups, Chiefs and workers of Elmina. I am grateful

to Bridget Katsriku, then Chief Director of Ministry of Tourism, and Nicholas Ivor,

the Regional Director of Museums in the Central Region, for your support and

encouragement.

Thank you to my family for their love and patience during this long academic

journey, which means so much more to me than words could ever express. I

thank my wife Sara and my children Lisa and Joel Junior for always supporting

my decision to seek higher academic laurels. The dream, hope and reality have

now been fulfilled. A special thank you to Francisca Davis, Jonatan Davis, Regina

Davis Aning, Dr. Emmanuel Aning and Ekua Aning for the immense support

xiv

which has made my dream come true. I thank George and Pauline Asiedu for

their invaluable support and care, which were indeed crucial to the success of

this research study. I would also like to thank Harold and Linda Deigh, John and

Joan Sperring, Brandon Brako and Dr. Peter Norrington for their invaluable

support which cannot be described in words.

I thank all those who endured conversations about tourism and poverty reduction,

shared my enthusiasm and bestowed their encouragement. Particularly, I want to

thank my critics and those who shared the scepticism about leaving my job as

Director of Tourism to pursue this academic study.

Finally, I am forever indebted to the people mentioned and all those other people

I have inadvertently omitted to mention, but supported me over the years….

‘THANK YOU’ or MEDO MO ASE’.

xv

Author’s Declaration

I declare that this thesis is my own unaided work. It is being submitted for the

degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Bedfordshire.

It has not been submitted before for any degree or examination in any other

University.

Joel Sonne

28th May 2010

xvi

List of Abbreviations CBNRM Community-Based Natural Resource Management

CEDECOM Central Regional Development Commission

CERIDEP Central Regional Integrated Development Programme

CHLDEP Cultural Heritage and Local Development in Elmina

Programme

DACF District Assembly Common Fund

DFID Department for International Development

DMMA District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies

EC European Commission

ERP Economic Recovery Programme

EU European Union

GES Ghana Education Service

GLSS Ghana Living Standard Survey

GMMB Ghana Museums and Monuments Board

GOG Government of Ghana

GPRS Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy

GSS Ghana Statistical Services

GTB Ghana Tourist Board

HDI Human Development Index

HPI Human Poverty Index

HIPC Highly Indebted Poor Country

HOTCATT Hotel, Catering and Tourism Training Centre

IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

IEA Institute of Economic Affairs

IHS International Housing Development Studies

ILO International Labour Organisation

IMF International Monetary Fund

IRS Internal Revenue Service

ISSER Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research

JICA Japan International Corporation Agency

KEEA Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem Municipal Assembly

KVIP Kumasi Ventilated Improved Latrine

xvii

MDA Ministries, Departments and Agencies

MDG Millennium Development Goals

MFEP Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning

MLG Ministry of Local Government

MLGRD Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development

MOT Ministry of Tourism

MOT/DR Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations

MOT/MCC Ministry of Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City

MOTT Ministry of Trade and Tourism

MUCIA Midwest Universities for International Activities

NCC National Commission on Culture

NCRC Nature Resource and Conservation Centre

NDPC National Development Planning Commission

NGO Non Governmental Organisation

PANAFEST Pan African Historical Festival

PCI Per Capita Income

PNDC Provisional National Defence Council

PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal

PRS Poverty Reduction Strategy

ROG Republic of Ghana

RRA Rapid Rural Appraisal

SAP Structural Adjustment Programme

SHC State Hotels Corporation

SLA Sustainable Livelihood Approach

SME Small and Medium Enterprises

UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNEP United Nations Environmental Programme

UNESCO United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural

Organization

UNWTO United Nations World Tourism Organization

USAID United States Agency for International Development

WB The World Bank

WTO World Tourism Organization

xviii

WTTC World Travel and Tourism Council

1

Chapter 1

Overall Introduction to the Thesis

1.1 Introduction

Poverty reduction has become an important item on the tourism agenda,

reflecting the importance of tourism as one of the world’s fastest growing

economic sectors. The relationship between Tourism and Poverty Reduction, as

a topic for the global agenda was launched at the World Summit on Sustainable

Tourism in Johannesburg in 2002 (UNEP/UNWTO, 2005; Goodwin, 2006). While

it has been argued that, as a developmental strategy, tourism seeks to unlock

socio-economic livelihood opportunities for the poor, this focus has increasingly

been embedded in theoretical debates in the reviewed literature.

This study focuses on the role of tourism in poverty reduction in Elmina in Ghana,

Figure 1.1, based on a critical analysis of different stakeholder perspectives, for

whom tourism development reduces, or does not reduce, poverty. Four primary

reasons underlie the researcher’s interest in tourism and poverty reduction. First,

Ghana, entered the third Millennium with the challenge of reducing the depth and

intensity of poverty among her population; emphasised by the United Nations

Human Development Report, which designated the country as a Highly Indebted

Poverty Country (HIPC) in 2002 (ROG, 2002:6). Furthermore, based upon the

Ghana Living Standard Surveys, a trend analysis of poverty in Ghana reveal that

the population in five out of the ten regions in country could be described as

extremely poor (GSS, 2002; 2007). Secondly, as a tourism planner travelling

extensively across the country, the author has first-hand experience of the

widespread poverty of people living in urban and rural communities. Often they

are engaged in subsistence and non-sustainable agricultural and fishing

activities, while their poverty conditions are worsened by external development

policies based on the interpretations of policy-makers.

Thirdly, the majority of these communities are endowed with untapped natural

and cultural tourist attractions, which could be developed to create wealth

amongst the people, whilst conserving the available resources for future

2

generations. Finally, the author has not found any in-depth interpretive study on

the relationship between tourism and poverty reduction at the national and local

levels in Ghana. The existing gap motivated the author to investigate the role of

tourism in poverty reduction in Elmina, from which empirical evidence can be

drawn for future tourism and poverty policy changes.

Figure 1.1: General Map of Ghana Figure 1.1: General Map of Ghana Sources: Adapted from Ministry of Tourism (1996: 22 & 83); http://www.map-of-africa.co.uk [Site accessed on 4 February 2010]

1.2 Background to Tourism Development and Poverty Reduction

Poverty reduction has been identified as a global challenge to the tourism

industry because of its perceived role in promoting sustainable growth and help

achieve the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015 (Roel

et al., 2004; UNEP/UNWTO, 2005; Goodwin, 2006). The United Nations World

Tourism Organization (UNWTO) argues that tourism has the capacity to generate

socio-economic benefits, providing as evidence increasing tourism arrivals and

http://www.map-of-africa.co.uk/�

3

receipts, with tourism being the primary source of foreign exchange earnings in

46 out of the 49 poorest nations the United Nations describes as the Least

Developed Countries (eTurboNews, 2005 cited in Hall, 2007:5; UNWTO, 2009:1).

However, there is a growing debate amongst academics, policy makers, non-

governmental agencies and development agencies concerning the notion of

fighting poverty through tourism (Burns, 2004; Harrison, 2008). The range of

opinions differs with some scholars suggesting that tourism could create socio-

economic opportunities for local people, through employment and income

opportunities (De Kadt, 1979; Sharpley, 2002). Its negative effects have been

highlighted in the literature, for example it is suggested that it offers a route

through economic imperialism by which developed countries exploit resources

from developing countries, as discussed in Chapters Three and Four (Brohman,

1996; Hampton, 2005).

The author notes that a great number of tourism studies have focused on a

macro-economic perspective of tourism contribution to poverty, which do not

explicitly address several dimensions of the relationship between tourism and

poverty. These include: (i) both poverty and tourism are complex, dynamic and

multi-dimensional phenomena, which are defined and understood by different

stakeholders’ perspectives, as discussed in Chapters Two, Four, Seven and

Eight; (ii) while tourism’s macro-economic data permits easy comparison

between tourism and other sectors of the national economy and between

countries, there is little empirical data to demonstrate its contribution to poverty at

the micro level (Roe et al., 2004:7-9). While macro statistical information, based

upon increased tourism arrival, receipts and licensed facilities, are used to

highlight components of tourism growth, it is often assumed that local

communities will automatically benefit from the impact of tourism spending in the

destinations, through ‘trickle-down’ and multiplier processes; and (iii) given the

multi-dimensional character of poverty, the research findings indicate that tackling

the phenomenon requires actions that extend beyond the tourism economic

domain but encompass the promotion of livelihood opportunities, empowerment

and ‘voices’ of the local people in the decision-making process.

4

It is recognised that tourism ‘development’ and its contribution to poverty

reduction are rooted in debates over the most appropriate theoretical frameworks

and paradigms for development policies since the 1950s. For example, donor

agencies and government-led tourism policies have been grounded in the

‘conventional’ development paradigms of modernisation, dependency and neo-

liberalism (Britton, 1982; Harrison, 1995; Mowforth and Munt, 1998; Hashimoto,

2002). These approaches emphasise macro-economic growth and ‘trickle down’

processes as means of creating benefits for the poor. However, the current

tourism-poverty debate has seen further revisions of the conventional

development approaches, with a shift towards ‘alternative’ approaches such as

‘Sustainable Development’ (Sharpley, 2000), ‘Pro-Poor Tourism’ (PPT, 2004) and

Sustainable Tourism to Eliminate Poverty’ (ST-EP) (UNWTO, 2006), as

discussed in Chapter Four.

While such approaches have broadened the debate, they tend to draw away the

focus from the critical question of how far tourism does reduce poverty, and from

whose perspective empirical evidence can be assessed. This is linked to the

argument that, often economic growth alone does not solve the problems of the

poor. As Burns (2004) suggests, the conventional planning approaches of

‘Tourism First’ or ‘Development First’ often do not create significant opportunities

for local people, hence his proposal for a ‘Third Way’. While these approaches

may promote ‘growth’ with benefits to the poor, empirical evidence at the micro-

level is limited and where studies have been conducted, conclusions are unclear

and tend to focus on the perspectives of donors and governments. It is in this

context that this research into tourism’s role in poverty reduction in Elmina,

particularly from the perspective of local people emerged.

1.3 Research Aims and Objectives

This research study examines the role of tourism in poverty reduction in Elmina, a

poverty-stricken community in Ghana. The literature suggests that poverty is

widespread in Ghana, and the Central region where Elmina is located, is

classified as one of the five poorest regions in the country (GSS, 2002). The

Medium-Term Plan (2002-2004), prepared by the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem

5

Municipal Assembly (KEEA, 2002), also highlighted the high incidence of poverty

in Elmina, attributing the cause to a range of factors, including declining fishing

and salt mining activities. As a consequence, tourism was introduced into the

local community by the Government of Ghana and selected Donor Agencies in

the late 1990s as a ‘third industry’, a development strategy to create socio-

economic opportunities for local people. The need to investigate the relationship

between poverty and tourism has been recognised by the Government of Ghana

since the adoption of a sustainable development approach and the Millennium

Development Goals (ROG, 2005a; b).

Given the context of tourism development in Elmina, and the debate on the

relationship between tourism and poverty, a number of research questions arise:

i. To what extent and through which mechanisms does tourism reduce

poverty in Elmina?;

ii. How do stakeholders, especially local people perceive tourism development

and its potential to combat poverty in Elmina?;

iii. Are there barriers to the inclusion of the poor as a stakeholder in the

tourism industry?; and

iv. What recommendations can be made for policy and strategy to enhance the

capabilities and opportunities for the poor in tourism?

Subsequent to the research questions, the research objectives are defined as:

i. Enhancing the comprehension of how the socio-economic opportunities

arising from tourism can be utilised to combat poverty;

ii. Identifying the barriers that cause the marginalisation and exclusion of local

people and the poor from the tourism industry;

iii. Investigating stakeholders’, especially local people’s perceptions of the

significance of tourism as a means of combating poverty;

iv. Make recommendations for tourism policy and strategy to enhance its use

in poverty reduction; and

v. Furthering knowledge of the academic and policy debate of tourism’s role in

the global poverty agenda.

6

1.4 Rationale for the Research Study

This section introduces the rationale for the study in terms of its contribution to

knowledge, originality and motivation. The purpose of the research is to advance

thinking on the relationship between tourism development and poverty reduction,

and to satisfy the underlying questions of the use of tourism as a policy and

strategy to help tackle poverty in Elmina.

Whilst government and donor agencies, perceive tourism as significant in Elmina,

there is no evidence to support the view that tourist spending in the local

community has significantly created opportunities to help improve the well-being

of local people. This study into tourism and poverty is therefore significant, having

the aim of analysing the role of tourism in poverty reduction in the local

community of Elmina. In support of its originality and contribution to knowledge,

the study considers the impact of tourism upon poverty in the context of Elmina

and Ghana, and subsequently contributes knowledge to the wider ‘Pro-Poor

Tourism’ debate.

The justification for investigating the role of tourism in poverty reduction is also

influenced by the author’s personal motivations to study the impact of tourism on

local communities in Ghana. The researcher first visited Elmina in 2005 as a

tourist and recognised its tourism potential, which if properly harnessed could

create significant socio-economic opportunities for the poor. However, the

researcher is discontented to find a community such as Elmina with abundant

natural and cultural resources, undeveloped for tourism because the government

and donor agencies have mainly focused on developing the sites linked to

colonialism, for example Elmina Castle and Fort St. Jago. Furthermore, tourists

do not spend more than two hours in Elmina, as a consequence, their

interactions with the local people are minimal and their expenditures are low.

1.5 Elmina: The Field Study Area

This Section provides a justification for the selection of the study area, explaining

the geographic and political economy of Elmina, its poverty dimensions, and

7

continuing to discuss the evolution of tourism development in the local

community.

1.5.1 Selection of the Study Area

As explained in section 5.2, within the context of the 15-year National

Development Plan (ROG, 1996), tourism should become one of the government’s

socio-economic development activities aimed at creating opportunities to tackle

poverty at the macro and micro-levels. In order to identify this research work area

the author formulated two main criteria based on the interacting themes. These

are: (i) a large proportion of the population should be considered to be in poverty,

defined in either quantitative or qualitative terms based on data and information

documented by the national and local administrations; and (ii) the area selected

should be a local community, where tourism has been consciously targeted within

an anti-poverty programme. Government and donor agencies have funded two

main projects to stimulate local development with a focus on tourism as the lead

sector, creating economic livelihood opportunities for the local people (UNDP

1993; IHS, 2002; ROG, 2006).

1.5.2 Geographical and Political Economy of Elmina

Elmina, as shown in Figure 1.1, is situated on the coast in the Central region of

Ghana. The town, which is over 700 years old, was originally called ‘Mina’ by the

Portuguese, but traditionally called Edina by the local people. Elmina is bordered

to the south by the Atlantic Ocean, to the east by Cape Coast Metropolis, to the

north by Twifo-Hemang-Lower-Denkyria District and to the West by Mpohor-

Wasa East District.

Elmina plays a dual role in terms of the political and traditional administrative

systems in Ghana. While it is the capital of Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem

Municipality (KEEA), as part of the decentralisation programme of governance in

Ghana, Elmina is also the capital of the Edinaman Traditional Area, which is an

important role within the cultural and chieftaincy institutions in Ghana. This dual

system of governance implies the co-existence of a political administrative

8

authority, represented by the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), and the

traditional administrative authority, which has the Paramount Chief as the symbol

of authority. The implication here is that the existence of political and traditional

duality of governance calls for dialogue and consultation between the political

and traditional leaderships in terms of decision-making processes and the

implementation of poverty reduction and tourism development strategies in the

local community.

With a land size of approximately 660 square kilometres, Elmina is described as

a high populated settlement (KEEA, 2002). It has a high population growth rate,

increasing from 11,401 in 1970 to 21,103 in 2000, according to the 2000 Housing

and Population Census (GSS, 2002:11). The core settlement and populated

areas are: Bantuma, Essermu, Neizer’s Garden, Lime Street, Liverpool Street,

Jago Hill, Pershie, Esurkyire, Broyibima, Gwira, Akyinmu, Bakaano and Java Hill

area. In terms of gender, the population ratio is about 45.3 percent male and 54.7

percent female, which has implications for poverty policy in terms of the need for

policy makers to consider livelihood activities being undertaken by both men and

women in Elmina. While the community is broadly multi-ethnic, the indigenous

people are called the ‘Fantis’, other ethnic groups have settled in the locality, for

example Ga and Ewe speaking people.

1.5.3 Poverty Assessment in Elmina

The literatures on poverty profiles of Elmina, as discussed in this section,

emphasise both monetary and non-monetary measurement of poverty, as well as

quantitative and qualitative analysis. The poverty analysis draws upon the limited

data which can be found in the Medium Term Plan for Poverty Reduction

Strategy in Elmina (2002-2004) (KEEA, 2002), report prepared by the Institute for

Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS, 2002), and the Ghana Living

Standard Survey (GLSS) (GSS, 2002). The literatures reveal that poverty is

widespread in Elmina and manifested in various forms. To assess the monetary

dimension of poverty for example, the GSSL used the per capita household

expenditure to generally define the poor in Ghana, as is explained in Section

2.8.3 (a). However, the non-monetary dimension of poverty in Elmina is reflected

in the lack of basis services indicators including access to health; education;

9

good drinking water; waste management system; and employment, as is

explained in the following sections.

(a) Health

With respect to health as an indicator of poverty in Elmina, two key issues were

identified by the Medium Term Plan (KEEA, 2002). Firstly, the only clinic in the

community is not able to cope with the demand for medical services from an

increasing population, implying a lack of access to medical care for a high

proportion of the population and the need for expansion of health facilities.

Secondly, malnutrition among children between the ages of two and five is

considered by government as a major problem, a significant causal factor being

the high pregnancy rates among teenage girls who are either unemployed or

have dropped out of school. Although public health education has been

intensified and teenage girls are being encouraged to go to school, the situation

has not improved.

(b) Education

Table 1.1 presents enrolment in the eleven private and public primary schools in

the Elmina area between 1999/2000 and 2004/2005. The table shows an upward

trend in school enrolment for both boys and girls from 4387 in 1999/2000 to 5844

in 2004/2005 in combined totals. Although enrolment in the primary sector has

risen, it is still considered low by the Ghana Education Service Office in Elmina

and not likely to achieve the targets envisaged by the government for 2015 (GES,

2007). The increase in school enrolment is attributed to the Government’s Free

and Compulsory Education and School Feeding programmes, which are intended

to encourage school enrolment and attendance in order to help achieve the

targets of the Millennium Development Goal and the Poverty Reduction Strategy

as discussed in Section 3.2.2.

Despite the increase in free education, the majority of parents do not encourage

their children to go to school. The Medium Term Plan (KEEA, 2002) associates

this attitude to schooling with widespread poverty among parents, who prefer to

involve their children at an early age in income-generating activities, e.g. fishing,

10

salt mining and petty trading. As a result, there is a high rate of illiteracy among a

significant number of the total population, whilst the number of those with

secondary education is considered extremely low. Other problems associated

with education in Elmina are the limited number of classrooms and qualified

teachers, delays in distribution of text books and equipment, all of which need to

be addressed to allow for the emergence of both a quality education and human

development base.

Table 1.1: Primary schools enrolment within Elmina Circuit:

1999/2000-2004/2005 Year Enrolment in Private

Schools Enrolment in Public

Schools Total Enrolment

Boys Girls Boys Girls

1999/2000 178 150 1991 2068 4387

2000/2001 225 264 2070 2164 4723

2001/2002 306 304 2106 2084 4710

2002/2003 421 402 2163 2141 5127

2003/2004 482 429 n/a** n/a* 911

2004/2005 526 472 2358 2488 5844

Source: Ghana Education Service in Elmina (2007)

Note: n/a**= not available

(c) Water

The reliance on untreated water by the majority of the people is illustrative of

poverty in Elmina. The water resources in Elmina include rivers, streams, wells,

pipe-borne water, boreholes and the lagoon. However, the Medium Term Plan

(KEEA, ibid.) notes that the majority of the people do not have access to a

regular supply of piped water during a greater part of the year. This is mainly due

to the weakness of the distribution pipes, which are very old and have not been

replaced since they were constructed nearly four decades ago. The pipes are

also produced from asbestos cement, which is a potential health hazard. The

Medium Term Plan suggests the need to improve access to safe water in order to

11

protect the population from water borne diseases, which are associated with

untreated water.

(d) Waste Management System

Poverty in Elmina is also associated with the poor waste management system.

The existing level of refuse collection is inadequate, resulting in many people

openly disposing of household garbage in the gutters, the Benya lagoon and the

sea, creating health hazards (KEEA, 2002; IHS, 2002). Organised garbage

disposal is on a limited scale because the seven waste collection skips, with a

capacity of 7.28 cubic metres each, are not sufficient to collect refuse from the

entire community. The Medium Term Plan observes that whilst household waste

collections are difficult and expensive, most of the settlement areas are

unplanned and inaccessible. Although refuse collection is free for households,

except the hotels, most locals are recalcitrant and carry the waste to the

approved dumping sites, but dump it in the open drains, thus creating filth and

potential environmental problems.

Related to the irregular flow of piped water and waste management system is the

limited number of toilet facilities in the community. The Medium Plan (KEEA,

2002:52) indicates that many households do not have flush toilets or dug-out

toilet facilities, and depend on public toilets and the use of open spaces. In order

to address access to adequate toilet facilities, the KEEA has provided a limited

number of public toilets, called Kumasi Ventilated Improved Pit Latrine (KVIP) at

vantage points in the locality for use by the locals upon the payment of fees,

reflecting a symptom of the neoliberal policies being implemented by the

government, as discussed in Section 3.2.3.

(e) Employment

In terms of employment, the reviewed literature indicates that the economy of

Elmina offers limited opportunities for graduates with tertiary and secondary

education. People with high education attainment often leave the town after

schooling to seek better livelihood opportunities outside of the local community.

The fishing industry is significant because of its potential for employment and

12

income generation in the local economy of Elmina, with 75 percent of the

population of Elmina having jobs which are directly and indirectly related to

fishing (IHS, 2002:32).

Elmina is the second largest fish landing point in Ghana with berthing and landing

facilities for both the in-shore and canoe fleets, and cold storage. The Medium-

Term Plan notes that about 760 canoes and fishing vessels operate in the

territorial waters of Elmina for six days of the week (KEEA, 2002). The fishermen

use a variety of fishing gear to catch a wide range of fish including sardines,

demersal species and crustaceans. The fish brought in are sold fresh, smoked or

solar-dried to tourism enterprises, general public and in outlying markets by

fishmongers.

The fishing industry attracts an influx of people from neighbouring communities

as well as migrant fishermen who compete with local fishermen, but there has

been a continuous decline in the quantity of fish landed since 1995. The factors

cited to explain the declining fishing stocks in the sea include unfavourable

climatic and weather conditions, and indiscriminate use of carbide by

unscrupulous fishermen. The decline in fish landed has major poverty reduction

implications on employment and income for local people because their livelihood

is heavily dependent on the industry.

Alongside the fishing industry, salt mining has also been identified by the

Medium-Term Plan as the second most important economic activity, with the

major sites being the Benya lagoon and Sweet River (KEEA, 2002). However,

salt mining has dwindled over the years, due to a number of factors, including its

dependence on solar evaporation, which is affected by rainfall; a lack of improved

technology and equipment; and competition from salts imported by private

companies under the liberalised trade policies of the government (IHS, 2002;

KEEA, 2002).

1.5.4 Evolution of Tourism Development in Elmina The literature on Elmina highlights the importance of tourism as a ‘third industry’,

a potential economic development strategy to tackle poverty, especially in view of

13

the decline of the fishing and salt mining activities. The Medium-Term Plan

(2002-2004) (KEAA, 2002), Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies

(IHS, 2002) and Report on the CHLDEP Project (ROG, 2006) have identified the

developed and underdeveloped tourist attractions in Elmina, as listed in Table

1.2. The attractions range from the Elmina castle to the fishing industry and Asafo

posts. These attractions have been noted by other scholars as having the

potential to attract tourists and eventually create livelihood opportunities in Elmina

(Van Danzig, 1980; MUCIA, 1991; Eyiku, 1995; Van der Nieuwenhof, 1995;

Arhin, 1995; Anquandah, 1999).

Table 1.2: Identified tourist attractions in Elmina

Attraction Description Remarks

Elmina (St.

George) Castle

Built by the Portuguese in 1482 and occupied by them

for 155 years. The Dutch occupied it for over 300 years

until it was sold to the British in 1872. It became the

main exit port during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. It

is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Developed

Fort St. Jago

(Coenraadsburg)

Built by the Portuguese as St. James Church but

transformed by the Dutch into a Fort

Not fully

developed

The Dutch

Cemetery

European Cemetery established in 1806 Developed

Asafo posts

(shrines)

There are seven Asafo posts, which represent the

traditional military units and family shrines

Not fully

developed

Old Merchant

Houses

These are private houses of wealthy European and

local merchants.

Not fully

developed

Java Museum Showcase history of 3,080 African soldiers who served

in Indonesia

Developed

Traditional festivals

including dance,

arts and crafts.

Cultural values Not developed

Fishing Industry The fishing landing sites, colourful canoes with flags

and sea cruises fascinate the international tourists.

Developed

Catholic Museum Depicting the history and relics of the first Catholic

Church activities in Ghana

Developed

Historical

landmarks

St. Joseph Hill, Liverpool Street, Java Hill Not developed

Beach and Benya

Lagoon

Ideal for water sports Not developed

Sources: Adapted from KEEA (2002), IHS (2002) and ROG (2006)

14

The evolution of tourism development in Elmina is associated with two main

projects planned to stimulate regional economic development and tackle poverty

in the Central Region between 1990 and 2006. The first project was executed

between 1994 and 1997, as indicated in the ‘Evaluation Reports’ prepared by the

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (UNDP, 1993; 1998a). It

focused on Central Regional Integrated Development Programme (CERIDEP)

and was implemented by the Central Regional Development Commission

(CEDECOM). It highlighted tourism as the priority area for local economic

development, with US$3.4 million being provided by the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP), United States Agency for International

Development (USAID) and the Government of Ghana between 1993 and 1998.

The Reports emphasised two key issues which are relevant to this study. These

are: (i) the restoration of Elmina Castle and Fort Jago through public and private

sector investment. The restoration process highlighted the significant roles the

Castle and Fort played in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, which led to their

adoption as World Heritage Sites by the United Nations Education, Scientific and

Cultural Organisation (UNESCO); and (ii) a number of weaknesses associated

with the formulation and implementation of the tourism programme were

identified. These included a lack of effective coordination and integration of

activities among tourism organisations such as the Ministry of Tourism and the

Ghana Tourist Board. The reports further recommended the need to involve the

Municipal Assembly and the Chiefs, as stakeholders in the implementation of

future tourism projects.

The second project, which was executed between 2003 and 2006 is the Cultural

Heritage and Local Development in Elmina Programme (CHLDEP), emphasised

an integrated approach towards conservation and tourism development in Elmina

(ROG, 2006a). This project, in excess of two million euros (€2million), was

funded by the European Commission (EC), the Dutch Department for Culture and

the Government of Ghana. The evaluation report highlights the potential areas for

stimulating tourism facilities in the local community. It states that:

‘While the project hopes to improve the living conditions of the people in Elmina,

[the] key issue for EC co-operation, renovation of the sites and buildings of historical

significance is also meant to increase the town’s potential and encourage tourists to

15

come to Elmina, stay longer and spend more. This will generate more revenue, create

jobs and therefore reduce the existing poverty of the residents in the area and

surroundings’ (ROG, 2006:1).

The report stressed the need for the adoption of an elaborate consultative

process with local people, the development of tourist activities as shown in Table

1.3, and that tourism makes a contribution to the well-being of local people.

Table 1.3: Tourism activities undertaken by the CHLDEP: 2003-2006 • Rehabilitation of part of Elmina castle

• Adaptation of Fort St. Jago Hill

• Rehabilitation of Fort St. Jago (Fort St. Coenraadsburg)

• Restoration of 14 merchant and historic buildings through a home-owner scheme

• Establishment of Tourist Information Office and Reception Centre

• Construction of an Art and Craft Market

• Training of 20 tour guides

• Rehabilitation of Nana Etsiapa Square for community activities, including meetings

• Production of promotional materials for sale, e.g. tourist maps, videos etc.

• Purchase and rental of bicycles to tourists

• Training of 60 artisans in management and book-keeping skills

Source: Adapted from Report of Ghana, Project Report (2006)

As a consequence of the two donor-funded projects, Elmina has become an

important tourist destination in Ghana, especially with the restoration of the

Elmina Castle and Fort St. Jago. Elmina attracts domestic and international

tourists. The majority of international tourists who visit Elmina are from North

America and the Caribbean seeking their ancestral roots, related to the Trans-

Atlantic Slave Trade, whilst others visit for the purpose of studies and cultural

experiences (refer to Figures 1.2 and 1.3). The market dependency on the

American and Caribbean markets is also accentuated by the annual

Emancipation Day and Pan African Historical Festival (Panafest) events, as

explained in Section 5.3.(a). There is a subsequent need to diversify Ghana’s

source markets for the purpose of diversification in order to reduce the over-

reliance on a skewed market base.

Bruner (1996) notes that a significant and growing segment of the international

tourist market to Elmina consists of blacks from the Diaspora, particularly African-

Americans seeking their ancestry roots, who thus have a different perspective of

16

the use of the castle for tourism. He argues that the African-Americans see the

castle as a sacred ground that should not to be desecrated by being

whitewashed, thus adulterating the colonial and historical past associated with

slavery. However, the local people view the rehabilitation of the castle as having

potential for economic development in terms of investment and employment

opportunities. Bruner concludes that the Elmina Castle has become a bastion of

power, a site to be struggled over by different stakeholders, whereby diverse

interests play a major role in its development for tourism.

Figure 1.2: The Elmina Castle Figure 1.3: Chiefs and Queen Mothers

of Elmina

1.5.5 The Performance of Tourism in Elmina

Tourism arrivals, revenue and stock of tourist facilities illustrate the importance of

tourism as a potential source for growth and development in Elmina, as

evidenced in the data collected by the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) (GTB, 2007)

and Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) (GMMB, 2007). The

performance trends, as reflected in macro-economic indicators, are explained in

the following sections.

(a) Tourist Arrivals and Revenue Generated from Elmina Castle

As presented in Figure 1.4, visitor arrivals over the period between 1995 and

2005 have generally increased, although stagnated between 2002 and 2004, due

to poor marketing and the ineffective promotion of activities needed to attract

both international and domestic markets, as is explained in Section 5.4. However,

revenues collected from entrance fees rose from 1995 to 2005, largely as a

consequence of annual increase in the entrance fees above the level of inflation.

17

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Tourist Arrivals Revenue (Cedis 000s)

As a directive of government policy, the revenue collected is paid into the

Consolidated Fund (GMMB, 2007).

Figure 1.4: Tourist Arrivals and Revenues – Elmina Castle: 1995-2005 Source: Adapted from Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (2007) b) Tourist Establishment

Table 1.4 illustrates the variety of tourist establishments in Elmina licensed by the

GTB in 2006 (GTB, 2007b). The data represents tourist establishments for only

2006, which was collated by the author from the GTB 2006 Annual Report, during

the field work.

Table 1.4: Licensed tourism establishments in Elmina: 2006

Hotels 11

Traditional Catering 14

Drinking Spots 44

Souvenir Shops 3

Restaurants 2

Travel Agency 1

Source: Adapted from Ghana Tourist Board, Central Region Office, 2007 Previous data could not be obtained because the data collected by GTB were

aggregated for the whole Central region (refer to Appendix 1) without

breakdowns to reflect the spatial distribution at the local levels. The range of

tourist establishments in Elmina ranged from hotels to drinking spots and

traditional catering services, which are commonly referred to in Ghana as ‘chop

bars’.

18

The data represented only establishments that met GTB’s quality and standards

criteria during the period of licensing. Therefore, the data collected from the

Ghana Tourist Board may not reflect the actual number of tourist facilities, which

may undermine its reliability for academic and development policy analyses.

Despite the absence of data for previous years, GTB officials are of the view that

there had been an increase in the number of tourist establishments, as a

consequence of increasing tourist demand and responses by local entrepreneurs

to take advantage of the emerging tourism opportunities, as discussed Chapter

Nine.

In summary, the limited available data shows that poverty is widespread in

Elmina, with the majority of the population being described as poor. More

important to this study are the poverty profiles of how poverty is defined and

measured, emphasising both monetary and non-monetary measurement, both

quantitative and qualitative terms. While local people lack an acceptable income

level, they also lack access to basic services including health, safe drinking

water, education, waste management system and employment, as explained in

Chapter Eight.

Based upon the limited available poverty indices, there are indications that the

well-being of the population should be improved through government investment

of a substantial amount of resources to enhance basic services and livelihood

opportunities. However, as discussed in Chapter Two, there is a need to be

mindful of the fact that poverty analysis is dependent upon different stakeholders’

perspectives and the kind of data each stakeholder chooses to use. In the case

of Elmina, analysis of poverty profiles in the literature has focused on government

and donor agencies’ perspectives, and subsequently formed the basis for tourism

development interventions. It is against this background that this research study

explores the meanings and understandings of poverty from the perspective of

local people in Chapter Eight.

Government and donor agencies perceive tourism as an effective vehicle of

development in Elmina, and subsequently as a means to help reduce poverty.

The available data emphasise tourism statistical analysis based on volume rather

than value (Roel et al., 2004). For example, the data obtained from GTB and

19

GMMB did not indicate the amount of time each tourist spent in Elmina, or money

spent on accommodation, transport and other goods and services offered for sale

by the locals.

As a growing understanding of the tourism and poverty relationship has evolved,

academics and policy makers interest in tourism’s role in poverty reduction has

increased not only in the objectives of development but also in the theories or

‘paradigms’ of development, the process by which development, however

defined, might be achieved. As a result, the desired objective of tourism-related

development in many developing countries, as the literatures suggest, has

explicitly expanded from a reliance upon economic growth to a broader concept

embracing socio-economic opportunities, empowerment and participation.

This research findings and discussions suggest that, beyond the aggregated data

and generalised trends covered in the reports of government bodies, any specific

action for poverty reduction in Elmina requires detailed understanding of

tourism’s impacts from local people’s perspectives. However, to fully understand

tourism’s contribution to poverty reduction in Elmina would require a considerable

amount of local knowledge, data and a strong methodology as discussed in

Chapters Six and Seven. The research findings reveal that although tourism

growth could create macro-economic benefits, the direct consequences of the

distribution of such benefits among poor people may often not necessarily reduce

poverty. The author argues that, apart from macro-economic indicators, there are

many benefits local people consider as important but are ignored by the policy

makers.

More than a decade has passed since the initial tourism development efforts

began in Elmina; therefore, local people are in a better position to explain

whether the promised benefits have been realised, and how they impact on their

well-being, as explained in Chapters Nine and Ten. The absence of in-depth data

of this type reinforces the aim of this research, to fill the wide gap that exists, to

make information available for policy planning to underline sustainable

development of tourism as a basis for tackling poverty in Elmina.

20

1.6 Organisation of the Thesis

The organisation of the thesis is presented in Figure 1.5, consisting of chapter

one, four chapters (Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5) focusing upon the review of literature,

two chapters concentrating on the methodological issues (Chapters 6 and 7), and

the last four chapters (Chapters 8, 9, 10 and 11) presenting the findings, analysis

and conclusion.

Chapter One is an introduction to the research, and defines the scope of the

study whilst placing the research into the context given current debates on the

relationship between poverty and tourism. It also considers theoretical,

conceptual and methodological issues, presents the research aim and objectives,

provides the justification for the research, and introduces the field study area.

Chapters Two, Three and Four comprise the review of literature relevant to the

study. Chapter Two considers theoretical and conceptual issues of defining and

measuring poverty. This chapter identifies the key approaches and indicators

concerned with placing the study of poverty within an international context,

paying attention to the institutional income and non-income influences of poverty;

and the physiological and social models concerned with the income, basic needs

and social exclusion of poverty. The chapter evaluates those ‘conventional’

approaches which have been concerned with causal factors of poverty and

consequences on local people in developing countries, including Ghana.

Chapter Three critically reviews the current development paradigms and

relevance to the understanding of poverty and tourism studies. This chapter

recognises the interlocking relationships between poverty and tourism in the

policies that underscore tourism development.

Chapter Four investigates how tourism contributes to poverty reduction and

explores the literature to identify the variety of ways that local people can

participate, whilst evaluating barriers contributing to non-participation in the

tourism industry. Chapter Five focuses upon tourism development in Ghana,

explaining the evolution of tourism and its current role in the national

development strategy to tackle poverty within the context of the Ghana Poverty

Reduction Strategy and the Millennium Development Goals.

21

Chapters Six and Seven concentrate on issues of methodology and justify the

research methodology used, conduct of field work and research reflexivity.

Chapter 6 evaluates and presents the methodology utilised in the study,

including aspects of the philosophy of research methodology, data collection

methods adopted, data analysis procedures, ethical considerations and matters

of validity and reliability. Chapter Seven focuses upon the research process by

reviewing the conduct of the pilot and main fieldwork. This chapter describes the

field research location, profiles the research respondents, and presents the data

collection and analysis process. It explains the experiences of the researcher in

the field in using triangulation and provides a description of how the data was

analysed to generate the research findings.

Chapters Eight, Nine, Ten and Eleven comprise the presentation, interpretation

and discussion of research findings. Chapter Eight analyses the understandings

of poverty in the local community in Elmina. This chapter interprets the wider

understandings and effects of poverty upon the local people’s well-being.

Chapter Nine evaluates stakeholders’ participation in tourism and the perceived

emerging socio-economic opportunities and activities which local people engage

in and the impact of tourism upon their well-being. Chapter Ten reviews the

identified significant barriers local people in Elmina consider as having restricted

their active participation in tourism. The chapter presents and interprets the

impact of identified barriers upon participation, and subsequently limits tourism’s

role to combat poverty. Chapter Eleven discusses the thematic findings

emerging from the study and makes recommendations for consideration by

policy-makers and scholars.

The final part of the thesis, Chapter 12, is the Conclusion, contribution of the research to knowledge and Direction for Future Research, which

encapsulates the extent to which the research aim has been fulfilled, critically

examines the conduct of the study, highlights the research implications, and

identifies the potential for future research agenda. The conclusions are followed

by References, listing all references cited in the thesis and consulted throughout

the study. This is followed by the Appendices containing supporting information

22

Figure 1.5: Organisation of the Thesis

References/ Appendices End Matter

Chapter 12 Conclusion

Chapter 11 Analysis and Discussion

Chapter 10 Barriers to Local People’s Participation

Chapter 9 The Use of Tourism to Combat Poverty in Elmina…

Chapter 8 Local People’s Understan-ding of Poverty…

Chapter 7 Conduct of Fieldwork and Data Analysis

Chapter 6 Research Methodology

Chapter 5 Tourism Develop-ment in Ghana

Chapter 4 Tourism Develop-ment and Poverty

Chapter 3 The Develop-ment Paradigms: Poverty and

Chapter 2 Understan-ding the Dimension of Poverty

Chapter 1 Overall Introduction to the Thesis

The Role of Tourism in Poverty Reduction in Elmina

23

Chapter 2

Understanding the Dimensions of Poverty

2.1 Introduction

This chapter examines poverty and related concepts that have been widely

applied in the development literature and critically analyses the different

definitions. It also considers the different measurement approaches and issues

that relate to development and tourism. While these definitions and measuring

approaches are contested, this chapter identifies working definitions of the terms

and common concepts, whose themes are employed throughout this study.

2.2 What Does Poverty Mean?

Poverty has increasingly gained global attention as a multidimensional and

multidisciplinary concept, and it is defined and measured in multiple ways in the

development literature. This is because poverty does not only concern itself with

measures of income and consumption, often used to give a descriptive picture of

the extent of poverty at the global, national and local levels. It also includes a

number of basic requirements in human development, e.g. health, education and

water, which should be accessible to people in order for them to escape from

falling into a state of poverty. Two key concepts for understanding poverty are the

physiological and social deprivation models which are explained in the following

sections.

2.3 The Physiological Deprivation Model of Poverty

This model underlines a variety of approaches to poverty analysis in developing

countries, focusing on being ‘poor’ as not having access to basic material or

biological needs including education, nutrition and good drinking water. The

model is linked to the works of Lipton (1997), Lanjouw (1997) and Ruggeri

Laderchi et al. (2003), who highlighted the basic material needs that help define

poverty, as well as differentiating the poor from the non-poor. The physiological

model definition of poverty is based on a poverty line of material needs, below

24

which an individual or group is described as poor. This poverty line is embedded

in the two approaches that are associated with the physiological model, i.e., the

income/consumption and human basic needs approaches.

2.3.1 The Income/Consumption Approach

The income/consumption approach to categorising poverty, stresses that: ‘a

person is poor if, and only if, her income falls below the defined poverty line’

(UNDP, 1997:16). This means that there is a threshold poverty line which defines

the terms of having enough income for a specified amount of food items. The

income/consumption poverty line is utilised and extensively applied in welfare

economics to monitor the progress in reducing poverty prevalence. The approach

emphasises well-being as needs fulfilment and is represented in terms of income

and consumption, emphasising a monetary unit, from which an

income/consumption poverty line may be drawn to represent an adequacy level

of needs. Based on this approach, the ‘poor’ are described as those whose

income or consumption level falls below the poverty line; consequently, poverty is

conceived as a non-fulfilment of ‘basic needs’.

Lanjouw (1999) emphasises the importance of poverty lines as a benchmark for

assessing the incidence of poverty in many countries. He identifies two methods

by which poverty lines, as a type of physiological deprivation, can be expressed.

The first, the ‘food energy method’, estimates a minimum food energy level of

consumption that is required to provide an adequate level of calorie intake. The

second, the ‘food-share method’, estimates the minimum cost of food items

bought and consumed by the poor, also referred to as the ‘bread basket’. Both

the food energy and food-share methods have been widely applied to estimate

poverty levels, helping to underline the physiological deprivation model for

defining poverty.

Lanjouw (ibid.) notes that, although the poverty line measurement is used by

governments and donor agencies to define poverty and differentiate the poor

from the non-poor, the income/consumption methods assume that poverty occurs

only in the physiological deprivation perspective. He supports the view held by

the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that: ‘human poverty is

25

more than income poverty…it is the denial of choices and opportunities for living

a tolerable life’ (UNDP, 1997:2). This implies that poverty is not limited to

income/consumption indicators alone, but has multiple dimensions, as is

discussed in the next sections.

2.3.2 Basic Human Needs Approach

The basic human needs approach complements the physiological approach

model by extending and shifting emphasis to include non-income needs. Streeten

et al. (1981) conceptualised the basic needs approach as consisting of minimum

specified quantities of items such as food, clothing, shelter, water and sanitation

that are necessary for healthy living. They argue that deprivation is considered as

the inadequate fulfilment of a number of different basic needs (ibid.).

By comparison to the income approach to poverty assessment, the basic human

needs approach proposes a broader perspective of defining poverty, to

incorporate a basket of essential goods and services, including food, education

and water. The basic needs approach also stresses key aspects for well-being

that require poverty policy interventions, as oppose to focusing purely upon

income and consumption. However, both approaches exclude other relevant

aspects necessary for well-being, such as the interwoven social, cultural and

political structures that affect the wider local community. A Concept that attempts

to overcome this shortcoming is the social deprivation model of poverty,

explained in Section 2.4.

2.4 Social Deprivation Model of Poverty

The social deprivation model challenges the physiological deprivation model,

emphasising that poverty extends beyond purely income and consumption

considerations. The approaches embedded in the social deprivation model and

examined in the following sub-sections are: human poverty; social exclusion; and

participation.

26

2.4.1 Human Poverty Approach

The human poverty approach gained common currency when the United Nations

Human Development Report, 1997 called for a review of the conventional

approaches to tackling poverty (UNDP, 1997:2). The Report reviews the

challenge to eradicate poverty and notes that despite reduction in global poverty

in many parts of the world, chronic poverty persists in many developing countries.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (ibid.) stress shameful

inequalities and inexcusable failures in national and international policies,

emphasising ‘deprivation’ as poverty, and that poverty should not only be

considered in terms of income/consumption and basic needs, but widened to

encompass all other deprivation aspects.

The human poverty approach draws significantly on Amartya Sen’s (1999; 2000)

conceptual framework of poverty, within which poverty is understood as the

absence of certain basic capabilities to function. Sen emphasises the significance

of people’s capabilities, i.e. the definition of poverty should focus on what people

can or cannot do, rather than purely income and consumption indicators. Inspired

by Sen, the UNDP (UNDP, 1997:15) emphasised the concept of human

development, specifying some of the basic capabilities which affect the well-being

of the poor, including restricting opportunities. These include the capability to lead

a long and healthy life; the establishment of self-esteem; and the freedom to be

able to make choices and be involved in decision-making. Thus, the human

poverty approach proposes a process of widening people’s choices and

opportunities, helping to raise levels of well-being. A recognised instrument of this

approach is the Human Development Index, which is discussed in Section 2.5.3.

Sen (1999:87) therefore suggests that poverty should be understood from the

perspective of a deprivation of basic capabilities, as opposed to merely lowness

of incomes, which reflects a ‘conventional’ view of defining poverty. He also

suggests that while income generates capabilities, it is not the only instrument for

this, with education, health and freedom also being extremely important. Thus,

the capabilities perspective emphasises poverty as the absence of some

capability to function; that is, a person who lacks an opportunity to achieve

minimally acceptable levels of functioning including: being well nourished;

27

adequately clothed and sheltered; and taking part in the life of the community

(UNDP, 1997). Within the capability perspective, the aspect of social constraints

are emphasised to enhance the understanding of the nature and causes of

poverty and deprivation by shifting primary attention from ‘means’ to ‘ends’; for

example transferring emphasis from a sole reliance on income onto the freedom

of opportunity that can enable people to satisfy these ends. Freedom refers to

choices people make between different ‘valuable beings and doings’, including

being educated and participating in community decision-making (Sen, ibid.).

In summary, the notion of human capabilities shifts the definition of poverty from

income and human needs to the perspective of deprivation of social, cultural and

political needs. Another aspect of capability vis-à-vis income inadequacy is the

fact that the two notions are related (Sen, 1999). That is, income is an important

indicator of the capability perspective, but capabilities in leading a life would in

turn expand a person’s ability to be more productive and earn a higher income.

Unlike the income and basic needs approaches, the human poverty approach

has given recognition to the relationship between means and ends, as well as

between income and capabilities. These relationships are significant in poverty

reduction analysis, since they emphasise the intrinsic linkages between the

definition and causes of poverty on one hand, and policy measures needed to

address poverty in a holistic manner. For example, choice and opportunities are

influenced by the social context, including interactions, policies and regulations.

This means that attempt to improve income levels should expand the human

capabilities of the poor (Sen, 1999; Ruggeri-Laderchi et al., 2003).

2.4.2 Social Exclusion

A second dimension to the social deprivation model is the concept of social

exclusion, which was developed in the 1970s to explain those who are not

necessarily income/consumption poor, but are still kept out of the mainstream

society. The term ‘social exclusion’ was first used by Peter Townsend, a

sociologist, to explain the relative deprivation concept of poverty in York in

England. His analysis was based on the early 20th century work of Rowntree

(1902 cited in Ruggeri-Laderchi et al., 2003:8), who defined the poverty line by

estimating monetary requirements for a nutritionally adequate diet, together with

28

estimated needs for clothing and rent. However, it was Townsend who viewed

poverty or deprivation as the situation in which individuals are excluded from

ordinary living patterns, customs and activities. The underlying idea of Townsend

is that poverty or deprivation is a consequence of a lack of the resources required

to participate in activities and enjoy living standards which are customary and

widely accepted in society. Thus, people are socially excluded if they are a

resident in society but for reasons beyond their control, they cannot participate in

the normal activities of citizens of that society.

The concept of social exclusion is seen as encompassing multi-dimensional and

relational aspects of deprivation and poverty. People are often excluded not only

from publicly provided services but from a wide range of social, political and

economic institutions as a result of a lack of capabilities and entitlements (Lister,

2004). It is noted that social exclusion is a dynamic process because deprivations

can lead to exclusion, which in turn leads to more deprivation and more

exclusion, resulting in persistent multiple deprivations. Social exclusion also

stresses the social perspective of poverty or deprivation, emphasising that those

who tend to be socially excluded in society are those who are often perceived to

be disadvantaged such as the aged, handicapped, ethnic minority groups, and

women. Thus, social exclusion identifies barriers created by social, economic and

political institutions that tend to impede people’s active participation in society.

Sen (2000) identifies a variety of ways in which people are excluded from full

participation in livelihood opportunities including employment, education,

decision-making processes and access to local resources. Sen’s view supports

the works of Appasamy et al. (1996 cited in Ruggeri Laderchi et al., 2003:22),

who noted that a section of the population in India were socially excluded from

access to education, water supply, sanitation and housing. They also observed

that the extent to which people were excluded differed between and within

groups because of the different social, economic and political institutions which

existed in the areas studied, implying an influence of structure upon poverty. A

study conducted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Tunisia

revealed differences in the priorities of the socially excluded (Bedoui and Gouia,

1995 cited in Ruggeri-Laderchi et al., 2003:22), with local people expressing

29

different priorities in terms of needs, ranging from lack of employment to a desire

for a guaranteed source of income.

Sen (2000:8) notes that social exclusion is relational because a lack of one socio-

economic opportunity could create a vicious cycle or multiple deprivations. He

argues that hunger can be caused by crop failure, which besides causing a loss

of traditional food supply also can lead to a loss of wages and possibly be

employment. This analogy illustrates the empirical and relational aspects of social

exclusion as a process of deprivation due to several causative factors,

suggesting the need for policy makers to consider the wider population in a local

community when formulating poverty policies.

Hume et al.(2001) suggest that the concept of social exclusion offers a strong

and useful starting point from which the politics surrounding poverty can be

understood. This is because, unlike the conventional monetary and basic needs

approaches, social groups are placed at the centre of the analysis. However,

policy interventions may tend actively or passively to exclude a particular group in

a society, sometimes a situation which Sen (2000:14-15) describes as ‘active

exclusion’, as being a consequence of deliberate government policies that aim at

a particular group of people. ‘Passive exclusion’ results from general social and

economic policies which are not targeted at a particular group, but tend to

marginalise or exclude some people. For example, removal of agricultural

subsidies can lead to a loss of crop production, which may affect employment

and earnings of farmers and sellers of the produce in the market.

The multiple uses of the concept of ‘social exclusion’ and its interpretations can

result in ambiguity, and its application in the context of developing countries is

likely to encounter difficulties. Ruggeri-Laderchi et al. (2003) suggest that

empirical application of the concept to a particular society may have to be

interpreted in a specific context in order to identify exclusion from normal

activities. They note that it is often difficult to identify relevant norms to provide a

common benchmark of exclusion, since exclusion from formal sector employment

tends to apply to the majority of the population in developing countries; hence a

lack of formal sector employment may not necessarily be interpreted as exclusion

from normal social patterns of relationship. As a result there is sometimes

30

difficulty in deciding what would be the appropriate characteristic of social

exclusion; for example, in societies where a caste system is practiced as a norm.

A number of possible ways to overcome the difficulty of analysing social

exclusion have been found in the literature, in the context of developing countries

(Sen, 2000; Lister, 2004). The first could be to take the norms from outside,

typically from developed countries. This implies an imposition of ideas on the

people that has characterised the policies of many government and donor

agencies. The second would be the adoption of a consultation process in the

participatory approach, aiming to develop understanding between policy makers

and local people. A final possibility would be to explore the different structural

characteristics of a total population, e.g. ethnic identity, local community and

occupation, which fit into the framework of multiple deprivations. A mixture of

these approaches has been utilised in social exclusion studies to define poverty

in developing countries.

Social exclusion is relevant to poverty policies in developing countries, as it

focuses on processes and dynamics that allow deprivation to arise and persist,

as opposed to the income/consumption and basic need approaches. Thus, social

exclusion emphasises the structural characteristics of society and the situation in

which the people find themselves, which can lead to exclusion or marginalisation.

To be excluded from facilities that are available to others certainly can be a

significant handicap that contributes to poverty.

Poverty analysis can be substantially understood from insights provided by the

perspective of social exclusion, reinforcing the multidimensionality of deprivation

and focus on relational processes. It highlights opportunities that should be made

available to the poor to allow them to escape from poverty. As Sen (2000:44)

suggests, ‘no concept of poverty can be satisfactory if it does not take adequate

note of the disadvantages that arise from being excluded from shared

opportunities enjoyed by others.’

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2.4.3 Participatory Approaches to Poverty

The ‘participatory approach’ is associated with the social deprivation model,

prioritising the perspectives of the poor in defining poverty. The participatory

approach challenges the ‘conventional’ poverty estimates, including both

monetary and capability approaches, because they are externally imposed and

do not take into account the way poor people conceptualise poverty (Chambers,

1994a, b & c; 1997; Cornwall and Jewkes, 1995; Robinson, 2002). The approach

proposes that the conceptualisation of poverty and deprivation must be

undertaken through an interactive process, typically between a facilitator and

local people engaged as participants in dialogues.

The concept of participation is borrowed from Arnstein’s (1969) and Pretty (1997)

all cited in Kelly (2001:22), which have characterised policy and programme

planning as implemented by policy makers (Mowforth and Munt, 1998, 2003;

Kelly, 2001). For example, Arnstein’s ladder of participation has eight steps or

rungs ranging from manipulation to citizen control, which are divided into three

groups, based upon varying degrees of external and internal control. The first

group, consisting of manipulation and therapy, is considered non-participatory.

The next group, composed of informing, consulting and placating, is described as

having degrees of tokenism. The last group, encompassing partnership,

delegated power and citizen control, is classified as constituting degrees of

citizen’s power.

The participatory approach is representative of a shift from centralised

standardisation to emphasis on local diversity, and from stereotypical policy

planning, to a learning process based on local people’s knowledge and

participation in defining poverty and its impact on their lives. Chambers (1994 a,

b, c; 1997) popularised the participatory approaches and methods as enabling

local people to share, enhance and analyse their knowledge of life and

conditions. In ‘Whose Reality Count’, Chambers argues that the participatory

approach allows people to participate in decisions and define their realities

concerning issues relating to poverty and development programmes. He

identifies two principal methods which are associated with participatory

32

approaches as a means by which the local people can express and analyse their

realities. These are: Rapid Rural Appraisal and Participatory Rural Appraisal.

Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) emerged in the 1970s as a technique for the

collection of useful socio-cultural data from local people during the evaluation of

projects and programmes. The approach is reliant on the perspectives of

‘experts’ or ‘outsiders’ who undertake brief visits to the local communities to elicit

the people’s views in order to design development programmes. However, the

RRA approach reflects the imposition of views by experts who only consult a few

people, often the most influential ones. As a result, the outcome often does not

reflect the view of the poor, but that of a minority. This is the case for poverty

reduction strategy in many African countries, including Uganda and Ghana

Ruggeri-Laderchi et al. (2003:25). A further weakness of RRA is its generalised

assumption that communities are homogenous, lacking a diversity of opinions

and views.

By contrast, the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) approach addresses the

challenges associated with RRA by allowing local people to define their own

realities. Chambers describes the PRA approach as a process of ‘putting people

first’ in terms of defining their realities. The fundamental nature of PRA is a

reversal of roles, i.e. ‘outsiders do not impose their reality; they encourage and

enable local people to express their own’ (Chambers, 1997:103), creating the

opportunity for local people to share knowledge and analyse their well-being from

their own perspectives. Thus, the PRA approach aims to give local people a

‘voice’ to enable them to express their realities, and subsequently exemplify a

‘bottom-up’ approach of defining local people’s well-being.

In the context of Ghana, Kunfaa’s (1999) study on poverty assessment for the

World Bank in nine communities was based on PRA methods. While the study

revealed the differences in the definitions and categorisation of poverty between

and within the communities, it also reflected divergent views in terms of age and

gender. For example, the women based their definitions on issues related to the

family development of the community, whilst the men focused on agricultural

crops and poverty. Kunfaa notes that such differences in perceptions explain why

it is important to define poverty from local people’s perspectives.

33

PRA gives local people a ‘voice’ in their poverty assessment and has been used

to encourage local people to co-operate in the implementation of development

programmes. However, a fundamental challenge concerns the heterogeneity of

people within the community, which raises the issue of whose voices are being

heard (Kelly, 2001). Where there are conflicts between and within groups, the

participatory approach has no established way of resolving them in order to arrive

at a common view. Nevertheless, the participatory approach provides a broader

and interdisciplinary approach to understanding poverty from local people’s

perspectives, in contrast to externally imposed standards.

In summary, the variants of the physiological and social deprivation models of

poverty represent several approaches to defining poverty, emphasising that it is a

multidimensional and multidisciplinary concept that encompasses social, cultural,

economic and political perspectives. Each approach requires a set of

assumptions which may have different implications for policies aimed at tackling

poverty. Acceptance of the physiological deprivation model suggests that the

solution for poverty reduction is the generation of money incomes, whilst the

capabilities approach focuses on increasing productivity. Policy based on the

physiological deprivation model is subsequently likely to emphasise the

generation of income, whilst the capability approach will emphasise access to

health, education and income as means of improving livelihood opportunities.

The social exclusion and the participatory approaches strongly emphasise the

need to define poverty from the perspectives of the poor, with a view to

formulating policies aimed at the removal of barriers which impede their

empowerment and participation in development programmes.

2.5 Approaches to Measuring Poverty

Given that poverty may be understood as a multidimensional phenomenon and

defined in multiple ways, the different approaches of defining poverty also focus

on a wide range of measurement methods which generate data as a basis for

development policy and programmes. The different approaches emphasise

indicators which do not necessarily lend themselves easily to comparison across

individuals, groups, communities and countries (Boltvinik, 1997; Lanjouw, 1999).

For example, income/consumption data is regularly available in many developing

countries, explaining to some extent the reliance upon this basis for

34

measurement. By contrast, participatory data which relies on dialogues with local

people, which are difficult to organise nationally or at short intervals, limiting the

opportunities for the generation of comparative data. Issues characterising the

measuring approaches in terms of objectivity and subjectivity are examined in the

following sections.

2.5.1 Absolute and Relative Poverty Poverty has been conceptualised in absolute and relative terms based on the

estimation of the poverty lines (Lok-Dessallien, 1998; Lanjouw, 1999; Ravallion,

2004). Absolute poverty refers to subsistence below minimum and socially

acceptable nutritional requirements based on the income and consumption

approach previously explained. Sen (1999) is key advocate of the concept of

absolute poverty. He states that there is an irreducible core of absolute

deprivations in the notion of poverty which transforms issues of starvation,

malnutrition and visible hardships into a diagnosis of poverty, without having to

estimate first any questions of relative poverty. Sen suggests that the notion of

relative deprivation supplements rather than supplants the absolute analysis of

poverty. However, he also argues that poverty is an absolute concept in the

context of capabilities, but may be relative in terms of commodities.

Relative poverty compares the lowest segments of a population with the upper

segments based on income and consumption. A major proponent of relative

poverty is Townsend, who stated that any rigorous conceptualisation of social

deprivation can not be purely centred upon the idea of absolute poverty

(Townsend, 1985 cited in Boltvinik, 1997:7). Relative poverty stresses spatial and

temporal dimensions as being significant in poverty analysis because of the

changing necessities of life and people’s requirements, implying that people’s

needs are not static but dynamic.

Notwithstanding the debate between Sen and Townsend about absolute and

relative poverty, their emphasis on poverty lines in terms of income and

consumption is criticised. Lanjouw (1999) notes that although absolute poverty

describes a specific welfare level which lends itself to comparisons, it is based on

statistical computation and expressions, which are difficult to understand and

35

interpret by non-statisticians. He contends that while relative poverty is

transparent and considers additional elements such as health and education

alongside income and consumption, it is not a reliable tool to monitor poverty

over time and space. Lanjouw observes that the social and economic status of

people changes over the course of time, even while poverty studies are taking

place in a society. For example, changes in size and structure of the population in

terms of ages and gender distribution patterns can cause the poverty lines to

shift. Furthermore, the application of the ‘absolute poverty’ and ‘relative poverty’

level are based on the assumption that the greater the number of people who fall

below the poverty line, the higher the incidence of poverty in the society. Such an

assumption indeed raises fundamental issues of ‘quantitative’ versus ‘qualitative’

measurement, as well as ‘subjectivity’ and ‘objectivity’ in interpreting whose

realities are being promoted in the poverty analysis.

2.5.2 Poverty and Inequality

Another aspect of poverty analysis is its relationship with the notion of inequality,

although the meanings of the two concepts differ. Boltvinik (no date) argues that

whilst poverty refers to different forms of deprivation that can be analysed in a

variety of ways (e.g. income, basic needs and human capabilities) inequality is

concerned with resources or access to resources distributions within a

population. This view is supported by Shaffer (2008:198), who views the notion of

‘inequality’ as being concerned with the distribution of a number of well-being

indicators such as income and consumption over an entire population, which may

be further categorised in terms of gender, occupation and regions. The dual focus

on poverty and inequality has policy implications, relating to aspects of resource

distribution and growth analysis and the effects of likely trade-offs. For example,

the goal of achieving equity between men and women requires gender policies

that address not only income and consumption disparities but also tackle wider

issues that affect women in the society.

36

2.5.3 Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches to Measuring Poverty The use of quantitative poverty lines based on consumption and income

indicators has been disputed by poverty scholars (Lanjouw, 1999; Lanjouw and

Lanjouw, 2001). This is because comparisons of poverty lines derived from

varying definitions of income and consumption are likely to be misleading, and

the magnitude of error could be substantial. The setting of poverty lines is

another contentious issue related to poverty measurement. This relates to the

use of metric measurement based on income/consumption and quantitative

methods, as opposed to non-metric measurement, which utilises social welfare

functions of participation and empowerment based upon qualitative methods,

which do not lend themselves to measurement (Lister, 2004).

Proponents of quantitative measuring of poverty utilise surveys and

questionnaires to collect data which are analysed statistically. Conversely,

proponents of qualitative measuring argue that some of the poverty indicators are

difficult to quantify, hence the use of participatory approaches to obtain data from

people who are affected by poverty. However, a combination of both approaches

is utilised in several studies related to poverty (Hume et al., 2001; UNDP, 2005).

For example, the human capability poverty approach utilises both quantitative

and qualitative indicators, but may incorporate more qualitative indicators than

the income and basic needs approaches. Relying on one approach in assessing

poverty may not present a holistic view of realities, ignoring critical aspects of the

analysis, which impact on poverty reduction policies. Hence both quantitative and

qualitative methods can be viewed as complementary and intersecting when it

comes to measuring poverty for policy formulation.

The poverty literature indicates that poverty measurement has traditionally been

dominated by ‘objective’ and quantitative approaches. However, there are

indications that ‘subjective’ and qualitative approaches are gaining prominence in

poverty studies. Shepherd (2006:19) notes the use of a combination of qualitative

and quantitative methods by a number of research organisations to assess

poverty lines in Kenya, Ethiopia and Ghana. It was observed that poverty lines

varied and that the realities of poverty differed in terms of economic and social

indicators between and within the communities studied.

37

The duality of the objectivity and subjectivity of poverty also relates to ‘whose

perspective’ of poverty is being defined and measured. The issue of local

people’s views (inside/emic) and that of policy makers (outsider/etic) relates to

‘subjectivity’ and ‘objectivity’ of measuring poverty. Hume et al. (2001) contend

that the idea behind the ‘subjective’ approach is that defining poverty must

emerge from the perspective of the ‘poor’ or local people in communities. This is

in contrast to definitions imposed by policy makers who perceive the poverty

reduction process as ‘objective’, which tends to disempower people and remove

their rights to create knowledge derived from their understanding of the social,

cultural, economic and political considerations.

The World Bank and the United Nations Development Programmes poverty

assessment emphasise different indicators. The World Bank (WB) is the main

proponent of the income poverty index, which is widely utilised for poverty

assessment based on ‘head count’ and the per capita GNP (Boltvinik, 1997).

While the ‘head-count’ index uses an estimated minimum ‘basket’ of essential

goods for basic human requirements, the per capita GNP estimation is the

aggregate income of the country divided by the total population.

Boltvinik (ibid.) argues that the income poverty index can be easily estimated and

found to be theoretically objective because it eliminates inconsistencies when

comparison is made between countries. However, the income poverty index has

been criticised for assuming that the purchasing power parity (PPP) rate would

buy the same amounts of goods and services in every country, hence the

calculation that the poor live on under ‘a dollar a day’. Moreover, it is a fallacy to

estimate poverty based on the currency exchange value of the United States

Dollar, which in reality does not typically buy the same amount of goods and

services in all countries (Lanjouw, 1999; Ravallion, 2001).

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has also introduced the

Human Poverty Index (HPI) as another way to measuring poverty based on basic

human development (UNDP, 1997). The HPI uses the quantitative approach to

measure income and non-income indicators such as life expectancy; access to

education, safe water and health. It thus identifies a proportion of the population

that are affected by deprivations and can be described as poor.

38

Another composite of measuring indicators used by the UNDP is the Human

Development Index (HDI), which incorporates three dimensions of poverty,

income, education and health. The HDI focuses on human development beyond

issues of access to income, while providing a basis for the comparison of poverty

trends between countries. The overall advantage of HDI and HPI indicators is the

inclusion of non-income dimensions, in line with the targets of the Millennium

Development Goals. However, neither the HDI nor HPI can be used to gauge

aspects of household or individual well-being that are relative and subject to

changes over time, for example life expectancy and illiteracy. Furthermore, by

focusing on three core indicators, the approaches exclude from the analysis

equally important non-income indicators such as participation and empowerment.

The measuring indicators are reflective of the policy agenda of the different

organisations, suggesting a lack of universal understanding between the key

agencies leading the fight against global poverty. Further, the indicators

emphasises ‘growth’ as basis for measuring poverty reduction, which as

Ravallion (2004) notes is not typically pro-poor; as economic growth is influenced

by a variety of factors including changes in inequality over time and institutional

policies that open up different opportunities for the poor. He suggests that

poverty reduction policies should not only aim at increasing streams of income,

but should also focus on non-income indicators, a view supported by several

scholars (Lanjouw, 1998; Sen, 1999; Shaffer, 2008).

2.6 The Causal Framework of Poverty

Whilst the debate on what poverty ‘is’ remains contentious, the causal factors of

poverty recognise capital as being central to improving livelihoods. The

importance of ‘capital’ in poverty analysis has been reinforced in development

policies in the context of human, financial and social aspects (Schultz, 1961;

Woolcock, 1998; Shaffer, 2008), which are explained in the following sections.

39

2.6.1 Human Capital Approach

The human capital approach to poverty reduction emphasises a relationship

amongst investment in education, health and nutrition and the primary income of

the poor (Schultz, 1961; Woolcock, 1998). The relative importance of the

interrelationships between the variables has been centred on potential changes

in productivity that seems to be closely related to the physiological deprivation

model, as explained in Section 2.3. Shaffer (2008) also argues that the need to

improve people’s human capital is fundamental for the attainment of human

goals, including increasing primary incomes necessary to access basic needs.

The key aspects of human capital emphasised in the literature include skills,

knowledge, employment skills and good health (Schultz, 1961; Woolcock, 1998).

While poverty-oriented education policies have primarily focused on primary

education, basic literacy and overcoming gender biases in education access, the

evidence of successful implementations are limited due to the lack of available

data in many developing countries.

2.6.2 Financial Capital Approach

In the context of poverty reduction strategies, financial capital refers to the credit

opportunities that can be created and accessed by the poor people. Shaffer

(2008:14-15) has identified the following ways in which credits can be provided to

support the poor: (i) promote micro-finance banking; (ii) develop pro-poor banking

within the existing banking system; and (iii) provide credit targeted to developing

small scale enterprises. The advocation of micro-credit is supported by the

exceptionally high repayment rates achieved by a number of development

finance institutions, such as the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. However, the

financial sustainability of micro-financing is disputed because it tends to distort

macro-level finances as a consequence of high administrative costs to redeem

the loans from poor people (Morduch, 1995; Hulme and Mosley, 1996).

Nevertheless, micro-credit programmes have undoubtedly been successfully

implemented with minimum transaction costs and with little or no collateral

security.

40

2.6.3 Social Capital Approach

Social capital has given a non-monetary and economic perspective to seeking

solutions to poverty problems. Examples of social capital cited in the literature

include formal and informal networks with institutions, associations, families and

community social relations (Dredge, 2006). Putnam, a pioneer of the social

capital concept, described it as: ‘features of social organization, such as

networks, norms, and trust that facilitate action and cooperation for mutual

benefits…Working together is easier in a community blessed with a substantial

stock of social capital’ (Putnam, 1993:35-36).

Portes (1998) emphasises that whereas financial capital stresses access to

credits and human capital deals with acquisition of training and skills, social

capital is inherent in the structures of peoples’ formal and informal relationships

to others, that enable them to access financial and human resources. Portes

(1998:7) argues that ‘to possess social capital a person must be related to

others’, in a community or association based on trust and acceptable institutional

arrangements. In his view, social capital performs three important functions as: (i)

a source of social control; (ii) a source of family support; and (iii) a source of

benefits through extra familial networks. However, Portes (ibid.) notes that social

capital also has negative aspects, including the exclusion of outsiders,

restrictions on individual freedoms and excessive claims on group members.

These negative aspects give rise to other key issues of social capital:

marginalisation; concept of stakeholders; empowerment; gender inequality; and

decentralisation.

The term ‘marginalisation’ has become synonymous with a partial inclusion in the

participatory process of society. Lister (2004) notes that marginalisation refers to

a situation whereby people are seen to be included, but in reality are partly

excluded in a number of ways, including being employed in menial and lowly paid

jobs or invited to participate in meetings without having their views seriously

considered by decision- makers. To overcome this, Shaffer (2008) argues that

governing structures, either formal or informal, should be representative of, and

give voice to, a wide range of diverse interests, including poor people. This

41

implies that poor people should be able to participate in decision-making process

as a stakeholder group.

A way to overcome marginalisation is the use of stakeholder analysis, which is

widely applied in participatory approaches in poverty analysis to emphasise the

inclusion of all persons who are affected by policies in the decision-making

process (Grimble and Chan, 1995). Stakeholder studies reveal that poverty

development programmes have a high rate of successful implementation when

identified groups are allowed to play their respective roles and negotiate interests

in the decision-making process (Sautter and Leisen, 1999; Bowie and Werhane,

2005). It is noted that stakeholder groups are not homogeneous, but are

composed of individuals with diverse interests who have come together to pursue

and achieve an agenda. In a situation where the interests and rights of the

‘weaker’ groups are eroded by the ‘stronger’ groups, inequalities, marginalisation

and exclusion can result.

However, the term ‘stakeholder’ is conceptually ambiguous and impractical to

implement (Jamal and Getz, 1995; Sautter and Leisen, 1999). Firstly, practical

application of the concept needs to take account of anyone who is likely to be

affected by the policy, which could make the decision-making process unwieldy

and time-consuming. However, failure to undertake a broader consultation

process implies a narrow perspective incorporating only a few stakeholders,

causing a likely failure of the development policy. Secondly, emphasising the

priorities of individuals and groups may be likely to create potential conflicts

during the negotiation process. There is no guarantee that the involvement of all

parties can lead to the successful achievement of the desired agenda, particularly

when the stakeholder groups are not empowered. However, the notion of

stakeholder analysis provides a framework for identification of persons who are

likely to be affected by the development process; hence the need to give a ‘voice’

to poor people to negotiate their priorities and interests.

Embedded in the stakeholder analysis is the concept of empowerment. This

emphasises poverty intervention policies which have the potential for enhancing

social, financial and human capital. Subsequently, an emphasis is placed on both

internal and external processes that can lead to the development of social

42

capital. This would incorporate intervention policies that permit individuals to

access credit, land, employment and income earning opportunities.

Whilst the need to develop the social capital of the poor can be understood in a

homogeneous way, it is also evident that inequalities of sub-divisions within this

group exist. The UNDP (1997) and Cagatay (1998) stress that gender inequality

is a cause of human poverty as it may be a social factor in influencing people’s

access to resources.

In the specific case of Ghana, Kunfaa (1999) observes that women are poorer

than men in many geographical regions. Despite the contribution of women to

household and community activities, they are often excluded from participation in

community meetings and rituals. There is a subsequent need to empower women

socially and economically through access to employment, education and

participation in decision-making in the community. In the context of this study,

issues surrounding gender inequalities are important in view of the role that both

men and women play in tourism development.

A concept advocated to overcome issues of marginalisation is the

decentralisation of decision-making, aimed at promoting the inclusiveness of local

people (Aryee, 1999; Shaffer, 2008). Proponents of decentralisation argue that

the process may serve to reduce poverty if governing structures become

responsive to the needs of the people in the local community.

However, Aryee (1999) notes that decentralisation does not necessarily

benefit the poor. The link between local governance and pro-poor

outcomes are mediated by a number of factors, many of which are absent

in unsuccessful experiences associated with decentralisation. Shaffer

(2008) also suggests that successful decentralisation needs commitment

on the part of the central and local governments to pro-poor reforms. He

notes that policy outcomes are unlikely to be pro-poor when

decentralisation becomes a conduit for political patronage from central

government or when local elites are insulated from the demands of the

poor. Promotion of an ideological commitment to poverty reduction,

43

combined with a willingness to challenge local elites who seek to capture

programme benefits for themselves are therefore prerequisites to success

in poverty reduction through a decentralisation process. Aryee (1999) and

Shaffer (2008) note that a successful decentralisation is dependent upon

strong financial and administrative central government support, which

should emphasise adequate and timely release of financing for targeted

poverty programmes and the mainstreaming of gender and empowerment

issues.

2.7 Sutainable Livelihood Approach A concept advocated to overcome the issues of measuring non-income indicators

is the sustainable livelihood approach (SLA), a family of approaches which define

and measure poverty beyond the conventional view. The SLA emphasise multiple

aspects of poverty such as social exclusion and empowerment, taking into

account the social and economic, organisational and institutional aspects within

which poor people draw upon different forms of capital in order to escape from

poverty (Carney, 1998; Farrington et al., 1999; Norton and Foster, 2001; Krantz,

2001). Chambers and Gordon Conway (1992) define the concept of SLA as:

‘A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets…and activities required for a means of

living; a livelihood is sustainable which can cope with and recovers from stress and

shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, and provide sustainable

livelihood opportunities for the next generation; and which contributes net benefits to

other livelihoods at the local and global levels and in the short and long term’

(Chambers and Gordon Conway, 1992 cited in Krantz, 2001:1)

Whilst the SLA idea was first introduced by the Brundtland Commission in 1987,

the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

conceptualised it as a broad means for poverty reduction (Norton and Foster,

2001). Krantz (2001) suggests the need to emphasise the operational value of

SLA to allow for a systematic analysis of poverty in a holistic, realistic and

manageable manner. The concept calls for a wider view of the opportunities for

development activities and their likely effects on local people. SLA also stresses

the importance of placing the priority needs of local people at the centre of

44

poverty analysis. Ashley and Carney (1999) argue in favour of SLA as it

reinforces poverty-focused policies in which development activities are viewed

from the people-centred, responsive and participatory perspectives.

Krantz (2001:2-3) state that SLA has been adopted in programmes implemented

by development institutions such as the United Nations Development Programme

(UNDP) and the Department for International Development (DFID). These

institutions consider SLA to be a policy tool that helps devise a set of integrated

support activities among local people, to strengthen their resilience to cope with

adaptive strategies. Additionally, SLA focuses on policy reforms and the enabling

environment, to promote further social and economic investment in the local

community and households. Similarly DFID has utilised SLA to increase its

effectiveness in the implementation of poverty reduction programmes, with an

emphasis on people-focused and participatory development activities. However,

there are differences in institutional approaches; for example whilst the UNDP

uses the concept to facilitate planning of poverty reduction programmes, DFID

stresses SLA as a basic framework for analysis rather than as a procedure for

programming. Nevertheless, both organisations implement community level

programmes aimed at creating enabling policies for poverty reduction, but based

on different policy agendas.

Norton and Foster (2001:15) have suggested that SLA should be applied in

reducing poverty programmes. They argue that evidence of SLA studies in

developing countries suggest that it promotes collaboration amongst stakeholder

groups in the process of project designs and implementation. They also suggest

that SLA promotes a holistic view to identifying the underlying causes of poverty

from the perspectives of local people. SLA emphasises a ‘bottom-up’ process

which generates locally specific policies based on the people’s knowledge and

experiences, as opposed to the ‘top-down’ decision-making inherent in

conventional policy and planning processes.

Despites its strengths, Krantz (2001) has identified some challenges associated

with SLA, suggesting how they could be overcome. Krantz notes that SLA, as

adopted by the UNDP and DFID, does not address how poor people can be

identified and assisted in the local community. Local people are not a

45

homogeneous group, and the distribution of resources and livelihood

opportunities locally are often influenced by informal structures of social

dominance and power within the community. Krantz suggests that the application

of a sustainable approach should therefore start with an open-ended analysis

and flexible planning evolved by the people themselves, recognising their

livelihood activities, and emphasising a participatory approach. This will allow

development initiatives to fit into people’s livelihood strategies and make them

better respond to the constraints and opportunities affecting their well-being.

The link between SLA and sustainable development has been given attention in

poverty and tourism studies by a number of scholars (Farrington et al., 1999;

Ashley, 2000). For example, Farrington et al. (1999) observe that the notion of

sustainability implies not just maintenance of the resources, but also the social,

human and financial capital required by poor people. However, there are always

trade-offs and balances between these different resources in the way they are

used by governments and development agencies to solve context-specific

problem which rather exacerbate the problems.

In the context of tourism, the SLA has been utilised to assess the impact of

tourism on poor people and opportunities that can be harnessed to improve their

lives (Ashley, 2000). In this study, the core principles of SLA are important in

understanding and analysing the wider stakeholder groups, institutional factors

and livelihood opportunities that influence poverty reduction and its relationship to

tourism in Elmina.

2.8 Perspectives on Poverty in Ghana

Having considered in Sections 2.2 to 2.7 how poverty affects people in multiple

ways, this section examines the context of poverty in Ghana.

2.8.1 The Political Economy Administratively, Ghana has been divided into ten regions and further sub-divided

into 260 District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies (DMMA) as core

features of the decentralisation system of governance (MLGRD, 1988; ROG,

46

2005a). In 1988, the administrative system was transformed from a highly

centralised system to a decentralised one to make the government in theory

more responsive to and supportive of public and private sector development

activities. This administrative transformation was legitimised by government

policies and legislations including the Local Government Law, 1988 (PNDC Law

207) (MLGRD, 1988), and the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, 1992 (ROG,

1992). The District, Municipal, Metropolitan Assemblies are institutions created to

facilitate the devolution process (MLGRD, 1988; Boateng, 1996).

The decentralisation process in Ghana fits into the broad global context of

promoting participatory structures in decision-making at the local level, and to

initiate priority development projects, using available natural and cultural

resources. Funding of identified programmes is provided from the District

Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), which constitute 7 percent of the total

national budget of the Central Government, as entrenched in the Constitution

(ROG, 1992). Additional funding is generated by the respective DMMA from

several revenue sources including property taxes and the licensing of

businesses. The Assemblies are composed of 70 percent elected representatives

from the local communities while the remaining 30 percent are nominated by

Government, based on political affiliations. While the Chief Executive of the

Assembly is nominated by the Government, he/she must be endorsed by two-

thirds of the total Assembly Members.

Although the decentralisation process has seemingly led to local people’s

involvement in decision-making at the local level, the participatory process is

undermined by political influences. As Aryee (1999) observes the nomination of

Assembly Members and Chief Executives has led to the appointment of

inefficient and inept official personnel whose aim is to serve their own political

interests. He notes that projects are driven by political expediencies, whilst

allocation of funds from the DACF is unduly delayed and awarded to political

affiliates. Additionally, the DMMA are constrained by a lack of qualified personnel

and inadequate logistics to allow the collection and analyses of the data required

for development programmes. Aryee (ibid.) notes that conflicts often exist

amongst the Chief Executives, Assembly Members and Members of Parliament,

as a consequence of the mode of selecting development programmes and the

47

disbursement of funds by the leadership. He suggests the need to address these

challenges, otherwise, the aim of using the decentralisation process to promote

participation in decision making and empowerment of local people may not be

achieved in Ghana.

In 1997, the Government prepared a strategic document entitled: ‘The Ghana

Vision 2020’, which notes the dominance of the agriculture sector in comparison

with the manufacturing and the service sectors (ROG, 1997). The agriculture

sector has a crucial role to play in the poverty reduction and growth agenda of the

government, as it is estimated that most of the poor in Ghana are economically

engaged in crops and livestock, cocoa, forestry and fishery production (ISSER,

2004).

However, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning’s sector analyses

between 2002 and 2007 argue that although Ghana’s economy is reliant on

agriculture, its contribution to the GDP has fluctuated as shown in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: Economic sectors’ share of GDP: 2002-2007

Sector 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007*

Agriculture 34.4 41.4 46.7 36.0 35.4 34.7

Manufacturing 25.9 24.0 22.1 25.1 25.9 26.0

Service 31.0 26.7 24.3 29.9 30.0 30.6

Sources: Adapted from Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (2005, 2008) Note: * Projected Targets The performance of the agricultural sector is weak and not capable of providing

food security and substantially increasing real farm incomes of people. Several

factors account for the low agricultural outputs including, low level of rainfall, lack

of credit facilities and removal of subsidies on inputs such outboard motors and

fertilizers.

Table 2.1 also reveals that the manufacturing sector’s contribution to the GDP

fluctuated between 2002 and 2007. The Institute of Social, Statistical and

Research (2004) notes that the performance of the manufacturing sector can be

attributed to a combination of factors including increased competition from

imported manufactured goods due to liberalised trade policies, a relatively

unattractive investment environment and weak linkages between the

manufacturing, agriculture and service sectors.

48

The service sector comprises many activities such as retail trade, real estate,

restaurants, hotels and financial institutions. The data in Table 2.1 shows that

although the service sector’s contribution to the GDP fluctuated between 2002

and 2005, the improved performance in 2006 cannot be described as significant.

The Ghanaian economy structure has been dominated by a large informal sector,

with only a small formal sector; the majority of the people are employed in the

informal sector and operating micro and small scale enterprises (ROG, 1997;

ISSER, 2004). As such, they encounter a number of challenges including limited

access to credit and a low attainment of education and skills. Only about 13

percent of the population are employed by government, as compared to 69

percent who are self-employed and 18 percent who are without regular jobs

(GSS, 2002). The implication of the data is that the majority of the people have to

find a variety of ways to fulfil their daily basic needs since they cannot be

employed by the government.

2.8.2 Poverty Trends in Ghana Ghana has become heavily reliant on external aid, borrowing and grants to

balance its annual development programmes and budget, whilst its external debt

has soared as a consequence of poor performance of the export commodities,

e.g. cocoa, gold and timber, and weak internal production base (ROG, 1997;

2008). The country was classified as a highly indebted low-income country

(HIPC) in 2000, as a consequence of its dependency on external aid from

bilateral and multilateral development partners (ROG, 2002; 2008).

Ghana’s population was estimated at 18 million in 2002, the latest official

estimate, comprising of 50.5 percent females and 49.5 percent males with an

overall growth rate of 3 percent in 2002 (GSS, 2002). Nearly 60 percent of the

population live in rural communities, making it a predominantly rural country. The

depressing economic rural conditions, such as dwindling agricultural outputs and

a general lack of employment opportunities, have led to high rural-urban

migration (Kunfaa, 1999; Songsore, 2003).

49

Poverty analyses in Ghana indicate significant variations in the poverty trends in

terms of regional distributions, occupation and gender (Kunfaa, 1999; GSS,

2002; Consultancy Unit, 2004). Spatial analysis shows a higher concentration of

poverty in the rural areas than the urban areas (Songore, 2003; GSS, 2002). In

terms of regional distribution, it is concentrated in five of the ten regions, including

the Central region where Elmina is located. The incidence of poverty is higher

among food-crop farming and fishing communities than those engaged in the

manufacturing and service activities. It is also more predominant among those

employed in the informal sector than those found in the formal employment

sector, whilst women are worse off than men in the level of poverty they

experience. These variations illustrate poverty and inequalities in Ghana and

underline the poverty reduction strategies being implemented by the government

(ROG, 2005 a, b; IMF, 2006).

2.8.3 Poverty Measurements in Ghana

Three poverty measuring approaches have dominated the assessment of poverty

in Ghana: the income approach; the basic needs approach; and the participatory

rapid appraisal approach.

(a) Income Approach

Poverty studies in Ghana during the 1960s and 1970s focused on national

expenditure surveys based on the distribution of income and inequality (Asefa,

1980; Ewusi, 1984, both cited in Consultancy Unit, 2004:5). Since then, poverty

analyses have principally focused on consumption, centred on the concept of

‘bread basket’, which is consistent with the conventional income/consumption

approach. The five Living Standard Surveys conducted by the Ghana Statistical

Service used income and consumption patterns of individuals and households. In

the 1987/88 survey, the lower and upper poverty lines were set at 99,173.00

cedis (¢) and 132,230.00 cedis (¢) respectively and those for 1991/92 were

estimated at 700,000.00 cedis and 900,000.00 cedis (GSS, 2007:5-17). The main

objective of the survey was to examine statistically the inter-temporal and spatial

variations of poverty at the national and regional levels.

50

(b) The Basic Needs Approach

The basic needs approach has been used to assess poverty in Ghana with the

primary objective of examining the status of people based on a number of

indicators, including access to education, good drinking water and electricity

(Consultancy Unit 2004; ROG, 2005 a, b). The use of these indicators is found to

be consistent with the basic needs approach and the Human Development

Poverty Indices, explained in Section 2.5.

Ghana is ranked in a low position on the Human Development Index (HDI) and

Per Capita Income (PCI) level measures as shown in Table 2.2. The HDI focuses

on four measurable dimensions of human development in Ghana; i.e. life

expectancy at birth; adult literacy rate; combined primary, secondary and tertiary

gross ratio enrolment; and GDP per capita (UNDP, 2005). It combines income

and non-income indicators to offer a broader view of Ghana’s development,

hence the HDI value of 0.553 means that Ghana is ranked 135 out of 177

countries in terms of human development.

Table 2.2: Ghana’s Human Development Index in 2005

Human

Development

Index (HDI)

Value Ranking

Life expectancy at

birth

Adult literacy rate Combined primary,

secondary and tertiary

gross enrolment ratio

GDP per

capita (PPP

US$)

135 (0.553) 137 (59.1) 117 (57.9) 146 (50.5) 126 (2,480)

Source: Adapted from UNDP, Country Fact Sheet-Ghana (2005).

Further to the HDI, the Consultancy Unit of the University of Cape Coast utilised

two deprivation indicators, sanitation facilities and access to water, to examine

the likely consequences of poverty on people’s well-being. Table 2.3 shows the

proportion of the population who have access to different types of toilet facilities,

including flush toilets, pit toilets, pan toilets and Kumasi Ventilation Improvement

Latrine (KVIP).

51

A comparison of the availability of toilet facilities suggests urban and rural

deprivation. While the data show that the majority of the population do not have

access to flush toilets in their homes, it also illustrates that the proportion of the

non-poor, having access to flush toilet facility, fluctuated in both urban and rural

areas between 1988/89 and 1998/99. The implication of the data is that the

overall use of modern toilets is very low in Ghana, indicative of a lack of access

to adequate sanitary facilities. In order to overcome this problem, there is a

critical need for policy intervention to improve access to sanitary facilities, which

in turn can have implications for the livelihoods and health of Ghanaians, and

subsequently poverty reduction (ROG, 2005).

Table 2.3: Types of toilet facilities available in selected communities in Ghana

Urban Areas

Toilet Facility

GLSS2:1988/89 GLSS3:1991/92 GLSS4:1998/99

Very

Poor

Poor Non

Poor

Very

Poor

Poor Non

Poor

Very

Poor

Poor Non

Poor

Flush 3.0 5.4 17.8 0.7 9.5 20.0 0.4 2.8 17.5

Pit 46.2 50.4 33.4 37.8 32.7 28.3 26.2 18.5 17.4

Pan 20.5 17.8 25.4 20.9 26.5 25.2 4.5 7.2 13.7

KVIP n/a n/a n/a 10.1 15.6 12.5 48.2 53.2 49.4

Other 30.3 26.4 2.3 26.4 15.6 13.9 20.8 18.3 7.0

Rural Areas

Flush 0.0 0.0 1.5 0.5 1.1 2.2 0.5 0.3 2.3

Pit 57.3 65.7 66.3 58.8 65.7 61.6 34.1 53.7 48.6

Pan 2.5 4.6 6.7 2.8 3.1 5.4 1.5 4.8 4.0

KVIP n/a n/a n/a 2.5 4.3 4.4 10.4 16.7 24.7

Others 40.2 29.6 28.5 35.4 25.3 26.7 58.5 24.1 23.3

Source: Adapted from Consultancy Unit, University of Cape Coast (2004:50)

Note: GLSS=Ghana Living Standard Survey

A comparison of the availability of treated water in homes between urban and

rural areas also exemplifies rural deprivation, as illustrated in Table 2.4e. The

data shows that among those in the urban areas, only about 20 percent of the

very poor and the poor have access to pipe-borne water in their homes. The

proportion of the non-poor in rural areas with access to water in their homes was

less than 5 percent of the population for all the three periods. Thus, water as a

basic need is not available to the majority of people, having implications for their

livelihood and health.

52

Table 2.4: Availability of water in urban and rural areas in Ghana

Urban Areas

Sources of water

GLSS2:1988/89 GLSS3:1991/92 GLSS4:1998/99

Very

Poor

Poor Non

Poor

Very

Poor

Poor Non

Poor

Very

Poor

Poor Non

Poor

Inside Pipe 20.5 19.2 41.0 23.0 23.8 41.9 8.0 15.1 37.8

Water

Vendor

3.0 5.4 8.7 3.4 3.4 3.7 1.0 1.7 7.3

Neighbour/

Private

24.2 33.8 22.5 18.9 31.3 21.0 31.4 28.6 28.9

Public

Stand

8.3 8.5 8.1 13.5 14.3 13.2 17.2 21.9 13.5

Well 28.8 23.1 10.6 19.6 16.3 11.8 20.2 15.5 7.8

Natural

Sources

15.2 10.0 9.2 21.6 10.9 8.5 22.2 14.4 4.8

Rural

Areas

Inside

Pipe

0.0 0.6 2.5 1.4 1.8 3.7 0.7 0.7 5.5

Water

Vendor

0.0 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.3 0.7 2.9

Neighbour/

Private

2.3 3.4 6.2 1.5 2.7 3.0 1.7 3.0 7.6

Public

Stand

2.7 3.7 3.3 5.0 8.5 11.1 7.1 13.7 12.4

Well 28.9 24.7 26.8 38.7 34.4 37.0 28.8 23.1 10.6

Natural

Sources

62.3 66.0 60.4 53.0 52.1 44.8 34.6 37.8 35.3

Source: Adapted from Consultancy Unit, University of Cape Coast (2004:50)

(c) Participatory Rural Appraisal Approach

Kunfaa (1999) has utilised the participatory rural approach to identify poor

people’s understanding of poverty in selected communities in Ghana. Kunfaa’s

qualitative study was sponsored by the World Bank to enable a wide range of

poor people in different and socio-economic conditions to share their views on

poverty as part of the World Development Report 2000/2001. The idea was to

further the micro-level perspective of poverty based on local people’s knowledge

53

and experiences in terms of responses to risks, vulnerability and exclusion from

development programmes.

Kunfaa (ibid.70-73) noted three core issues with regard to the local people’s

interpretations of poverty in the study. Firstly, language and cultural differences

accounted for the diverse ways local people understood and interpreted the

notion of poverty within the areas. These were manifested in terms of cultural

practices and meanings of words. Secondly, rural people’s priority issues were

food security, inability to have children and the ownership of properties. By

contrast, urban dwellers emphasised the lack of employment opportunities and

the inadequacy of social amenities such as water, skills training and credits.

Finally, while women based their definition of poverty on issues concerned with

the welfare of the family and development of the community, men’s

understanding of poverty focused on high productivity, securing property, power

and personal prestige. Kunfaa suggested that the problems and priorities of the

poor are multiple and complex, and cannot be defined by experts or measured by

the income and basic need approaches, hence the need to allow the poor to

decide their own priorities and programmes.

In summary, Government poverty assessment in Ghana reflects only the income

and basic needs approaches, except for Kunfaa’s qualitative study for the World

Bank (1999), hence a reliance upon the Ghana Living Standard Survey

conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS, 2002; 2007). The analysis

indicates that poverty is widespread in Ghana and is reflected in spatial,

occupational and gender characteristics across the country, emphasising socio-

economic structural weaknesses and the need to improve the well-being of

Ghanaians.

2.9 Chapter Conclusion

This chapter has reviewed the literature on several concepts and approaches

utilised in poverty and development discourse. It has examined both physiological

and social deprivation approaches, which make it clear that there is no unique

and ‘objective’ way of defining and measuring poverty. The analysis reveals a

large element of construction and interpretation, which illustrates some

54

arbitrariness and subjectivity often imposed by policy makers and experts on

local people. The income/consumption approach suggests a focus on increasing

income through economic growth, whilst the basic needs and capability

approaches emphasise the provision of public goods such as access to

education and good drinking water.

However, the concept of social exclusion significantly draws attention to the need

to break down a variety of exclusionary factors which restrict the opportunities of

the poor with regard to development programmes, which affect their well-being in

many ways. These include opportunities for employment, participation and

empowerment and having a ‘voice’ in decision-making. The need to allow local

people to identify their priorities and make choices is clearly stressed in the social

deprivation model, which emphasises participatory approaches; placing priority

on the consideration of local people’s perspectives as opposed to imposition by

external experts and policy makers.

This study therefore adopts a holistic view of poverty, borrowing largely from

Chambers (1997), Mowforth and Munt (1998), Kunfaa (1999) Sen (1999), Krantz

(2001), Lister (2004) and Shaffer (2008), emphasising a participatory approach

that includes the defining of poverty by the poor themselves. While the nature of

deprivations varies with the social and economic conditions of the community in

question, human poverty includes many aspects that cannot be measured, or are

not being measured. Linked to how poverty is experienced and understood is the

influence of development paradigms, which is reviewed in the next chapter

alongside their implications for poverty.

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Chapter 3

The Development Paradigms: Poverty and Tourism

3.1 Introduction

This chapter critically reviews development paradigms and their relevance to

poverty reduction and tourism studies. One of the difficulties in finding common

approaches, policies and solutions to poverty is that the notion of ‘development’

is contestable and difficult to define, having a variety of meanings. This is

reflected in the differing ways the different development organisations define and

measure poverty as discussed in the various sections of Chapter Two.

3.2 Introduction to Development and Poverty Relationship

The debate as to whether ‘development’ has led to improved well-being in

developing countries has been widely explored in poverty studies. Sen’s (1999)

book: Development and Freedom and the United Nations Development

Programme’s (1997) Human Development Reports, demonstrate that

‘developing’ and ‘developed’ societies can be ranked according to a common

measure of progress. However, the notion of development represents a great

variety of definitions, theories and strategies, while only recently have attempts

begun to be made to find out how poor people themselves view issues of poverty

and development. The relationship between poverty and development is relevant

in this study because of the wide range of social and economic resources that

may be available to local people other than monetary income. Nonetheless,

despite measures adopted by development organisations and governments,

poverty exists in many communities, sometimes for generations of inhabitants.

The term ‘development’ has been used in a variety of ways according to the

context in which it is applied, having been traditionally viewed from Western

perspectives to imply progress and the enlargement of people’s choices (UNDP,

1997:1). It is also argued that development has failed in many respects,

assigning ‘developing countries’ and ‘poor people’ to marginal positions within

56

global socio-economic structures, while benefiting the ‘developed countries’.

Despite developing countries being the recipient of grants, aid and loans,

combined with the transfer of technology from developed countries, the number

of people living in poverty has increased. The Bretton Woods Institutions, the

International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), General Agreement on

Tariff and Trade (GATT) and the United Nations World Trade Organisation

(UNWTO), have conventionally contextualised the notion of ‘development’ within

the concept of ‘economic growth’, measured in terms of multipliers and ‘trickle-

down’ effects.

The subsequent sections of this chapter explore different paradigms of

development and how they relate to poverty. Although as Sharpley (2000)

observes, the concept of development has evolved beyond economic criteria to

incorporate aspects of human development, as evidenced by the United Nations

Human Development Index (HDI), there remains a pre-occupation with economic

growth as a means to alleviate poverty. To understand how we have arrived at

this conclusion, four development paradigms relevant to the changing political

and economic realities of the second half of the 20th century are evaluated.

3.2.1 Modernisation Theory

Modernisation theory emphasises ‘development’ as an evolutionary and linear

path from traditional society to a modern society (Sharpley, 2000; Telfer, 2002;

Holden, 2005). Although modernisation theory is grounded in a variety of

ideological perspectives, its application in developing countries emphasises a

traditional-modern development continuum, between the 1950s and 1960s.

Typical to the process of modernisation is the transfer of investment capital,

entrepreneurial skills and technological knowledge from Western countries to less

developed countries. A number of assumptions are inherent in modernisation

theory, including that the values and social structures of traditional societies are

barriers to development; that economic growth automatically generates ‘trickle-

down’ effects to benefit those at the bottom of society; and that the establishment

of institutional structures in developing societies similar to those in the Western

countries signifies development (Rostow, 1960; Holden, 2005).

57

Modernisation theory has been criticised in many ways for having a foundation

rooted in growth theory based on Keynesian models for analysing economic

growth in Western countries, which may not be relevant to developing countries.

Songsore (2003) notes that the post-independence policies of developing

countries based on modernisation theory have created spatial disparities, and

centre-periphery dependencies, notably between urban and rural, and savannah

and coastal regions. Modernisation theory also assumes a one-way directional

path of development but the dynamics of society undergo constant changes,

being better judged by the people in the society rather than external consultants

and policy makers (Mowforth and Munt, 1998). Although modernisation theory

has been criticised, it has been a conventional approach of governments and

international agencies to economic growth, and, as a by-product, poverty

reduction.

3.2.2 Dependency Theory Dependency theory emerged as a criticism of modernisation theory and as a

radical neo-Marxist perspective in the 1960s and 1970s (Britton, 1982; Brohman,

1996). It seeks to examine the effects of capitalism and imperialism as the

underlying causes of underdevelopment, arising from developing countries

dependence on economic, social and political institutions existing in the

developed economies. Proponents of the dependency theory, including Andre

Gundar Frank (1970), assert that dependency results in perpetual poverty, as

dependent economies are distorted towards the needs and preferences of the

metropolitan centres (Holden, 2005; Burns and Novelli, 2008). The exploitation of

developing countries by the developed countries takes place through a variety of

ways, including exportation of raw materials; repatriation of profits; the payment

of salaries of expatriate personnel; importation of manufactured goods; and the

control of resources by multi-national corporations and their local elites, who use

the political and bureaucracy machinery as channels to exploit the poor (Sindiga,

1999; Russo, 2002; Dieke, 2003).

Frank (1970) asserts that the dependency relationship has created a duality

system of ‘metropolis-centres’ of the industrialised world and ‘satellite-

peripheries’ of former colonies, who are the primary producers of raw materials.

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Telfer (2002:43) claims that this centre-periphery dependency has resulted in an

inequality of resource control and distribution, widening the development gap,

accentuating the difference in wealth between the developed and developing

countries.

The disadvantageous position of developing countries in the control of global

development is attributed by Burns and Novelli (2008: xxii) to four main factors.

First, the power and dominance of the Bretton Woods Institutions are designed to

suit the interests of the developed countries. Secondly, the private sector banking

system has become a conduit through which wealth is transferred from ‘poor’ to

‘rich’ countries. Thirdly, competition and rivalries among multi-nationals for global

markets have made it difficult for developing country to access markets. Finally,

the international transport system tends to favour the needs of the rich countries

in terms of the movement of goods and services.

Recognising these constraints upon developing countries, it is very difficult for

them to have control over the use of resources and source markets for the

development of a tourism industry. There is likely to be a heavy reliance upon the

Bretton Woods Institutes, e.g. World Bank and IMF along with foreign private

banks for finance. Control of resources for tourism is likely to be pressurised by

multi-national companies, whilst the foreign control of the routes for international

tourists, will likely increase the economic leakage from tourism. In a model of

tourism development that is reliant on foreign investment and resource

ownership, the opportunities for the poor to benefit from tourism are likely to be

restricted.

3.2.3 The Neoliberal Paradigm

The neoliberal paradigm was advocated by the Bretton Woods institutions with a

focus on privatisation and role of the free market economy in the 1970s and

1980s as a method to stimulate global development. The period coincided with a

demand for a ‘New Economic Order’ because of several factors including, the

decision by Middle East countries to limit the supply of crude oil to Western

countries; the inability of developing countries to fulfil balance of payment

obligations due to unfair global trade policies; and the collapse of communism as

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an alternative ideology to capitalism in 1989. The neoliberal focus on ‘market

forces’ and ‘competition’ as means to development is supported by a range of

policies, including Structural Adjustment Programmes, Poverty Reduction

Strategies and Millennium Development Goals, which are explained in the

following sections.

(a) Structural Adjustment Programme The Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) focuses on liberalised international

trade as a strategy that can make developing countries competitive in a free

market system. It was prescribed by the Bretton Woods institutions as a

neoliberal policy, with a range of attached pre-conditions that had to be fulfilled

by developing countries, before they could access loans and grants from bilateral

and multilateral agencies (Konadu-Agyeman, 2000; Forster and Zormelo, 2002;

Heintz, 2003). These conditions directed developing countries to focus on the

production of export-led raw materials, their trade and financial sectors, devalue

their currencies, privatise state-owned enterprises, and remove subsidies on

social amenities such as water, education and health.

However, the assumption that economic benefits would automatically ‘trickle

down’ to all segments of society from initial government investment has not been

proven. The privatisation of state-owned enterprises has often led to

redundancies, resulting in a loss of employment and income for individuals. The

removal of subsidies has also led to increased prices of goods and services

consumed by the poor, including water and electricity. As more land has been

used for the production of cash crops for exports, negating the use of land for

subsistence, there has been a rural to urban migration leading to the

development of ‘shanty’ towns and urban poverty. Based on these observations

and criticisms, it can be suggested that SAPs have contributed to the worsening

of the plight of poor people, and deepened the poverty levels in many developing

countries, including Ghana. Within a ‘free’ market economy, the adage of the

‘survival of the fittest’ would seem appropriate, as the poor become more

marginalised and excluded from livelihood opportunities, such as those presented

through tourism.

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(b) Poverty Reduction Strategy

The Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) is a neoliberal policy approach devised by

the IMF to bring development partners, governments and civil societies together

in a commitment to reduce nations’ poverty levels (IMF, 2002). The PRS

illustrates a renewed interest in the role development can play in poverty

reduction, recognising the criticisms levelled against the SAP. The primary PRS

aims are: to promote macroeconomic stability; provide debt relief under the

enhanced initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC); and ensure

capacity building through technical assistance (IMF, ibid.). Thus PRS is intended

as a pathway to sustainable growth and poverty reduction and the achievement

of Millennium Development Goals, as discussed in Section 3.2.3(c).

Unlike the SAP, the PRS was formulated through a consultative process with key

stakeholders in order to articulate the views, hopes and aspirations of the

country, as a demonstration of ownership and not as an imposition from the

Bretton Woods institutions (IEA, 2002:5). The IMF (2002) argues that the PRS

promotes country-driven, result–oriented, comprehensive and long-term

objectives that can improve the effectiveness of development assistance to

developing countries. While poverty might have been reduced in some countries,

the overall implementation process of the PRS requires ‘patience, perseverance

and sustained effort’ (IMF, ibid: 48).

Despite its emphasis on consultation, a number of criticisms have been levelled

against the PRS. The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) (2002:2-4) notes that the

consultative process of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) was

inadequate, questioning the basis of country-ownership, since the consultation of

stakeholders does not necessarily constitute the notion of participation. The

formulation of the PRS remains confined to government institutions in many

developing countries. The IEA notes that the underlying macro-economic

framework of the PRS represents extensions of the IMF’s conditionalities, which

had characterised the SAP. These conditionalities have led to the privatisation of

key government social service entities such as the Ghana Commercial Bank,

Ghana Water Company and the Tema Oil Refinery, which offer services to the

poor. The IEA concludes that the PRS has given the Bretton Woods institutions

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undue influence and leverage through their contribution to the budgets of several

developing countries (IEA, ibid.). One of these countries is Ghana, where the IMF

and the World Bank have contributed 40 percent to the nation’s budget.

The IMF (2002:48) has also identified weaknesses associated with the PRS

approach. Similar to the Ghanaian Institute of Economic Affairs, they criticise a

lack of broadened and systematic participation of stakeholders in developing and

monitoring PRS programmes. They also note that the policies, institutions and

political commitment to support PRS need to be strengthened, focusing

systematically on how to ensure sustainable pro-poor growth, ensuring enabling

environments for the private sector and developing the linkages between macro-

economic policies and poverty outcomes.

Another weakness of the PRS is the lack of available data to assess its success

and failures. Developing countries have integrated the PRS into the national

budgets as a part of a composite development agenda; hence annual national

performance is used as an evaluation of PRS success or failures, as it is in the

case of Ghana (Forster and Zormelo, 2002; IEA, 2002). Based on the analysis, it

can be concluded that PRS is not dramatically different from SAP, since they are

both involved in the principles of attaching conditionality to loans, focusing on

private sector development, macro-economic growth and liberalisation.

(c) Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) emerged in the poverty reduction

agenda during the Millennium Summit in 2000 (UNDP, 2000; World Bank, 2002).

The MDG targets diverge from the poverty reduction strategy in terms of scope

and level of commitment given by the governments and development partners. It

aims to achieve eight specific targets by 2015, which are listed as follows:

i. Curtail extreme poverty by halving the global population living on less than

one dollar a day;

ii. Achieve universal primary education by ensuring that all boys and girls

complete a full course of primary schooling;

iii. Promote gender equality and empower women at all levels;

iv. Reduce child mortality by two-thirds among children under the age of five;

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v. Improve maternal health;

vi. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases;

vii. Ensure environmental sustainability through integration of sustainable

development into country policies and programmes; and

viii. Develop a global partnership for development in terms of free market

forces, good governance and, poverty reduction.

The MGD has become the yardstick for poverty reduction assessment by

governments and development organisations such as the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP) (UNDP, 2000). The MDG reinforces the

human basic needs and aspects of social capital approach in terms of

governance and gender, within a framework of neo-liberalism and sustainable

development. In the context of tourism, the United Nations World Tourism

Organization (WTO, 2005) has endorsed the MDG, maintaining that tourism can

play a key role in the overall achievement of the targets, in view of its sustained

growth and being a leading global export sector.

However, the MDG is criticised in many aspects. Bond (2006) argues that the

formulation of the MDGs has been led in a top-down process by governments

and organisations whose policies are at variance with the well-being of poor

people, suggesting the lack of participation and ‘voice’ of local people. Bond

notes that there is a significant difference between rhetoric and reality in terms of

policy makers’ commitment to poverty reduction, budgets allocated to poverty

reduction programmes, and the level of involvement of local people. Bond (ibid.)

views the MGD, as having been presented by the Bretton Woods institutions to

deflect criticism of SAP and PRS, whilst using poverty issues to broaden and

deepen the neoliberal agenda in developing countries, including Ghana.

In summary, it is evident that the neoliberal paradigms of development is

supported by the Bretton Woods Institutes and is prescriptive for developing

countries who want to have access to financial aid and be a part of a global

trade. Subsequently, whilst definitions of poverty remains contested, emphasis is

placed upon macro-economic growth, ‘trickle-down’ effects and market forces.

However, neo-liberalism has to date had very limited success in addressing

poverty, as the gaps in measured income and wealth have grown between the

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‘rich’ and ‘poor’ countries and within countries (Songsore, 2003), for example the

regional and rural-urban inequalities in Ghana explained in Section 2.8.2.

Neo-liberal paradigm is also non-participatory in its decision-making processes,

being reliant on top-down approaches to policies, strategies and planning. It

subsequently searches for solutions to poverty and trade, relying on economic

growth and trickle-down effects, without listening to the voices of the ‘poor’.

Subsequently, hundreds of millions of the world’s population remains

disempowered from the political and economic process. However, during the last

decades there has been increasing focus upon how to deal with issues of

environmental conservation, development and poverty alleviation, ideas that

belong to the aegis of ‘sustainable development’.

3.3 Sustainable Development: Definition and Critique

The paradigm of sustainable development has become a popular one in the

development and poverty reduction debate and is subsequently evaluated in the

context of its relevance to this study.

3.3.1. Sustainable Development: Evolution and Meaning ‘Sustainable development’ entered the development discourse as an alternative

and more environment-friendly development mantra in the late 1980s. It

originated from debates about the need for limits to growth because of

environmental concerns, debates which have characterised economic growth

policies of development (Holden, 2005). While the focus was upon ‘development’

and ‘sustainability’, the central focus has extended beyond the environment to

include economics and politics, particularly democracy and participation in the

decision-making process.

The concept of sustainable development gained currency following the 1987

publication of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED)

Report, Our Common Future (WCED, 1987). The report defines ‘sustainable

development’ as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without

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compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs’ (WCED,

1987:8). While the definition has relevance to issues of inter and intra

generational poverty, it aims to promote strong linkages among natural

resources, social equality, long term and holistic planning that can benefit the

present and future generations.

In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

(UNCED) built upon the Brundtland Report to formulate policy in ‘Agenda 21’,

commonly referred to as the ‘Rio Conference’ or the ‘Earth Summit’. Two central

issues of Agenda 21 have been highlighted as having relevance for poverty and

tourism development (Mebratu, 1998; Sharpley, 2000; Telfer, 2002). The

inclusion of local people in the decision-making process, implying a bottom-up

approach to decision-making process, was advocated. Theoretically, this gives

poor people a ‘voice’, an opportunity to articulate their needs and priorities. The

concept also emphasises ‘limits to growth’ or at least a different path to economic

growth, which conserves natural resources (Holden, 2005).

In a review of how the paradigm of sustainability has influenced tourism

development, Sarineen (2006:1129) identifies three main traditions: (i) resource-

based; (ii) activity-based; and (iii) community-based. Sarineen claims that, while

the resource-based tradition exemplifies limits to growth that cannot be

negotiated, the activity-based focuses on sustainability centred on private sector

needs. However, the community-based tradition stresses participation that

involves all stakeholders, emphasising tourism benefits that should accrue to the

local community.

As is evident from these three traditions, sustainable development and

sustainable tourism development have different interpretations. A major criticism

of these concepts is that its meaning remains elusive (Sharpley 2000; Telfer,

2002; Holden, 2005). Tensions emanate from the ontological interpretations of

the two key themes, i.e. ‘sustainable’ and ‘development’. While sustainability

would appear to stress the status quo, development is usually associated with

progress and growth, meaning attempts to categorically define ‘sustainable

development’ are not only epistemologically flawed but ontologically misleading

(Mebratu, 1998; Sarineen, 2006). The varying interpretation of its meaning, has

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led to its use by all stakeholders in tourism, including governments, non-

governmental organisations, tourism industry and local communities. It is evident

that these types of organisations have varying political philosophies and goals,

emphasising that the term ‘sustainable development’ needs to be given a clear

definition by different stakeholders, rather than a presumption that it has a

universal interpretation.

In an attempt to give a framework of application for sustainable development in

tourism, the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations

World Tourism Organization underline four guiding principles, that ‘overlap with

each other, and that need to be suitably balanced’ (UNEP/UNWTO, 2005:1).

These are: (i) the optimal use of environmental resources; (ii) respect for socio-

cultural resources and values of the host communities; (iii) long-term economic

opportunities that bring socio-economic benefits and ensure fair distribution to all

stakeholders, including stable employment and income earning opportunities and

social services to the host community and contributions to poverty alleviation; and

(iv) informed participation of relevant stakeholders, particularly giving prominence

to local people’s determination and implementation of policies and actions.

However, whilst there may be little disagreement about the principles across the

political spectrum, the processes of how to operationalise these principles may

be substantially more contentious.

3.3.2 Sustainable Development: Financial, Human and Social Capital The final guiding principle for sustainable development issues by UNEP and

UNWTO (ibid.) emphasises ‘informal’ participation, with a prominence for the

voice of local people. Alongside this principle, is the need to ensure the

empowerment of local peoples through access to financial, human and social

capital. The ability for the poor to have access to and use capital assets is critical

to reducing poverty (Ashley et al, 2000; Krantz, 2001).

Relevant to understanding the relationship of assets to poverty is: (i) who in the

local community have access to them; and (ii) the extent to which they create and

enhance socio-economic opportunities. Although the issue of access to assets is

partly a question of hegemonic relationship, it is also influenced by the level of

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capabilities held by local people to release asset potential. As Krantz (2001)

observes, capabilities are an important factor for local people’s ability to access

capital within the context of sustainability, and are defined by Lister as: ‘what a

person can do or be, that is, the range of choices that are open to her’ (Lister,

2004:16).

Within a capability perspective of poverty, three main types of capability can be

distinguished: the human; financial; and the social. Human capital relates to the

knowledge and skills capacities of individual and communities, the need for

investments in education and training, and the subsequent ability of people to

pursue livelihood opportunities and escape poverty. Financial capital refers to

having access to adequate income, credit and savings so that individuals will not

be predisposed to conditions of poverty (Sen, 1999). Access to financial capital

has allowed the poor to own assets and engage in tourism-related livelihood

activities, in Namibia and Kenya (Ashley, 2000). However, there remain

significant barriers to the access of financial resources for the poor, including the

requirement for collateral and cumbersome and expensive administrative

requirements (Consultancy Unit, 2004). Strategies to overcome this issue,

include micro-finance (Khandker, 1998), and traditional and informal savings

schemes such as ‘Susu’ in Ghana (Alabi et al., 2007).

Social capital, as explained in Section 2.6.3, refers to features of social

organisation, such as networks, norms, and trust that facilitate action and

cooperation for mutual benefits (Putnam, 1993:35-36). With special reference to

the tourism and poverty relationship, Ashley (2000:3) refers to social capital as

social resources upon which people draw in pursuit of their livelihoods, such as

relationships of trust, social norms, networks and members of groups. Emphasis

is subsequently placed on creating strong social networking within a community

to create shared livelihoods, through tourism, to reduce poverty. Earlier work

surrounding social capital was carried out by Bourdieu (1986), who considered

the interaction of power and capital in relation to class and ethnic groups within a

societal setting. He argues that social capital creates opportunities for members

in a group to network and access material and non-material needs, such as the

sharing of information and knowledge.

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For Woolcock (1998), the concept of social capital is important for placing an

emphasis on civil society within the development debate, rather than focusing

purely on the role of the nation-state or multi-national companies. However, it

would be wrong to assume that there is a necessarily homogenous social capital

of communities. As Portes (1998) points out, there may be opposing social

networks within communities, based upon traditional and political conflicts,

gender and social exclusion.

Nevertheless, the idea of the development of social capital as a means of

creating opportunities, through the establishment of social networks and asset

construction, is important for tourism’s role in poverty reduction and sustainable

development. Participatory approaches to development, for example, the

establishment of village committees to represent various interests, combined with

a collective approach to resource usage, all have validity to the poverty reduction

debate. It is through social capital people can gain direct access to financial

capital (e.g. credits and loans) and human capital (e.g. training and skills)

(Portes, 1998). Emphasis within social capital is placed upon the empowerment

of local people to identify their priority needs, which will help create livelihood

opportunities and improve their well-being (Putnam, 1993; Woolcock, 1998;

Portes 1998; Ashley, 2000)

.


Whilst the policies of modernisation and neo-liberalism have created economic

growth, they have largely failed to deal with the issues of global poverty. A growth

strategy that is reliant upon top-down planning and an economic ‘trickle-down’

effect to those on the lower rung of society’s ladder, the ‘poor’, is unlikely to offer

livelihood opportunities for the excluded in society. To deal with the problems of

poverty, there is a subsequent need to provide an alternative solution and

perspective of development, which encompasses all stakeholders in society and

not just a few.

In the absence of a credible alternative to the free market as a mechanism for

allocating resources for development, it is necessary to identify how tourism can

be used within this framework as a means for creating livelihood opportunities for

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the poor. Although contentious in its interpretation and criticised for its ambiguity,

as explained in Section 3.3, the paradigm of sustainable development has

principles of a bottom-up approach and an emphasis on empowerment. Central

to empowerment is access to resources for the poor through the development of

social, human and financial capital. There is therefore a need for the poor to be

able to develop their capacity and capability to play a part in the tourism industry

and to be recipients of economic and social benefits. It is advocated in this study,

that given the ambiguity of key terms such as poverty and development, it is

necessary for poor people to have a voice about how they construct and interpret

the meanings of poverty and development. In the context of Elmina, it is also

essential that the poor have an outlet of expression for how they think tourism

could create and enhance their livelihood opportunities.

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Chapter 4

Tourism Development and Poverty Reduction

4.1 Introduction

The chapter discusses the relationship between tourism and poverty reduction,

the central focus being on the role of the development paradigms and strategies

commonly applied in tourism to create socio-economic opportunities in

developing countries, which is a contentious issue. This chapter, therefore,

presents the different tourism development perspectives, and considers their

relevance in the context of Elmina.

4.2 Understanding the Nature of Tourism

In several tourism studies (Burns and Holden, 1995; Mowforth and Munt, 1998),

‘tourism’ has been conceptualised as a complex and multi-dimensional

phenomenon, affecting global society. Among the characteristics of tourism are:

host-guest relationships, socio-economic impact on the macro-and micro-

economy, as well as what Urry calls ‘the tourist gaze’ (1991:135). The different

ways tourism is understood also suggests that there is no such thing as universal

type of ‘tourism’, but a wide range of tourism experiences. For example, whilst

MacCannell (1976) analyses tourism as a pilgrimage of authenticity, Krippendorf

(1989) contextualises tourism as a form of colonialism and friendly conquest.

Thus, tourism is interpreted not only as a social phenomenon but as a global

commodity exchange in terms of business. Burns and Novelli (2008:xviii), also

describe tourism: ‘as a description of leisure activity; global business consumed

at a local level; and a condition of postmodernism shaping the world we live.

Tourism, as topics for analysis, sets out to make a theoretical sense of multiple

mobile cultures.’ They observe that tourism analyses are embedded in a number

of elements that impact upon the wider society including power relations and

networks amongst different stakeholders with regard to the utilisation of natural

and cultural resources.

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However, while the concept of tourism is subject to varied interpretations, the

developmental process is equally complex and distributions of benefits are

unequal. Burns and Holden (1995:5) state that tourism can be understood in

terms of the motivation for the visit, the time for travel and the means by which

the tourist gets to the destination. Whether travel is motivated by business,

leisure, or visiting friends and relatives, the tourists consume a variety of goods

and services in the local community: food and drinks; local transport;

entertainment; and shopping. However, the activities undertaken and

consumption patterns of the tourists tend to create positive or negative impacts,

and subsequently impact on poverty reduction in local communities.

Although several tourism scholars have highlighted both positive and negative

consequences of tourism (Dann, 2001; Bramwell and Lane, 2000; Hawkins and

Mann, 2007; Blake et al., 2008; Butcher, 2008): ‘there is relatively little attention

being given to the meaning, objective and process in terms of its development’

(Sharpley, 2002:13). Even though tourism’s contribution to development has

been widely recognised, its relationship with poverty reduction within the context

of ‘development’ has not been given much attention, suggesting the need for

research in the poverty-tourism nexus (Scheyvens, 2007; Zhao and Brent-

Ritchie, 2007).

4.3 Theoretical Perspectives of Tourism Development Paradigms

Tourism and poverty reduction issues have become increasingly linked in the

development agenda, and have been debated from different disciplinary and

academic perspectives. The role of tourism in development was recognised by

De Kadt (1979) in his seminal publication, Tourism: Passport to Development,

which centred on theoretical research and discourses of tourism and

development. Butler’s ‘Lifecycle Model’ (Butler, 1980; 2004) and Britton’s

‘Dependency Model’ (Britton, 1982) are also widely cited in the literature as

seminal articles for tourism analysis, focusing on wider social and environmental

issues. Butler (1980), for instance, views tourism development as a process that

undergoes linear stages of exploration, involvement, development, consolidation,

stagnation and rejuvenation. Although Butler’s framework is generally relevant, it

is criticised because tourism development is not a linear path which has its own

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inevitable momentum, but is in fact subject to external and internal factors. As

Harrison (1995:137) notes, while Butler’s model is based on tourism development

in Western countries, it fails to recognise the differing conditions in developing

countries, ‘especially those with a history of colonialism, [which] may diverge

considerably from the ideal type.’

Tourism scholars argue that the industry has the potential to provide diversified

economic opportunities through which poor countries can open up to the benefits

of globalisation, whilst tourism’s contribution to national and local development

has become the fundamental justification for encouraging its growth (Brohman,

1996; Hampton, 2005). This is why it is seen as a ‘vehicle for development’

(Sharpley 2002:11), a view that is contested by many scholars because tourism

may not automatically bring benefits to local people (Telfer, 2002; Hashimoto,

2002).

Ashley (2000:8) outlines the role of tourism in ‘development’ from four

perspectives. Firstly, economists generally consider tourism as a pathway to

macro-economic growth and a means of generating foreign exchange, creating

‘trickle-down’ effects to local communities in many developing countries.

Secondly, the private enterprises perceive tourism as a commercial activity, and

are concerned with the product development, destination competitiveness and

profits. Thirdly, conservationists understand tourism as a form of sustainable use

of natural and cultural resources. Finally, development institutions and non-

governmental agencies see tourism as an avenue through which they support

local communities with infrastructure such as water supplies and roads.

However, Ashley argues that the macro-economic, profit-oriented and

conservation perspectives of tourism are ‘conventional’ approaches which have

characterised the industry, but do not place the interest of the ‘poor’ at the centre

of the development process. Consequently, some scholars suggest that tourism

can contribute to ‘development’ if it is formulated and implemented in an

alternative way, as opposed to conventional development approaches policies.

The ‘conventional’ and ‘alternative’ perspectives are discussed in Sections 4.3.1

and 4.3.2 respectively.

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4.3.1 Conventional Tourism Development Perspectives

The ‘conventional’ tourism development perspective stems from the

modernisation, dependency, neoliberal development paradigms. The

modernisation theory has characterised tourism development approaches and

practices between the 1950s and 1970s (Telfer, 2002; Sharpley, 2002). For

example, Harrison (2001:1) notes that modernisation theory underpinned the

development of mass tourism in the Caribbean and Pacific Islands, as a way to

satisfy mass tourists and transnational corporations from the USA in the 1970s.

In the wider development policy context, tourism was perceived as an ’advocacy

platform’ (Jafari, 2001:29-30), aimed at helping developing countries generate

foreign exchange earnings through consumption of goods and services by the

international tourists (Harrison, 2001).

The modernisation approach received several criticisms from the dependency

theorists for failing to generate the anticipated ‘trickle-down’ effect, leading to

leakages of revenue from developing countries and exacerbated poverty

(Brohman, 1996; Burns and Holden, 1995; Sindiga, 1999; Hampton, 2005). For

example, the partnerships of multinational corporations and local elites have led

to high leakages of revenues through the repatriation of profits, taxes and

incentives and wages of expatriates.

The neoliberal policies discussed in Section 3.2.3 were introduced into the

tourism sector by the Bretton Wood institutions, emphasising free market

economy, economic rationalisation and deregulation (Asiedu, 1997; Scheyvens,

2007). The neoliberal policies of ‘Structural Adjustment Programmes’ (SAP),

‘Poverty Reduction Strategy’ (PRS) and ‘Millennium Development Goals’ (MDG)

are prevalent in tourism development plans and policies prepared by

development institutions and are being implemented by governments in

developing countries (Sharpley, 2000; Telfer, 2002). As Konadu-Agyeman

(2001:194) notes, while Ghana has been hailed as a structural adjustment

success story for Africa and tourism arrivals and receipts have increased, spatial

disparities have become entrenched. The quality of life of many Ghanaians has

declined due to lack of employment opportunities, privatisation of state-owned

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hotels and increasing foreign ownership of tourism infrastructure, which has led

to higher leakages of revenue from the country.

The continuous need for the state to play a major role in tourism development

has been recognised in tourism research (Sofield, 2003; Harrison, 2004; Holden

2005). As Scheyvens (2007:129) comments, the economic ‘miracle boom’

enjoyed by some of the East Asian countries in the 1970s and 1980s was

spurred by government policy interventions such as the protection of infant

industries against competition from external markets. She supports the need to

involve governments in tourism, rather than allowing the process to be driven by

market forces which ultimately affect ‘poor’ people adversely.

4.3.2 Poverty Reduction: Alternative Tourism Development Perspective

The call for an ‘alternative’ perspective to tourism development has been

promoted by a number of bodies of thinking as contributing more positively to

poverty reduction (Smith and Eadington, 1992; Sofield, 2003; Easterling, 2005;

Elliot and Mann, 2005). The ‘alternative’ perspective is seen by its proponents as

placing the poor at the centre of the development process, as opposed to the

‘conventional’ perspective. The proponents advocate tourism development

agendas that: (i) emphasise small-scale and locally-based initiatives that promote

net benefits to ‘poor’ people in the communities (Ashley, 2000); (ii) mitigate

conflicts that are associated with guest and host relationships (Krippendorf,

1989); (iii) encourage local participation and empowerment in tourism planning

and decision-making (Scheyvens, 2003; 2007); and (iv) remove barriers that

restrict local participation in tourism (Tosun, 2006).

Different forms of tourism have been associated with the ‘alternative’ perspective,

such as ‘soft tourism’ and ‘green tourism’ (Dann, 2001), ‘volunteer tourism’

(Wearing, 2001) and ecotourism (Honey, 1999). Alternative’ perspectives with a

significant resonance of relevance for this study are ‘Cultural Tourism’, ‘Pro-Poor

Tourism’; ‘Sustainable Tourism to Eliminate Poverty’ and ‘Sustainable Tourism’,

which are discussed in Sections 4.3.2 (a) to 4.3.2(d).

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(a) Cultural Tourism

Cultural tourism has been perceived in mainstream tourism analysis as dialectic

between culture and tourism (Urry, 1991; MacCannell, 1992; Cole, 2008). Culture

is often considered as part of the tourism product-offerings, along with

ecotourism, as ways of shifting focus from the traditional beach mass tourism

development approach. Prentice (1993:165) notes that although the terms

‘cultural’ and ‘heritage’ are used interchangeably in tourism studies, the term

‘heritage’ implies an essentially past orientation, while the word ‘cultural’ includes

the contemporary and the future, as well as the past, within its scope. However,

the term ‘culture’ is a complex phenomenon, subsequently being difficult to define

and understand in the context of development. For the purpose of this study, the

term ‘culture’ is used to mean place, space, people, natural environment,

handicrafts, festival, art and crafts, food, music, historical monuments and

architecture that are attractive to tourists who visit the local community, a

definition that is advocated by Burns and Holden (1995).

Burns and Holden (1995:112) note that tourism producers perceive ‘culture’ as

attraction with a commercial value that has to be exploited and marketed to

tourists who are seeking new experiences in emerging tourism destinations. They

observe that the subsequent interactions create many impacts in the local

communities including changes in employment patterns and the utilisation of

cultural resources. As tourism researchers suggest, the relationship between

tourism and culture has led to much attention being focused on ‘cultural tourism’

(Urry, 1991; MacCannell, 1992; Copper et al., 1998), including more recently its

use in poverty reduction.

Perspectives differ on the significance of cultural tourism as a tool for

development and poverty reduction. Cole (2008:272) suggests that cultural

tourism does not always create positive impacts, since despite the abundance of

cultural resources it has done little to alleviate poverty in Ngadha and Flores in

Indonesia, whilst De Kadt (1979) argues that it revitalises arts and crafts,

gastronomy and related elements of local cultures. For example, cultural tourism

underlies the international promotion of ‘manyattas’, which are homesteads

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where tourists visit, live and experience the culture of the Maasai in Kenya

(Akama, 2002).

(b) Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT)

Proponents of Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) perceive it as an alternative perspective

which is embraced by the UK Department for International Cooperation (DFID),

Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and Centre for Responsible Tourism

(CRT). Proponents of PPT argue that the approach promotes tourism that

generates net benefits and unlocks diversified livelihood opportunities for the

‘poor’ (DFID, 1999).

Ashley et al.(2000) outlines the significance of PPT from three perspectives: (i)

the approach can ‘tilt’ tourism to generate new opportunities and benefits for the

vulnerable and marginalised, aiding them to escape from poverty; (ii) PPT

interventions are broader in scope, varying from government policy reviews to

one private sector organisation working with local people and ensuring local

participation at all levels; and (iii) net tourism benefits are not only understood in

monetary growth (income), but encompass non-monetary benefits, which the

poor consider as priorities to meet basic needs. Roe et al.(2004) also describe

PPT as emphasising the involvement of all stakeholders in tourism planning

including governments, donors, tourists, the private sector, civil society and local

people. They note that empowerment of the ‘poor’ takes various forms including

having access to training, employment, information and supply linkages, which

can occur through deliberate policy reform policies and processes by

government, donors and the private sector.

Critics of the PPT consider that the process alienate other tourism stakeholders,

including tourists and investors whose activities impact on local people. As

Sofield (2003) suggests the activities of tourists and investors affect the product

development and consequently livelihoods of the local people. There is therefore

a need to consider their respective roles in tourism and poverty reduction.

Furthermore, the PPT approach has not been widely implemented and evidence

of its practicability is limited in the literature, suggesting a lack of validity and

reliability. While the PPT approach could be a driving force for shifting emphasis

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from macro-economic growth target towards benefits for the poor, it is fraught

with ideological interpretations, due to its wider scope and meaning (Ashley et al.,

2000; Scheyvens, 2007).

(c) Sustainable Tourism to Eliminate Poverty (ST-EP)

‘Sustainable Tourism to Eliminate Poverty’ (ST-EP) has been formulated by the

United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as its contribution to the

poverty agenda and launched during the World Summit on Sustainable Tourism

held in Johannesburg in 2002 (UNWTO, 2006). The ST-EP programme

emphasises social, economic and ecological sustainable tourism as a way of

alleviating poverty and encouraging development that generates employment

opportunities for people in the tourism destination communities. The underlying

principle of ST-EP is that the evidence of increasing growth in international tourist

arrivals and foreign exchange earnings can create ‘trickle-down’ effects to benefit

poor people in developing countries, particularly in Africa (WTO, 2002). In this

sense it is embedded within a neo-liberal paradigm.

The argument that ST-EP promotes benefits to the poor is criticised as cover for

a strategy by the UNTWO to promote its ‘economic growth agenda through

tourism’ (Scheyvens, 2007:134). The objective of ST-EP appears overly simplistic

about the potential of tourism in developing countries, taking a micro level view

without looking at global, national and local tourism structures, as well as impacts

and limitations of international tourism on livelihood opportunities (Scheyvens,

ibid.; Nawijn et al., 2008). ST-EP also fails to recognise the wider dimension of

poverty from the perspective of local people and how they should be empowered

and enabled to actively participate in tourism (Scheyvens, ibid.).

(d) Sustainable Tourism Development Proponents of sustainable tourism development (STD) perceive it as a way to

address environmental concerns associated with tourism growth and address the

weaknesses of conventional perspective to tourism development. Several

development institutions have demonstrated their commitment to STD, including

the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations

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World Tourism Organization (WTO). The broad agenda for STD as outlined by

UNEP and UNWTO is listed as follows:

i. Economic Viability: To ensure the viability and competitiveness of tourism destinations and

enterprises in the long term.

ii. Local Prosperity: To maximize the contribution of tourism to the economic prosperity of the

host destination, including the proportion of spending that is retained locally.

iii. Employment Quality: To strengthen the number and quality of local created and supported

by tourism, including the level of pay, conditions of service and availability to all without

discriminations by gender, race, disability or in other ways.

iv. Social Equity: To seek a widespread of fair distribution of economic and social benefits from

tourism throughout the community, including improving opportunities, income and services

available to the poor.

v. Visitor Fulfilment: To provide a safe, satisfying and fulfilling experience for visitors.

vi. Local Control: To engage and empower local communities in planning and decision making

about management and future development of tourism in consultation with other

stakeholders.

vii. Community-Wellbeing: To maintain and strengthen the quality of life in local communities,

including social structures and access to resources, amenities and avoiding any form of

social degradation.

viii. Cultural Richness: To respect and enhance the historic heritage, authentic culture, traditions

and distinctiveness of host communities.

ix. Physical Integrity: To maintain and enhance the quality of the landscape.

x. Biological Diversity: To support the conversion of natural areas, habitats and wildlife, and

minimize damage to them.

xi. Resources Efficiency: To minimise the use of scare and non-renewable resources in the

development and operation of tourism facilities and services.

xii. Environmental Purity: To minimize the pollution of air, water and land and the generation of

waste by tourism enterprises and visitors.

Source: Adapted from UNEP/WTO (2005:18-19)

These 12 aims encompass economic, social and environmental issues based on

the agreement reached amongst the member countries of the organisations.

Despite the widespread of its aims, the concept of STD remains contested, while

its validity as a practical model for tourism development and poverty reduction

are questioned by several tourism scholars (Harrison, 2001; Farrell and

Twinning-Ward, 2005; Butcher, 2006). As Sharpley (2002:320) comments, STD

is divisive and polarises the debate between sustainable ‘good’ forms of tourism

and unsuitable, mass forms of tourism, suggesting a contradiction between

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limitation on growth whilst encouraging increased tourism growth to promote

economic development.

In summary, there is an emerging consensus that the ‘conventional’ perspective

of tourism development, emphasising growth and ‘trickle-down’ effects, fails to

create the net benefits to reduce and alleviate poverty. In contrast, some scholars

have argued that tourism can contribute to development if it is approached in an

‘alternative’ way that can promote net benefits (monetary and non-monetary)

benefits to poor people (Smith and Eadington, 1992). The emergence of the

‘alternative’ perspective’ has led to a wider focus on a number of tourism

strategies that have been formulated by different institutions with opposing

political and economic interests, as explained in Section 4.3.2. The different

approaches found in the literature suggest a lack of coherent guidelines and

strategy to ‘unleash’ the full potential of tourism to tackle poverty. While the

underlying principles of the strategies tend to overlap, they seem to be

embedded in the ideologies of the proponents, suggesting a lack of wide

acceptance and legitimacy to underpin tourism as a means of poverty reduction

(Holden, 2005).

4.4 Tourism Development: A ‘Third Way’ Approach

Burns (2004) proposes a ‘Third Way’ planning approach as a solution to the

weaknesses inherent in the ‘conventional’ and ‘alternative’ approaches. He

argues that tourism development is rooted in bipolar tourism planning of ‘Tourism

First’ versus ‘Development First’, a categorisation that is influenced by the geo-

politics of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, which divided the world into ‘left’

and ‘right’ respectively, as presented in Table 4.1. Burns (2004:24) states:

‘The debate surrounding aid-funded tourism master planning where the traditional

right, framed by the values of neo-liberalism, sees market forces as providing the only

alternative…On the other hand, modern world problems have emerged that go far

beyond the assumptions upon which the left was founded.’

Burns views the ‘Tourism First’ approach as emphasising ‘economic growth’ and

‘trickle-down’ effects based on an increase in tourist arrivals and stock of

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accommodation, embedded in a neo-liberal approach. He criticised the approach

as being ‘growth’ without ‘development’ (Burns, 2004:31), which benefits

governments, donor agencies, international tourists and the private sector.

By contrast, the ‘Development First ‘approach focuses on the eco-centric

approach of ecotourism aimed at protecting the environment as seen from

sustainable human development perspectives, emphasising ecotourism and

cultural tourism. Burns views the ‘Development First’ approach as being on the

advocacy agenda of non-governmental organisations such as Tourism Concern

in the United Kingdom, who argue in favour of both economic and social benefits

from a standpoint of conserving the natural and cultural resources and creating

benefits for the marginalised and disadvantaged in the local communities.

Burns outlines the key differences between the two approaches, as shown in

Table 4.1. The differences range from policy objectives to development

paradigms which characterise each approach.

Table 4.1: Bipolar view of tourism planning approaches

The Leftist ‘Development First’ The Rightist ‘Tourism First’

Sustainable human development Economic enlargement

Tourism-as- system Tourism-as-industry

Tourism-as-culture Tourism-as-consumerism

Modern world system Globalisation

Periphery Core

Underdevelopment Modernisation

Aiming for an independent, differentiated

destination with minimal dependency on the

core. Focus on sustainable human

development goals as defined by local people

and local knowledge. The key question driving

development is, ‘What can tourism give us

without harming us?’

Aiming to maximise market spread through

familiarity of the product. Undifferentiated,

homogenized product dependent on core with

a focus on tourism goals set by outside

planners and the international tourism industry.

Holistic Economistic

Source: Burns (2004:26)

While the categorisation mirrors the two approaches, Burns argues that both

‘Tourism First’ and ‘Development First’ fail to create opportunities to benefit the

poor. From a technical perspective, while approaches are embedded in the

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development plans, they are often complicated and not implemented by

governments in developing countries due to the lack of financial and human

resources required. The planning approaches tend to be stereotypes with

ambitious assumptions determined by the funding organisation and external

experts, using steering-committees composed of government organisations and

officials without the active involvement of the locals.

Based on these criticisms, Burns proposes a ‘Third Way’ planning approach as

the way forward to making tourism benefit local people. He argues that the ‘Third

Way’ forges a closer relationship between the local people and the state through

an active civil society. Burns ‘borrowed’ the ‘Third Way’ notion from Giddens, who

defines it as:

A framework of thinking and policymaking that seeks to adapt social democracy to a

world which has changed fundamentally over the past two or three decades…It is a

‘third way’ in the sense that it is an attempt to transcend both old-style social

democracy and neo-liberalism (Giddens, 1998 cited in Burns, 2004:25).

Burns argues that the ‘Third Way’ has advantages over the ‘Tourism First’ and

‘Development First’ approaches in three main ways. Firstly, it is less reductionist

and emphasises a ‘Sustainable Development’ approach that encourages the

existence of a range of civil society institutions in defining ‘development’ and

‘development needs’ of the local people. Secondly, while the ‘Third Way’ provides

an alternative approach to the wider development discourse, it is a politically and

socially transferable model that is workable in less developed countries. For

example, a ‘Third Way’ has the potential to create opportunities for a number of

civil society institutions. Finally, considering the complex and multidimensional

nature of tourism, a ‘Third Way’ approach does not only emphasise inter-sectoral

and intra-sectoral planning, but a kind of planning which involves various

economic sectors and stakeholders in the economy.

‘Third Way’ Tourism Planning: A Critique

The ‘Third Way’ tourism planning may be criticised for its underlying

assumptions, based on Burns acknowledgement that ‘Third Way’ in tourism

planning is as ‘yet untried…is conceptual and is intended to broaden the debate

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about normal planning paradigms’ (Burns, 2004:38). Its effectiveness is reliant

upon a critical assessment of identifiable tourism benefits and problems during

the early stage of the planning, which seem to be unlikely in many developing

countries. This is because plans, strategies and projected outcomes are subject

to a wide range of internal and external factors such as wars, terrorism, budgets

and personnel (Bramwell and Lane 2000; WTO, 2005).

Whilst acknowledging that ‘master planning’ has its faults (Burns, ibid.: 33), Burns

acknowledges that there is no ‘perfect planning’, hence the ‘Third Way’ may not

be ‘sacrosanct’. The conflicts surrounding decision-making, as suggested by

Burns, are not only embedded in domestic politics, but transcend social and

cultural institutions. As Aryee (1999) suggests in the context of Ghana, the

political and traditional institutional dichotomy tends to dilute the central roles of

both municipal assemblies and traditional authorities within the framework of the

decentralisation and governance systems.

The role of tourism development institutions in developing countries may also be

outside the control of developing countries. A consequence of this lack of control

is the exposure of practice to outside ideological paradigms (UNCTAD, 2001;

Blake et al.; 2008). Finally, as referred to at the start of this section, there is no

evidence in the reviewed literature to suggest that that the ‘Third Way’ approach

as proposed by Burns, has been applied, meaning there is a lack of empirical

data to support its validation. Thus, a broad range of approaches may be

required to make tourism play a meaningful role in poverty reduction,

incorporating wider issues that concern the local people and could enhance

economic livelihood opportunities.

4.5 Tourism and Sustainable Development

As discussed in Section 3.3, ‘sustainable development’ has been widely adopted

in tourism as a development paradigm since the Brundtland’s Report (WCED,

1987) and the Earth Summit in 1992 (Sharpley, 2002; Mowforth and Munt, 1998).

Further, many international conferences have reinforced the connection between

tourism and sustainable development in the context of meeting the needs of the

present, without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own

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needs. The conferences have included: (i) The UN Commission on Sustainable

Development, 7th session, 1999; and (ii) World Summit on Sustainable

Development (Rio+10), 2002. Related to these conferences are reports which

emphasise a strong relationship between sustainable development and tourism.

These include: (i) the UNWTO Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, 1999; (ii) the

Convention on Biological Diversity, Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism

Development, 2003; and (iii) the Quebec Declaration on Ecotourism, 2002

(UNWTO, 2005; Goodwin, 2006)

This emphasis on the natural environment in tourism represents a shift in

conceptualisation from earlier tourism development model, e.g. Butler (1980) and

Britton (1982), which generally neglected aspects of individual well-being and

resource depletion. While Butler (1992 cited in Milne, 1998:37) argues that

alternative tourism and ecotourism will eventually lead to large-scale, inherently

unsustainable development, Milne (1998) observes that the pace of tourism

development is determined by multinational corporations who control the

conditions of the market under the guise of neoliberal policies in the political

economy. The inadequacies of the conventional models and theories have

helped to popularise the adoption of the ‘sustainable development’ approach,

which calls for a policy framework (Sharpley, 2002). The paradigm encourages a

balance in the development process, recognising the complexity and

multidimensional nature of tourism and the internal and external influences and

participation of stakeholders, who articulate different interests.

Milne (ibid.) claims that sustainable development is important because it

promotes networking amongst the key stakeholders, local people, tourist,

business, government and non-governmental organisations. However, the

leading role of the Bretton Woods institutions and other development institutions

since the 1970s are acknowledged by many scholars (Holden, 2005; Goodwin,

2006). De Villier, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism

Organization (UNWTO) or World Tourism Organization as was, comments that:

‘the WTO is convinced that tourism can make a meaningful contribution to the

reduction of poverty, but not without the intervention of the multilateral and

bilateral aid agencies and banks’ (WTO/UNCTAD, 2001 cited in Goodwin,

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2006:2). Thus, tourism development involves many stakeholders whose

participation and interests are crucial in the developmental process.

The potential significance of sustainable development for tourism and poverty

reduction can be seen in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2: Tourism: aims and objectives of sustainable development

Fundamental principles i. Holistic approach: development and environmental issues

integrated within a global social, economic and ecological

context

ii. Futurity: long-term capacity for global ecosystem and human

sub-system

iii. Equity: development that is fair and equitable, which provides

opportunities for access to and use of resources for all

members of societies, both in the present and future

Development objectives i. Improvement of the quality of life for all people: education, life

expectancy, opportunities to fulfil potential

ii. Satisfaction of basic needs: concentration on the nature of what

is provided rather than income

iii. Self-reliance: political freedom and local decision-making for

local needs

iv. Endogenous development

Sustainability objectives i. Sustainable population

ii. Minimal depletion of non-renewable resources

Requirement for

sustainable

development

i. Adoption of a new social paradigm relevant to sustainable living

ii. International and national political and economic systems

dedicated to equitable development and resource use

iii. Technological systems that can solve environmental problems

iv. Global alliance facilitating integrated development policies at

local, national and international levels

Sources: Adapted from Streeten (1997); Pearce et al. (1989); WCED (1987); ICUN (1991) cited in

Sharpley (2002:329).

For the purpose of this study, the author has adapted Sharpley’s template

because it highlights the core poverty and tourism issues that are being

investigated in this research. The fundamental requirement of sustainable

development and tourism is the adoption of a holistic approach which locates the

developmental consequences of any tourism activity on poverty reduction within

a global, national and local socio-economic and political context.

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4.6 Measuring the Contribution of Tourism to Poverty Reduction Proponents of tourism highlight the potential significant contribution of tourism to

poverty reduction in the world’s poorest countries (Pro-Poor Tourism; 2004;

Sofield et al., 2004; WTO, 2005). However, a key challenge to tourism and

poverty analysis is how to identify indicators that are reasonably robust and

reflect the core issues of poverty reduction (Goodwin, 2006:5).

The history of tourism’s relationship with the economy is dominated by

quantifiable measurement. The United Nations World Tourism Organization,

(UNWTO) (UNWTO, 2009) and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC)

(WTTC, 2009) favour a macro-economic and quantitative measurement of

tourism performance, which allows easy comparison between countries and

economic sectors within a country. The focus of tourism assessment has been on

volumes of tourism arrivals and receipts, of foreign exchange earnings, GDP,

employment, stock of facilities and revenues and taxes. Inherent in the

quantitative assessment is the potential of these indicators to help developing

countries meet their balance of payment obligations, while generating ‘trickle-

down’ effects and multipliers in the national economies, which could also benefit

the poor in terms of infrastructure provision, employment and income

opportunities (WTO, 2005). Recently, the UNWTO has introduced the Tourism

Satellite Account (TSA) to allow standardisation of data collection and analysis

among the member countries (WTO, ibid.). While the tourism satellite accounts

focus on direct expenditures by tourists, local population and governments on

tourism-related goods and services, they are embedded in definitions and

accounting structures, compounding the difficulty in the collection of data

(Goodwin, 2006).

The emphasis on quantitative measuring has received criticisms in the literature.

Roel et al. (2004) have cautioned about the over-reliance on tourism statistics

because numbers can be interpreted differently by stakeholders based on the

phenomenon being investigated. They observe a number of weaknesses

associated with data collection in many developing countries as including the lack

of an effective mechanism for data collection and analysis which dilute the

statistical results, and eventually render the data highly unreliable for tourism and

poverty analysis. They argue that increased tourist arrivals may not necessarily

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correlate with expenditure patterns in the local communities since the data do not

reflect locally produced by local people and consumed goods and services by the

tourists.

The ‘qualitative approach’ to understanding the contribution of tourism to poverty

has been advocated by tourism scholars in view of the identified weaknesses

associated with the quantitative approach (Cukier, 2002; Hashimoto, 2002). Roe

et al. (2004) and Goodwin (2006) comment that the ‘qualitative approach’ may be

more participatory, which allows the local population to interpret their

understandings of tourism’s impact on their well-being. As a result, there is a

significant shift of emphasis from income to non-income indicators that the local

population stress as priority concerns, such as empowerment and participation in

decision-making in the development process. This debate between ‘quantitative’

and ‘qualitative’ measuring of tourism is relevant to tourism-poverty reduction

analysis and the context of Elmina, in view of the different stakeholders involved

in the development of the industry and the need to hear the perspectives of the

poor.

4.7 The Argument for Tourism as a Tool for Poverty Reduction

Tourism is often regarded as a panacea for economic, social and environmental

problems in poor countries and local communities. While empirical evidence to

justify the claim that increased tourism could lead to significant benefits for the

poor people may be available (Ashley, 2000; Mbaiwa, 2004; UNWTO, 2007),

there are studies to indicate that tourism is deepening and perpetuating poverty

in tourism developing countries (Brohman, 1996; Hampton, 2005).

The reviewed literature indicates a variety of ways the industry contributes to

poverty reduction in developing countries (Pro-Poor Partnership, 2004; Ashley

and Mitchell, 2005; Harrison and Schipani, 2007). The UNWTO (2006) has

identified tourism activities that impact on poverty, ranging from foreign exchange

earnings, to investment and development of cultural values in developing

countries. The list below represents the seven ways in which tourism may

contribute to poverty reduction in developing countries (UNWTO, 2006):

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i. Foreign exchange earnings (exports and GDP);

ii. Employment and Income (direct, indirect and induced);

iii. Ownership and management of tourism establishments (e.g. hotel,

handicraft shops and restaurants);

iv. Direct sales of goods and services to tourists (e.g. hawking and tour

guiding);

v. Supply of goods and services to tourism enterprises by the poor (e.g.

vegetables and poultry products);

vi. Investment in infrastructure which provides livelihood benefits to the poor

(e.g. roads, waters and electricity supply); and

vii. Development of cultural values

A compilation of the key themes in this list is discussed in the following sub-

sections.

4.7.1 Foreign Exchange Earnings

The United Nations World Tourism Organization is confident that despite wars

and terrorism, developing countries will experience more growth in international

tourism and tourism receipts than in any other sectors of their economies

(UNWTO, 2009). The UNWTO argues that foreign exchange earned from tourism

has a major role to play in helping the 49 Least Developing Countries to fulfil their

balance of payment obligations. Proponents of a Pro-Poor approach also argue

that tourism is a significant contributor to poverty as evidenced in data collected

between 1999 and 2000 from selected countries with high incidences of poverty,

shown in Table 4.3. As shown in the table, the contribution from tourism to GDP

and exports is substantial in countries such as Mexico, Kenya, Nepal and

Indonesia.

However, the overall potential of tourism to foreign exchange earnings is

controlled by factors of foreign ownership and leakages. The Bretton Woods

institutions have emphasised modernisation theory and neoliberal policies to

frame growth-based tourism in developing countries. The approach assumes that

any increase in tourist arrivals and receipts will automatically generate ‘trickle-

down’ effects and multipliers to benefit the poor. However, the works of

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dependency theorists such as Britton (1982) and Brohman (1996) highlight the

potential high economic leakages of a model of tourism development dominated

by a partnership of multi-national companies and local elites. There is a

subsequent high potential for tourism to contribute to underdevelopment in

developing countries, while making their economies highly dependent on

international tourism promoted from the developed countries.

Table 4.3: Tourism contribution to poverty in selected developing countries

Country % of Population living below 1$/day

International Arrivals in 2000 (’000)

% Growth in Arrivals

% of Contribution of Tourism to GDP in 1999

Tourism Receipt as % of Export in 1999

Nigeria 91.2 813 327.9 2.7 10.9 Pakistan 45.8 543 28.1 5.1 10.4 Bangladesh 38.8 200 73.9 3.4 2.1 Ethiopia 21 125 58.23 6.3 26.2 Brazil 20.4 5,313 387 7.6 8.3 Mexico 16.4 20,643 20.2 10.4 19.3 Indonesia 15.5 5,064 132.5 9.8 12.9 Nepal 10.3 451 76.9 7.3 27.8 Ghana 9 373 144.5 6.7 10.4 Mali 8.2 91 106 6.4 19.7 Madagascar 8.1 160 201.9 7.8 18.6 Kenya 8 899 10.4 9.5 28.5 Burkina Faso 7.7 218 194.6 5.1 3.4

Source: Adapted from Pro-Poor Partnership (2004).

4.7.2 Tourism Employment and Income

Tourism has been advocated by scholars as having the potential for creating

employment and income generating opportunities for the poor. It is considered a

labour-intensive industry, being assumed to play a key role in providing

employment opportunities for the disadvantaged, women and migrants who often

encounter greatest difficulty in finding jobs (Cukier, 2002; Ashley and Mitchell,

2005). The WTTC (2009:1) notes that globally tourism created nearly 219.8

million jobs in 2009, which contributed nearly 8.4 percent of total global

employment. Studies by Cukier (2002) in Indonesia and Mbaiwa (2004) in the

Okavango Delta in Botswana demonstrate that tourism has a potential to create

direct and indirect employment in small-scale and informal sector businesses,

including hawking, accommodation, souvenirs, catering, tours and travel

operations.

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Besides creating employment, tourism is understood as an important generator of

income, arising from tourists’ expenditures on goods and services in the local

communities. Ashley’s (2000:3) study, ‘Impacts of Tourism on Rural Livelihoods:

Namibia’s Experience’, found that tourism generates four types of cash income

for the local people: (i) regular wages for those with jobs; (ii) casual earning

opportunities from the selling of goods and services by food vendors, fishermen

and handicraft vendors; (iii) profits from the ownership of small-scale tourism

enterprises such as lodges and restaurants; and (iv) collective income earned by

the community, for example through revenue-sharing and hunting rights.

The argument that tourism employment and income lift local people out of

poverty fits into the wider aims and objectives of sustainable development.

However, this potential, and consequent multipliers, may not be automatically

realised. As Burns and Holden (1995:141) note, tourism employment is

influenced by many factors such as the nature of the development, the available

workforce, the cost of infrastructure and the intensive nature of the activities.

They also add that while tourism expenditure can stimulate demand and supply,

income redistribution can be affected by factors such as the level of economic

development, the composition of the workforce and the character of business

ownership in the local community. It is therefore simplistic and incorrect to

assume that tourism will automatically generate employment and create income

for the poor, unless there is a conscious policy intervention by government, donor

agencies and non-governmental organisations to target them.

4.7.3 Linkage Between Tourism and Other Economic Sectors

The tourism industry can potentially establish strong linkages with other sectors

of the local economy through local entrepreneurial activity, the ownership of

small-scale and informal businesses, and the supply of goods and services

consumed by tourism businesses and tourists. Bah and Goodwin (2003) observe

that the formal tourism sector can provide a market for locally produced

agricultural goods, as for example in the Gambia where hotels source vegetables

from local farmers and fish from the fishermen. Linkages between tourism and

the agricultural and fisheries sectors create access to markets for the farmers

and fishermen, while it helps to expand employment and income opportunities for

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the locals (Barkin, 2003; Torres and Momsem, 2004). The subsequent effect of

employment and income opportunities may lead to economic and social

empowerment.

Ashley et al. (2000) note that the establishment of linkages between the formal

tourism sector and local suppliers are often problematic due to a reliance by the

tourism industry on imported goods and migratory labour. Such activities have led

to leakages of revenue and income which could have been redistributed to

generate further livelihood opportunities. As Spenceley et al. (2002 cited in

Spenceley 2003:2) comment, tourism development policy in South Africa has

focused on encouraging the private sector to operate tourism enterprises, with a

strong emphasis on economic empowerment of the marginalised and historically

disadvantaged. While the poverty policy intervention has created linkages

between tourism and other businesses, it has also produced multiple, direct and

indirect socio-economic impacts that have unlocked opportunities to benefit the

poor.

4.7.4 Development of Cultural Values

It has been argued that tourism affects the socio-cultural values and self-esteem

of local people both positively and negatively (Hashimoto, 2002; Andereck et al.,

2005; Cole, 2008). Thus, the role of tourism in poverty reduction stretches

beyond monetary to non-monetary dimensions which affect the well-being of the

population in the locality. In the context of the social consequences of tourists’

behaviour and interactions on the host community, Krippendorf (1989) advocated

that potential effect should be analysed before tourism is developed. Tourists’

behaviour may be cumulative socio-cultural effects on local people, particularly

those utilising their cultural and natural resources for tourism (Bruner, 1996). For

example, whilst the culture of local people may be perceived as a commercial

resource to attract tourists, yet it can affect the daily lives of the people in many

ways including employment patterns and the image of the locality (Burns and

Holden, 1995:112). However, Brunt and Courtney (1999) note that the social

impacts of tourism upon local people are difficult to disaggregate, since the

effects are only recognised in the long-term through gradual changes in the

society’s beliefs, values and practices.

90

Issues related to tourist harassment have not been widely highlighted in the

tourism and poverty studies but are relevant in the context of Elmina. In cases

when tourist harassment has been studied, the phenomenon is portrayed only as

a negative perspective. For example, Albuquerque and McElroy’s (2001) study in

Barbados and McElroy’s (2001) work in Jamaica, described ‘tourist harassment’

as presenting a negative image of the tourist destinations. As a result, the

governments have deployed police to the tourist sites as a way of preventing the

locals from having access to the tourists. However, Pattulo (1996 cited in

McElroy, 2001:3) comments that tourist harassment can be related to poverty,

being a common occurrence in tourism destinations where the people are poor

and are excluded from opportunities by the industry.

In summary, tourism has the potential to generate a variety of socio-economic

monetary and non-monetary effects that impact upon poverty reduction,

including: foreign exchange earnings; employment creation; the supply of goods

and services; and changes in cultural values and practices. Evidence in the

development literature suggests that tourism does contribute positively to poverty

reduction but also has the potential to aggravate and perpetuate poverty. The

overall balance of positive and negative contributions to poverty will differ

amongst peoples and over time, a key determining factor being the extent to

which local people are empowered to participate in the industry.

4.8 Barriers Influencing Local People’s Participation in Tourism

Although tourism has the potential to create income and non-income

opportunities, benefits to the poor depend on whether and how they can

participate socially and economically (Mason and Cheyne, 2000; Shah and

Gupta, 2000; Pro-Poor Tourism Partnership, 2001; Butcher, 2006, Lepp, 2008;

Sharpley, 2009). Ashley et al. (2000) have identified a wide range of factors that

influence poor people’s participation in tourism, embodying constraints that can

be reduced or removed through policy interventions, as is presented in Table 4.4.

Ashley et al. (2000) observe that a number of barriers generally restrict poor

people from participation in tourism. While the barriers may be common amongst

the local population, the impacts vary between individuals and within groups. The

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range of barriers listed in Table 4.4 indicate a lack of capability, e.g. access to

finance and human capital, combined with exclusion from markets and by

government. Ashley et al. (ibid.) note that while a lack of credit has forced poor

entrepreneurs to mobilise their efforts through personal savings and borrowing,

the majority are squeezed out by outside investors. Thus, a micro-finance policy

intervention that is targeted at the poor can improve access to credit and allow

local people to own and manage tourism enterprises.

Tosun (2000:614) also views local people’s participation as: ‘joining in the

process of self-governance, responding to authoritative decisions that impact on

one’s life and working co-operatively with others on issues of mutual concern’,

noting that local people are restricted from tourism operationally, structural and

culturally. At the operational level, the centralisation of public administration of

tourism regulations and regulations by policy makers and national tourism

organisations restrict local people from participation in the planning and

implementation processes. Centralisation stifles popular participation,

emphasising a ‘top-down’ approach which is non-participatory and anti-poverty,

as discussed in Section 2.4.3. At the structural level a lack of coordination and

cohesion results from the centralisation of policies, causing conflicts. However,

the multi-dimensional nature of tourism and poverty makes it impossible for one

particular government establishment to operate in isolation, hence the need for a

participatory approach which recognises the divergent views of the stakeholders.

At the cultural level, the poor people do not have the human, financial and social

capital to take charge of development projects effectively, hence the adoption of

a variety of ‘coping’ strategies for their survival. As a result, policy-makers

perceive the introduction of tourism projects in the local community as a

generosity intended to win the locals political support.

Issues of gender also affect participation by the poor in the formal and informal

sectors of tourism (Swain, 1995; Shah and Guptah, 2002). The argument is built

upon gender relations in view of the different roles being played by men and

women in developing countries. Shah et al.’s (2002) gender analysis of

employment in the hospitality industry reveals that tourism employment is skewed

in favour of men, with women working more hours whilst receiving lower wages.

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They observe that barriers underlying the gender inequality included issues of

educational attainment, cultural and religious norms.

Table 4.4: Barriers and actions to enhance people’s participation in tourism

Barriers to participation in

Tourism

Specific policy strategies to reduce or remove barriers

Lack of human capital Target education and training at the poor to enable them to

access formal employment and self-employment

opportunities.

Lack of finance /credit Expand access to micro-finance.

Lack of organisation: Exclusion

by organised formal sector

interests

Recognise and support organisations of poor producers.

Recognise tourism interest as just as one voice to be heard

among others.

Location-far from tourist sites Develop core tourism assets and infrastructure in relatively

poor areas where a commercially viable product exists.

Lack of market power: No

ownership/control over resources

of market value. No bargaining

power with investors

Strengthen local tenure rights over land, wildlife, cultural

heritage, access to scenic destinations, and other tourism

assets.

Regulations and red tape.

Exclusion from registered and

promoted categories of tourism

facility-service

Minimise red tape, revise or remove regulations that exclude

the least skilled, ensure regulations embrace sectors and

activities operated by the poor with appropriate standards.

Inadequate access to tourist

market

Enhance vendor’s access to tourists by sitting resort near

public access routes, supporting organised markets for

informal and small-scale sellers in towns or adjacent

national park.

Limited capacity to meet

requirements of tourism market

Encourage business support to improve quality, reliability of

supply and transport links.

Under-development of domestic

/regional/independent tourism by

comparing with international

tourism and all inclusive

Incorporate domestic/regional tourism and independent

tourism into planning strategies. Reduce excessive focus on

international all inclusive tourist packages.

Government support targeted to

formal sector

Recognise the importance of the informal sector; support it

in planning processes.

New tourism opportunities

conflict with existing livelihood

opportunities

Avoid promoting only full-time jobs. Expand range of options

for flexible, part-time involvement. Enhance local control

over types of tourism development.

Source: Adapted from Ashley et al. (2000:5)

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4.9 Policy Strategies to Enhance Local People’s Participation in Tourism

While tourism could potentially contribute to poverty alleviation, local people are

restricted from participation in the industry due to several constraints that need to

be reduced or removed.

Ashley et al. (2000:4) suggest that local people’s participation in tourism can be

enhanced provided that the following policy measures are implemented by

government in collaboration with other stakeholders including donors, private

sector and non-governmental organisations. They advocate the need to:

i. Put poverty issues on the tourism agenda: policy-makers should recognise

that enhancing poverty impacts of tourism is different for commercial,

environmental and ethical concerns. While there can be trade-offs between

stakeholders, the issues affecting the poor must be addressed;

ii. Enhance economic opportunities: the need to address the barriers the local

people face, and maximise the range of formal and informal sector

employment opportunities;

iii. Enhance social opportunities: incorporate the wider concerns of the poor

into decision-making, and using tourism to create infrastructure that benefits

them, while addressing cultural disruptions; and

iv. A multi-level approach: poverty interventions should be taken at the

international, national and local levels, with pro-active participation of

stakeholders.

Spenceley’s (2003) case study on sustainable local livelihoods and the private

sector in South Africa emphasises the practical importance of policy interventions

in facilitating local people’s participation in tourism. Due to political and public

pressure, the South Africa government implemented a tourism policy that focused

on poverty alleviation, emphasising employment, investment and enhancing the

capacity of historically disadvantaged individuals. Spenceley (2003:19-20)

outlines key interventions that have proved successful in South Africa as

including: (i) the legislative passing of a ‘Tourist Guide Bill’: this allowed

previously disadvantaged individuals to access training opportunities as tourist

guides, using indigenous knowledge rather than formal education; (ii) the

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establishment of a ‘Tourism Enterprise Programme’: this assisted new entrants

into the commercial sector by providing advice, expertise and credits; (iii) the

creation of ‘Tourism Leadership and National Qualifications’, providing training

initiatives that combined workplace experience and performance monitoring; and

(iv) a ‘Poverty Relief Programme’: aimed to manage and administer poverty relief

proposals and spin-off projects in the tourism and environment sectors, focusing

on infrastructure and product development, such as heritage sites and

conservation.


There is certainly potential for tourism to contribute to poverty reduction but care

should be taken to analyse this potential from a holistic perspective. The poverty

and tourism relationship approaches in the literature are currently grounded in

debates centred on ‘neoliberal’ versus ‘alternative’ paradigms, and ‘Tourism First’

versus ‘Development First’ approaches. Whilst tourism may contribute positively

to poverty reduction, it could possibly deepen, exacerbate and perpetuate it. The

suggestion is that macro-economic growth policies are not sufficient to reduce

poverty but there are alternative approaches to create and enhance socio-

economic opportunities, address deprivation and enhance capabilities.

The need to understand the complexities of the character and nature of the

relationship between tourism, poverty and development and the perspectives is

also emphasised. Fundamental to this aim is the need to understand the several

assumptions embedded in poverty, tourism and development within the broader

epistemological and ontological considerations, policy-making process and

measuring outcomes. Firstly, tourism development has been primarily embedded

in a market-driven intervention scenario based on various development policies

and interests of diverse stakeholders. Secondly, how to assess and demonstrate

the role of tourism in poverty reduction has become a challenge to policy makers

and academics. The outcomes of tourism are mainly measured and reported in

macro-economic terms, focusing on volume of international arrivals, foreign

exchange earnings and contribution to GDP. This suggests that non-monetary

indicators such as participation and empowerment affecting local people have not

received much attention. Thirdly, deliberate policy interventions would be

95

required to reduce, or remove barriers that restrict local people’s participation in

tourism. Fourthly, tourism, poverty and development are multi-dimensional

phenomena that cannot be analysed from a single perspective, but require a

holistic approach. These issues are essential for understanding and evaluating

the role of tourism in poverty reduction, and are critically applied and analysed in

the context of this research on Elmina.

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Chapter 5

Tourism Development in Ghana

5.1 Introduction This chapter examines the development of tourism policies and planning, the

industry’s performance and challenges for tourism’s use in poverty reduction in

Ghana. The previous chapters reviewed the relationship between poverty

reduction and tourism in developing countries, establishing that many of the

concerns of other countries have relevance to Ghana. While this study is set in

the local community of Elmina, and specifically explores the role of tourism in

poverty reduction, Ghana’s tourism policy and plans are important influences on

this relationship. Poverty reduction is inherent in the central tourism policy

objectives for employment and wealth creation underlying the Ghana Poverty

Reduction Strategy and the Millennium Development Goals. This chapter

analyses the determinants of tourism development in Ghana, focusing on

significant issues such as the evolution of tourism; policy goals and objectives;

tourism resources; role of the stakeholders; performance indicators and

challenges.

5.2 Evolution of Tourism Development in Ghana

Tourism is a relatively recent but expanding socio-economic activity, making

significant contributions to foreign exchange earnings, employment, revenue and

the GDP. While the Government’s policy and planning documents constitute the

major sources of tourism information on Ghana, studies have also been

conducted by Bruner (1996), Asiedu (1997), Gartner (1999), Teye (1999),

Konadu-Agyeman (2000) and Akyeampong (2007), which are subsequently

referred to in this chapter.

In a general context, tourism development in Ghana has been formed by

competing paradigms, thus it has been at different times a force for

modernisation, more lately influenced by Structural Adjustment Programmes

(SAP), the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and Millennium

Development Goals (MDG). Tourism policies have been implemented by the

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various Military and Civilian regimes who have ruled the country since its

independence in 1957.

5.2.1 Evolution of Ghana’s Tourism Organisations

The evolution of tourism in Ghana occurred in many stages and characterised by

incoherent government policies (Asiedu, 1997; Teye, 1999). Asiedu (1997)

observes that the first policy for tourism development was the construction of a

100-room hotel in 1956, to provide accommodation for guests invited to the

national independence celebration in 1957. Prior to this only a few family-owned

and small-sized budget hotels were located in the major urban centres of Accra,

Kumasi and Sekondi-Takoradi, close to established infrastructure facilities,

government establishments and economically influential mining and timber

companies. The creation of a Ministry responsible for Parks and Gardens in 1960

and the State Hotels and Tourist Corporation (SHTC) led to the construction and

management of state-owned hotels and catering rest houses across the country.

As a consequence of government policy changes, the Ghana Tourist Corporation

(GTC) and the State Hotels Corporation (SHC) were created to replace the then

SHTC in 1968 and manage the state-owned hotels and catering rest houses.

However, later policy in 1973 replaced GTC with two new establishments: (i) the

Ghana Tourist Control Board (GTCB), assigned the responsibility of tourism

planning, marketing and regulation of standards; and (ii) the Ghana Tourist

Development Corporation (GTDC), given the task to direct investment in tourism

infrastructure facilities such as duty free shops, travel and tour operations.

Further policies led to the establishment of the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) to

replace the GTCB, and regional offices created as a strategy to develop identify

and harness the tourism resources.

The Ministry given responsibility for tourism has previously been attached to

various ministries including Information, Culture, Trade, Modernisation of the

Capital City and currently Diasporan Relations (ROG, 2003; ROG, 1996). The

Ministry has the ‘responsibility for the sustainable development of tourism in the

country’ (ROG, 1996:326), with specific functions such as policy formulation,

legislations and regulations, monitoring and evaluation, capacity building and

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liaison with other government agencies, international tourism agencies, donor

agencies, private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Figure 5.1 shows the relationship between the Ministry, implementing agencies

and identified stakeholders. The importance of coordination between the Ministry

and other stakeholders is reinforced by the multi-dimensional nature of tourism;

the control and management of the natural and cultural tourism resources by

other government agencies and traditional authorities; the private sector’s role as

the engine of growth in the national economy; and the involvement of a number

of donor agencies and NGOs in tourism in the country.

Figure 5.1: The Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations and its stakeholders in Ghana Sources: Adapted from Republic of Ghana (1996:237) and Author’s Field Work

Traditional Authorities

Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies

Ghana Tourist Board

Hotel, Catering and Tourism Training Centre

Ghana Tourist Development Company Limited

Inter-Ministerial Committee

Private Tourism Sector

Donor Agency

Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations

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5.2.2 Evolution of Tourism Planning in Ghana

Attempts to plan and develop tourism in Ghana began with the submission of the

Obuam Committee report in 1972 (Asiedu, 1997; Teye, 1999), which classified

potential resources for tourism as a basis for a five-year development plan (1972-

1977), whose implementation was short-lived. At this time the government issued

a White Paper on Tourism, focussing on identified investment areas and tax

concessions that could be accessed by foreign investors, advantaging them over

Ghanaian investors. The emphasis would seem to have been on securing foreign

direct investment as part of the process of modernisation, rather than to improve

local people’s livelihoods through participatory tourism.

Other significant policy and planning studies have been listed by Teye

(1999:284), which include:

i. a 15-year Plan (1975-1990) supported by the Danish Government’s

financial and technical assistance to Ghana;

ii. a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) assessment of tourism

planning and development and review of human resource requirement for

the tourism sectors;

iii. the identification of requirements for comprehensive tourism development

by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); and

iv. a report on effective resource utilisation for tourism development by the

United States International Executive Service Corps.

Teye argues that, while these studies were funded and carried out by donor

agencies to demonstrate the potential of developing tourism as a viable industry,

successive governments did not implement the recommendations due to a

number of reasons. Firstly, although Ghana has the potential to develop a viable

tourist industry, the policy makers wanted a more comprehensive plan to guide

long-term sustainable development. Secondly, the country lacked the local

technical expertise required to implement the recommendations, caused by a

lack of capacity building of personnel in the ministry and implementing

organisations. Thirdly, the government lacked the financial capital to provide

infrastructural facilities for designated tourism development zones, subsequently

failing to attract private sector investment. Finally, the political will and general

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enthusiasm amongst the populace to develop tourism was low. While efforts by

the government to promote international tourism have been weak, the domestic

tourism market has historically been limited as a large proportion of Ghanaians

are poor and do not have the disposable income to enjoy tourism-related

activities.

The emphasis of tourism policy changed with implementation of the neoliberal

policies of the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) and later the SAP in the

1980s by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime (ROG, 1985;

Asiedu, 1997). Firstly, the Investment Code (PNDC Law 116) that was

promulgated listed tourism as one of the priority sectors for national development

and the generation of foreign exchange earnings to address the shortfalls in the

balance of payment. Secondly, the private sector (foreign investors and

Ghanaians) was recognised as the ‘engine for growth’ and incentives were

offered to invest in the tourism facilities such as hotels and restaurants. Thirdly,

the hotels and catering rest houses, as explained in Section 5.2.1, were

privatised and sold to foreign, Ghanaian and public organisations, which led to

the collapse of the State Hotel Cooperation (SHC).

Although a tourism policy was formulated in 1987 which streamlined the

perceived overlapping functions of public tourism organisations, a further 3-year

Medium-Term Tourism Plan (1993-1995) was prepared by the government for

implementation (MOTT, 1993). The objective of the plan was to ‘provide

guidelines for development of Ghana’s tourism industry over the next three years

with a view to making the industry internationally competitive, maximizing

economic benefits to the country and enhancing our social, cultural, natural and

economic resources’ (ROG, 1996:33). Apart from the creation of a separate

ministry for tourism in 1993, the medium term plan was not implemented, but

replaced in 1996 with the 15-year National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP)

for 1996-2010 (ROG, ibid.).

The NTDP was prepared by the Government of Ghana with financial and

technical assistance from the United Nations World Tourism Organization

(UNWTO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). While the

plan was formulated through wider consultative processes with public and private

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sectors and traditional chiefs in some places (ROG, 1996:6), there was no

indication that the wider groups in the local communities were involved in the

planning process, suggesting the notion of social exclusion discussed in Section

2.4.2.

The NTDP describes the tourism policy goal of Ghana as:

‘To develop tourism as a leading socio- economic sector of Ghana and make the

country as a good quality, internationally competitive tourist destination, within the

framework of maintaining its permanent sustainability’. (Ministry of Tourism, 1996:44)

The goals of the policy framework are outlined as follows:

i. Maximisation of foreign exchange earnings, employment, revenue and

contribution to GDP to help raise the standard of living of Ghanaians in the

urban and rural areas;

ii. Promotion of government-led, private sector-driven and community-based

tourism;

iii. Promotion of international tourism, domestic and regional tourism;

iv. Improvement of human resources through training and skills development;

v. Development of tourism in a manner that helps conserves historical and

cultural resources in a sustainable manner. The cultural aspect of tourism is

reinforced in the National Cultural Policy as follows:

‘To enhance Ghanaian cultural life and develop cultural programmes to

contribute to the nation’s human development and material progress through

heritage preservation, conservation, promotion and the use of traditional and

modern arts and crafts to create wealth and alleviate poverty’ (ROG, 2004:4)

The NTDP has been criticised as being over-ambitious (Teye, 1999; Shaw, 2000)

being conceived within an economic framework whose growth rates, as shown in

Appendix 2, are unlikely to be achieved and cannot be sustained. Shaw (2000)

notes that the NTDP was conceived in the absence of reliable data; negating the

meaningful projections of tourism revenues, arrivals and GDP contributions.

While the NTDP is criticised, its recommendations continue to frame tourism

development priorities in Ghana.

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5.3 Tourism’s Contribution to Poverty Reduction

Tourism’s contribution to poverty reduction in Ghana is analysed quantitatively,

and indirectly being an outcome of meeting macro-economic targets. The

significance of tourism to the national economy is emphasised in the GPRS:

‘tourism currently accounts for almost 4 percent of GDP, and at the current grow

rate of 12 percent, tourism has the potential of becoming Ghana’s main foreign

exchange earner’ (ROG, 2005:38). However, the GPRS fails to identify how

tourism can directly benefit the poor, beyond a reliance on ‘trickle-down’ theory

inherent to neo-liberalism. Subsequently, in attempting to assess tourism’s

contribution to poverty in Ghana it is necessary to review the wider macro-

economic indicators of the success of tourism planning.

(a) International Arrivals, Receipts and GDP

Figure 5.2 shows the actual trends of international tourist arrival and receipts

between 1994 and 2006, as well as projected figures for 2007 (GSS, 2006; GTB,

2007; Bank of Ghana, 2007). The Ghana Tourist Board (2007) notes that

international tourist arrivals increased from the recorded figures of 271,310 in

1994 to 497,129 in 2006 while receipts increased from US$227.60 million to

US$986.80 million during the period, suggesting that the achievement of one

million tourists to generate US$1.5 billion, as in Appendix 2, is highly unlikely.

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

*

ARRIVALS (INTHOUSANDS)

RECEIPTS (INUS$MILLIONS)

Figure 5.2: International tourism arrivals and receipts for Ghana: 1994- 2007 Source: Adapted from Ghana Tourist Board Statistics (2007)

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While international receipts showed consistent growth, that of arrivals illustrated a

decrease between 2005 and 2006 figures due to weak promotion of the Pan

African Historical Festival (Panafest) and Emancipation Day. These events are

held between the months of July and August, every other year and annually

respectively, as international events that attract tourists from Ghana’s generating

markets.

The literature suggests that the upward trends in international tourism receipts

can be attributed to inflationary trends in Ghana which make the Ghanaian

currency cheaper, encouraging tourists to stay longer and spend more on goods

and services in the country.

In terms of market trends, Ghana has a high dependency on international

tourism, as is shown in Figure 5.2 International arrivals have increased from

308,862 in 1996 to nearly One million in 2007. Emphasis is placed on source

markets such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom, with

many international tourists coming to Ghana for a variety of reasons, including

visiting friends and relatives, exploring business opportunities and tracing their

ancestral roots associated with the forts and castles built in Ghana as part of

slavery and colonialism (Van Danzig, 1980; Anquandah, 1999). A key focal point

is Elmina and diasporic tourism is very important to the Ghanaian economy, as is

reflected in the Ministry’s title, i.e. the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan

Relations.

Expressed in standard market segment of international tourist visitation, Figure

5.3 presents a breakdown of the purpose of visits by international tourists in

2005. The largest market segment is visiting friends and relatives (VFR)

accounting for 26 percent, the business component at 22 percent and general

holidays at 19 percent. Other purposes include conferences, studies, medical and

transit.

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Figure 5.3: International arrivals by purpose of visit to Ghana in 2005

Source: Adapted from Ghana Tourist Board (2006)

Statistics on international tourist expenditure by category from 1996 to 2003

revealed that a large proportion of tourists’ spending in Ghana was on

accommodation, accounting for 29.0 percent in 1996 and 31.3 percent in 2003

(GSS, 2006:14). This was followed by spending on entertainment, food and

beverages, shopping and local transportation. It is suggested that expenditure

patterns of tourists are influential in determining the economic impact of tourism.

Several approaches to increase tourist expenditure were recommended in the

15-year NTDP for implementation by the government, including the provision of

more tourist attractions, activities and shopping opportunities to encourage

tourists to stay longer in the country (2006:231). While the sector ministry has

constructed a number of visitor reception facilities, consisting of craft shops and

eating places, at selected tourist sites in 22 local communities, there is no

evidence to indicate that the economic impacts of these establishments is

beneficial for the poor.

(b) Tourism Facilities and Services

Investment in tourist facilities has been analysed as a measure and indicator of

the industry’s contribution toward providing opportunities for employment in

Business 22%

Medicals 1%

Holiday 19%

Transit 11%

Others 5%

Study 7%

Visiting Relatives and Friends

26%

Conference 9%

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Ghana (ROG, 1996; GSS 2006; Akyeampong, 2007). There is evidence

suggesting an overall expansion in a variety of tourist facilities, such as

accommodation, restaurants and traditional caterings establishment (refer to

Appendices 3, 4 and 5). For example, tourism accommodation has expanded in

volume and quality, with the total stock of hotels having increased from 703 in

1996 to 1,405 in 2006, while the number of rooms increased from 10,232 to

19,967 over the same period.

Increasing tourism arrivals and the organisation of conferences and seminars

held outside the national and regional capitals by public and private organisations

have led to a spatial spread of investment in large, medium and small scale

tourism enterprises, particularly guest houses and hotels (GTB, 2007;

Akyeampong, 2007). However, the spatial analysis of accommodation

establishment indicates that its distribution remains highly skewed towards

national and regional capitals, not necessarily because of their tourist and

investment appeal but because of their administrative, commercial and industrial

functions.

However, a significant negative feature of accommodation stock is its low quality,

with the majority of establishments being small-scale units, lacking proper

accreditation and development facilities. Only 30 percent, out of the hotel

accommodation, is in the 2- to 5-star category, accounting for about 10 percent of

total room capacity, reflecting the need to upgrade the hotels to meet

international standards (Akyeampong, 2007). The Ghana Tourist Board’s Annual

Report for 2007 also suggests that improvement is required in the restaurant

facilities as only a limited number of the establishments are of appreciable

standards and licensed, as shown in Appendix 4. The evolving and flourishing

tourist market has led to investment in facilities by Ghanaians and foreign

entrepreneurs, as well as public sector organisations in the hotel market but their

subsequent management by foreign firms suggests a lack of in-country

management capability and propensity for economic leakages.

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(c) Tourism Employment

One of the specific objectives articulated by the government in its 15-year NTDP

was the need to increase level of employment (ROG, 1996). The data in Table

5.1 shows that aggregate tourism employment increased from nearly 65,200 in

1996 to 161,500 in 2004, a real increase of nearly 100,000 jobs over a ten year

period.

While the statistics reveal a significant growth of tourism employment, they reflect

jobs created only by the licensed tourist facilities by the GTB, excluding

unlicensed tourism businesses including the curio sellers, chop bars, craft shops,

and drinking bars. Nor do the statistics indicate the ratio of skilled to unskilled

employment opportunities, permanent and casual employment, gender ratios or

income levels. Given the importance of tourism for creating labour-intensive

employment an in-depth study of tourism development in Elmina may help in

providing a broader understanding of tourism’s role in the creation of employment

opportunities for the poor.

Table 5.1: Employment created by tourism in Ghana: 1996-2004

Source: Adapted from Ghana Tourist Board Data (2005)

Outside the realm of officially collected statistics, the non-governmental Nature

Resource Conservation Centre (NCRC) suggests that 140 direct and nearly 300

indirect jobs were created by its fourteen community-based tourism projects

between 1995 and 2005 (NCRC, 2005). Employment opportunities for local

people include tour guiding, security, receptionists, food vending and the sale of

handicrafts. Local people participated in decision-making and had benefited from

Year Direct (’000s) Indirect (’000s) Total (‘000s) Annual Change

1996 18.8 46.4 65.2 10.5

1997 20.8 51.3 72.1 10.6

1998 22.9 56.6 79.6 10.4

1999 25.4 62.6 87.9 10.4

2000 26.0 64.1 90.1 2.5

2001 29.3 72.5 101.8 13.0

2002 33.1 82.1 115.2 13.2

2003 37.3 90.4 127.7 10.9

2004 46.5 115.0 161.5 26.5

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monetary and non-monetary donations from tourists, acts of philanthropy, that

have led to the construction of a borehole for clean water, a school and a supply

of solar lights.

5.4 Key Challenges Affecting Tourism Development in Ghana

Tourism development in Ghana is facing a number of challenges which threaten

the industry’s continued development and achievement of the growth targets

envisaged in the 15-year NTDP. As Shaw (2000) notes, Ghana is not an

internationally competitive destination because of its high hotel tariffs and air

fares to access it, especially evident in comparison to competing destinations

such as Gambia and Senegal. Although there are several quality hotels, the

majority are in the budget category and charge a high tariff, which does not

encourage tourists to stay and spend money in the local communities.

Ghana is not yet widely known as a tourist destination and international

knowledge of its attractions is minimal (ROG, 1996:137). Although the African-

American market is considered as its main market on the basis of its diasporic

roots, there is no clearly defined marketing strategy to guide efforts to promote

Ghana as a tourism destination. While Ghana is endowed with significant cultural

attractions not much attention or resources have been allocated by the

government for their development and interpretation. This lack of effective

promotion impacts negatively on the tourism industry, characterised by low

occupancy rates for the hotels and restaurants.

The infrastructural framework for tourism investment has also been identified as

being weak and in need of improvement (ROG, 1996:350). While the government

is responsible for the provision of infrastructures, facilities are often not available,

restricting opportunities for investment in tourism facilities. Additionally, the

quality of social amenities such as water and electricity is far from satisfactory; for

example, unreliable and irregular power outage and supplies of water have

become a common hindrance to the operations of hotels (Akyeampong, 2007).

Related to the lack of amenities is poor sanitation which often results from

ineptitude and corruption on the part of public organisations, as well as apathy

and indiscipline amongst residents. While public officials fail to provide drainage

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and waste containers, residents litter and throw household refuse in the streets,

contributing to the waste management problem.

The human resource base in the public and private sectors also needs to be

improved, with studies highlighting a dearth of well-trained and motivated staff

available for employment in tourist facilities (ROG, 1996; Teye, 1999). The

majority of tourism businesses are family-owned and managers do not realise the

importance of good quality staff for customer satisfaction, often employing poorly

trained workers who in turn render poor service for poor remuneration. Even

though the Hotel, Catering and Tourism Training Institute (HOTCATT) has

received government and donor agencies’ technical aid and equipment to provide

training, its institutional capacity is still identified as being weak, and no higher

diploma level hotel and tourism training institute exists. Although private tourism

training institutions and some of the universities are providing courses in tourism,

the fees are beyond the reach of many Ghanaians.

Teye (1999) notes that Ghana’s post-independence period was characterised by

political instability which saw the country being ruled by different military and

civilian governments; hence tourism policy directions have been strongly

influenced by the ideological thrust of the ruling government as discussed in

Sections 5.2.1 and 5.2.2. He argues that political stability is a critical factor for

sustainable development of tourism, as the continuity of policies can help create

confidence among local and foreign investors whose investment capital is

required to support tourism product development in the country. International

tourism requires a sustained commitment to political stability and democratic

governance which has been attained since 1992 in Ghana.

Whilst there appears to be political stability, there exists a lack of adequate

knowledge of tourism by the majority of Ghanaians (ROG, 1996:284). Similarly,

Teye (1999) claims that the majority of the population do not have a clear

understanding of what is involved in tourism policy planning, management and

promotion; with no common acceptable term in local vernaculars existing for a

‘tourist’ or ‘tourism’. There would seem to be a subsequent need for tourism

education to permit people to participate in the development process and create

economic opportunities.

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A further challenge to tourism development is inadequate resourcing by the

government (ROG, 1996; Teye, 1999). As evidenced from the available data,

Figure 5.4, although tourism is recognised as an economic sector, only

GH¢4.04millions of the total national budget was allocated to the Ministry of

Tourism, compared to the listed Agriculture and Energy Ministries which received

GH¢87.10millions and GH¢567.98millions respectively in 2008. It needs to be

explained here that, since July 2007, Ghana’s national currency and symbols

have been changed by the Bank of Ghana from ‘Cedis’ (¢) and ‘Pesewas’ (P) to

‘Ghana Cedis’ (GH¢) and Ghana Pesewas (GP) respectively. As a result

government’s budgetary allocations and transactions of goods and services are

regulated by the Bank of Ghana approved exchange rates.

Economic Sectors' Budget Allocation in 2008 (GH¢ IN MILLIONS)

22.814.04

66.26

87.160.02

567.98

AGRICULTURE

LANDS AND FORESTRY

ENERGY

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

TOURISM AND DIASPORAN RELATIONS

FISHERIES

Figure 5.4: Comparison of budget allocation between the tourism

sector and other economic sectors in 2008 Source: Adapted from Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Budgets Statement (2008)

Thus, limited funding restricts the ability of the Ministry and its implementing

agencies, including GTB and HOTCATT, to effectively undertake planning and

marketing activities. Further, the failure of the government to establish a ‘Tourism

Development Fund’, as proposed in the 15-year NTDP, has limited investment

opportunities making it difficult for both the public and private sectors to develop

and market Ghana as a major tourist destination. For example, the lack of

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opportunity for local entrepreneurs to access credit facilities, explains why the

majority of the hotels are in the budget category and offer poor quality facilities

and services (Asiedu, 1997; Teye, 1999; Akyeampong, 2000).


This chapter has traced the evolution of tourism development, its contribution to

poverty reduction and associated challenges in Ghana. Tourism development in

Ghana is strongly influenced by the thrust of neoliberal policies, premising the

industry’s contribution to poverty reduction through measures of an increase in

international tourism arrivals, foreign exchange earnings, employment and the

stock of tourist facilities. Whilst the trend is for an increase in these indicators,

there is an absence of research and understanding of the effect of these

increases upon the poor. However, the NCRC has reported that their community-

based projects have created livelihood and socio-economic opportunities for the

local people.

While the aim of the government policy is to increase tourism growth to tackle

poverty, its continued development is challenged by: poor infrastructure and poor

product development; untrained personnel and a lack of adequate human

resources; weak government commitment to tourism; inadequate funding of

public and private sector activities; and a lack of available funds for investment in

tourism enterprises.

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Chapter 6

Research Methodology

6.1 Introduction

This chapter presents the methodology used to investigate the role of tourism in

poverty reduction in Elmina. It justifies and explains the research philosophy, data

collection methods and data analysis processes. Issues of research ethics, data

reliability and researcher reflexivity are also discussed and evaluated.

6.2 Philosophy of the Research

The philosophical underpinnings of the research are examined in this section,

framed in the debate of competing paradigms of ‘interpretivism’ vis-à-vis

‘positivism’. The primary reason for utilising the interpretative paradigm is that the

key issue to this investigation is the interpretation of how poor people in Elmina

perceive the use of tourism to enhance their livelihood opportunities and well-

being. Emphasis is therefore placed on locating the researcher in the field,

focusing on interpretative material practices and representations including field

notes, interviews, photographs and recordings, in an attempt to gain access to

local people’s understandings of the tourism and poverty relationship.

6.2.1 Moving beyond Positivism to Interpretivism

This study is central in the interpretive and ‘qualitative research’ paradigm, which

has emerged and gained acceptance in social research, over recent decades

(Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Guba and Lincoln, 1994; Riley and Love, 2000).

Positivism has traditionally dominated the field of social science research,

emphasising that the world is independent and unaffected by the researcher,

making it possible to conduct objective and value-free enquiry to understand

causal relationships. The positivist paradigm subsequently employs methods

largely associated with the natural sciences, such as hypothesis testing,

quantitative methods, with cause-and-effect explanations being held as

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fundamental for investigation of social phenomena (May, 1993; Silverman, 1993;

Bryman, 2004; Phillimore and Goodson, 2004).

When applied to tourism, a positivist paradigm emphasises causal relationships,

in an ontological perspective that favours the uncovering of the ‘universal law’

and ‘truth’ of tourism. Positivists employ deductive and quantitative

methodological approaches to collect data, using a variety of techniques

including questionnaires and mathematical formulae as the basis for achieving

‘objectivity’. However, the positivistic paradigm is criticised by non-positivist

proponents because, while it is a causative approach, it overlooks the ‘meaning’

and priorities people attach to their behaviours (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). As

Guba comments, ‘positivists contend that there is reality out there to be studied,

captured and understood, whereas the post-positivists argue that reality can

never be fully apprehended, only approximated’ (Guba, 1990:22).

The weaknesses identified in methodological research, centred in a positivist

paradigm in tourism, have encouraged researchers to call for the adoption of

post-positivism modes of inquiry (Burrell and Morgan, 1979; Riley and Love,

2000; Jamal and Hollinshead, 2001; Phillimore and Goodson, 2004; Hollinshead,

2006; Hollinshead and Jamal, 2007). Riley and Love (2000) observe that

researchers are questioning positivist research because it cannot fully address

questions of understanding and meaning, nor does it permit the researcher to

produce interpretive and reflective accounts of tourism behaviour and events in

their natural settings.

Similarly, Hollinshead (2006) observes the widening research paradigm options

in tourism studies and the shift towards constructivism and interpretivism

approaches within the human and cultural sciences. Hollinshead notes that

although these approaches may lack the rudiments of conventional positivist

approaches, they are relevant for ‘mapping the kind of contesting and changing

realities of the differing mixed social and mixed cultural settings which are

increasingly encompassed in encounters in tourism and travel’ (Hollinshead,

2006:43). He therefore advocates a requirement for richer and wider options that

allow the researcher to explore and inspect many patterns of ideas in human

inquiry.

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The rationale for employing the interpretivist paradigm is that this study is not

concerned with analysing a ‘cause-and-effect’ relationship associated with

poverty and tourism, but is concerned with the perceptions and meanings that

local people attach to their participation or non-participation in tourism in Elmina.

The post-positivist character of this research is also influenced by its ontological

and epistemological considerations. The different ontological issues within which

understandings of poverty and tourism are located include: interpretations;

participation; empowerment; barriers; and social and economic and cultural

practices. The epistemological position of this research, given the complexity of

the inter-relationship that characterises the tourism-poverty nexus, favours trans-

disciplinary theoretical and conceptual frameworks.

Associated with trans-disciplinary frameworks, is that for the people of Elmina

poverty may have multiple realities, understandings and interpretations. The

emphasis is placed upon ‘multiple realities’ and ‘subjective epistemology’; i.e., the

knower and subject create understandings of the phenomenon. Denzin and

Lincoln (2005:22) go further, stating that all research is interpretive,

encompassing a framework of ontology (what is the nature of reality?),

epistemology (what is the relationship between the enquirer and the known), and

methodology (how do we gain knowledge?).

Jamal and Hollinshead (2001:67) argue that ‘interpretative’ is a broader term, and

explain ‘interpretive research’ as using ‘qualitative methods and tools that focus

on interpreting, i.e., analysing the meaning and constructions of various texts

such as participant narratives, media constructions, socio-historical and political

discourse.’ They argue that there is a departure from ‘static, quantitatively

measurable knowledge towards a focus on understanding and expressing that

aspect of being which is dynamic, experienced and elusive of the positivist

researcher.’ In order to achieve ‘Verstehen’, a Weberian notion of understanding,

the researcher is obliged to enter the dynamic social setting in order to interact

and comprehend the meanings and knowledge as perceived by the respondents

and participants (Jennings, 2001). Subsequently, this research necessitates

fieldwork based on participatory research with stakeholders in Elmina.

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The rationale for using the interpretive research philosophy in this study is re-

inforced by the need to gain an emic (insider) understanding of issues of tourism

and poverty through interaction with the research participants in Elmina; and

secondly, to further knowledge of the interrelatedness of different aspects of

stakeholders’ roles and perceptions of significance of tourism in poverty reduction

in Elmina. Despite the advantage of interpretive research, it is criticised on the

basis that the relationship between the researcher and respondents is subjective

rather than objective (Bryman, 2004). However, the researcher can overcome

this criticism by utilising different methods of qualitative data collection, sources

of data and analyses, helping to ensure the validity of the data (Finn et al., 2000;

Jennings, 2001). This is the approach I have taken, as is discussed in the next

section.

6.3 Qualitative Methodological Approaches

As has been stated, this research is based on people’s experience,

understandings, perceptions and emotions of poverty. This is the kind of

information that Walliman (2006) criticises quantitative methods as being unable

to unlock, as they cannot be reduced to numbers. He argues that words cannot

be manipulated by techniques of statistical analysis and reinforces the need for

the use of qualitative methods in the study of human beings and societies, based

on identifying, understanding and interpreting ideas, meanings and daily

activities.

In the view of Denzin and Lincoln (2005), qualitative research is multi-method in

focus and character, involving the collection of data that describes tacit

knowledge and meanings of an individual in his/her natural setting. For qualitative

research to be interpretative, scientific values such as ‘reflexivity’ and

‘trustworthiness’ need to replace ‘objectivity’, ‘validity’ and ‘generalisability’, which

are features characterising positivism (Tobin and Begley, 2004). The advantages

of qualitative research for this study can be summarised as: (i) the context and

associated interactions of natural surroundings are crucial because they influence

the meanings and understandings of respondents or interviewees being studied;

(ii) the researcher focuses on interactions that allow inductive analysis to be

employed and multiple realities obtained through tacit understanding; and (iii) the

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research design emerges to accommodate realities that cannot be predicted a

priori, because findings or outcomes are negotiated with potential respondents

who interpret their realities in different ways, which may have consequences for

poverty reduction and tourism development policies.

That the meaning of poverty is likely to have multiple realities is emphasised by

the definition and measurement of poverty, development and tourism, all of which

are variable and contestable, as explained in the literature review. These

phenomena include wider dimensions of physiological and social deprivations,

involving human actions and inactions that are influenced by a range of social

and economic factors. The traditional approach of attempting to measure poverty

has subsequent limitations as emphasised by Chambers (1997) and Lister

(2004), who argue that when complex realities of local people are simplified and

reduced to numbers based on the measurement of poverty lines, the multiple

realities and priorities of the poor are not addressed. For example, Chambers’

(1997) research works in Asia reveal that local people’s understandings and

meanings of development problems and solutions invariably tend to be at

variance with the views of ‘experts’ and policy makers.

The selection of qualitative research for this study can be justified by the

complexity of dimensions inherent in the poverty and tourism relationship. The

arguments for the use of qualitative research techniques include:

i. enhancing the understanding of the multiple realities of poverty and tourism

dynamics from stakeholders perspectives;

ii. stressing an emic view, a ‘thick description’, encompassing open-ended

and multiple perspectives, which can be produced from local situations and

natural settings through interpretive, tacit knowledge, exploring the multiple

perspectives and meanings people give to poverty and tourism;

iii. overcoming some of the limitations associated with quantitative methods

which underlie poverty and tourism policies in Ghana;

iv. employing an inductive approach amongst people who experience social

exclusion, attempting to provide an in-depth understanding of the social

setting of research participants by learning about their socio-economic and

material circumstances, their experiences and perspectives; and

v. the gathering of data that is very detailed, information-rich and extensive.

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6.4 Sampling Techniques and Criteria

As explained in Section 1.5, Elmina in Ghana was chosen as the field study area,

a location where tourism is being developed to help tackle poverty. Elmina is not

a homogeneous local community but comprises diverse groups with different

demographic backgrounds based on criteria of occupation, gender and level of

involvement in matters concerning socio-cultural, political and economic issues.

Other stakeholders who are not residents but influence tourism development in

Elmina are tourists, the private sector, donor agencies and government officials.

The sampling techniques chosen in the selection of interviewees amongst the

different stakeholder groups were ‘purposive’ and ‘snowballing’ for both the pilot

sample and fieldwork.

6.4.1 Purposive Technique

The purposive sampling technique was chosen to identify a sample of

interviewees whose knowledge the researcher used to help to determine who or

what issues were the most appropriate for inclusion in the study (Russell-

Bernard, 2000; Walliman, 2006). The sample was based upon interviewees who

have local knowledge and experience in poverty and tourism issues in Elmina.

The technique was utilised to select potential interviewees amongst government

officials, donor agencies, traditional authorities, fishermen and fishmongers

associations and managers of hotels. The purposive sampling was useful in

identifying people who were interested in the study, with some of them giving the

researcher photographs, diaries and documents to illustrates the points raised

during the interviews, emphasising some of the merits associated with qualitative

research (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005; Walliman, 2006). However, purposive

sampling has drawbacks including its being a difficult process that is time-

consuming, sometimes involving a high financial cost as experienced by the

researcher during the field work.

6.4.2 Snowballing Technique

The ‘Snowballing’ technique also has advantages in helping to identify a sample

of local people in Elmina to take part in this study. As a non-probability sampling

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method, it is used in situations where it is difficult to identify potential interviewees

because of the nature of the formal and informal ‘networks’ in the study area.

This technique has been used by social scientists in tourism studies (Bryman,

2004; Bruner, 1996), for example Bruner’s (1996) ethnographic of case study of

Elmina and Cape Coast Castles used snowballing to overcome the difficulty of

identification and access to key interviewees. Similarly, Nyanzi et al.’s (2005)

study of the sexual relationships of Gambian beach boys employed the

snowballing technique to identify immigrants, ‘bumsters’, traders and craft-sellers

and workers willing to participate in the study.

The rationale for using the snowballing technique in this study was to gain access

to people who were not easily identified and/or could not be contacted because

the researcher does not live in the field research area. Therefore, the researcher

initiated contact with people in Elmina to identify stakeholder groups and

interviewees to participate in the study. However, the snowballing technique is

criticised because it is very unlikely that the sample will be representative of the

population, and because it can be a slow and difficult process that relies on

introductions by friends, families and people with interests in the research area

(Bryman, 2004). A combination of snowballing and purposive techniques may

help the researcher to overcome the potential limitations of each (Nyanzi et al.,

2005). However, a snowball technique is useful because it allows the researcher

to develop informal relationships and gain access to the marginalised and socially

excluded people whose interpretations and meanings are highly relevant to

issues on poverty and tourism in Elmina.

6.4.3 Sampling Criteria

Two principal sampling criteria were devised by the researcher to select

interviewees from the stakeholder groups for inclusion in the research sample:

i. the activities of the key stakeholder groups should impinge directly and/or

indirectly on tourism development in Elmina. As discussed in Section 1.5.4,

tourism programmes in Elmina were initiated and funded by the government

and donor agencies, resulting in an increase in tourist arrivals and

establishment of a variety of businesses, e.g. hotels and restaurants. The

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rationale for the specification of stakeholders was that government, donor

agencies, tourists, local people and owners of tourism establishment have an

interest in the growth of tourism in this field study area; and

ii. there were stakeholders such as the ‘Castle Boys’, fishermen and

fishmongers who may have been marginalised or excluded from participation

in the industry. In this context, it was important that their ‘voice’ and views

were taken into account, which could only be achieved through a participatory

process model that was both practical and realistic. As Bishop (2005) notes

meanings are grounded in, and constructed through discourses when the

marginalised are given ‘voices’ in the research process. The meanings are

further negotiated and co-constructed between the research participants

within the cultural framework which presents a ‘thick’ description, collection of

‘rich’ data and multiple realities of the issues being investigated.

6.5 Data Collection Methods

As discussed in Section 6.3, the qualitative approach employs multiple methods

that allow complex and dynamic lived experiences to be understood from the

perspective of those who are affected by poverty and tourism policies. The

variety of qualitative techniques that have been triangulated to collect primary

data in several interpretive research studies include participatory rapid appraisal,

unstructured interviews, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and participant

observation. Research in tourism uses data collection methods such as

unstructured interviews, also termed ‘in-depth’ or ‘conversation’ (Jennings, 2001)

and semi-structured interviews (Bruner, 1996), to understand the views of local

people in tourism communities. Participant observation has also been utilised in

tourism research in communities where tourism has been recently introduced to

the local people (Cole, 2007).

Using interviews in this research has several potential advantages over other

data collection techniques such as questionnaires and surveys, allowing the

researcher to engage the interviewees in interactions to establish a rapport

(Patton, 1990), giving ‘voice’ to the research participants as a pathway to obtain

negotiated meanings (Guba and Lincoln, 2005; Bishop, 2005). During the course

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of the research the interviews also become a process of personal reflection for

the researcher and interviewees alike, as both become aware of their relationship

with socio-economic settings that they did not know, or at least were not aware

of, before the interviews. The appropriateness of the selected data collection

methods to the research objectives are presented in Appendix 6. In the next

section, the data collection methods and rationale for using them are given.

6.5.1 Unstructured Interviewing

The unstructured, or in-depth, interview exemplifies a conversation between the

researcher and the interviewees, without the former dominating the exchange

while eliciting the views of the latter (May, 1997). There is no formal interview

schedule but the research starts with an open-ended question initiated by a

conversation and subsequent probing for ideas about the themes and issues

relevant to the study. The interaction between the interviewer and interviewees is

fluid and, in combination with participant observation, adds to the richness of the

data collected (Jennings, 2001). The conversation can be taped-recorded or

written in field notes and later transcribed.

The rationale for using unstructured interviews was to develop a relationship of

mutual trust between the author and the interviewees, particularly since the

interviews were not pre-planned or limited by time constraints. In addition, the

researcher was wary of engaging with tourists at attraction sites in Ghana who

might not want to be distracted from the purpose of their visit. However, the

unstructured interview is criticised for being difficult to extrapolate to a wider

population, time-consuming and requiring that the researcher listen attentively to

the interviewees in order to minimise bias. The justification for using the

unstructured interview is reinforced by the several additional advantages

embedded in the technique as presented in Appendix 7, which also highlights its

weaknesses and solutions to overcome them.

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6.5.2 Semi-Structured Interviewing

A semi-structured interview is a hybrid of the structured and unstructured

interviews that allows the researcher to ask a list of open-ended questions

without following a particular sequence (May, 1997; Jordan and Gibson, 2004).

Further, semi-structured interviews are flexible and the interaction between the

researcher and the interviewees is often fluid in nature. Nonetheless, semi-

structured interviews are criticised because they often produce different results

that reduce the comparability of data. However, a combination of the technique

with a focus group can enable the researcher to mitigate the potential

weaknesses.

As Jennings (2001) observes, semi-structured interviews are employed in

quantitative research, but are generally used in qualitative studies permitting

multiple realities to be determined as the interview process does not constrain the

interviewer to follow a particular process of interviewing. The rationale for using

this method was to obtain ‘rich’ data and generate ‘thick’ descriptions of

meanings and understandings from different stakeholders’ perspectives. Thus,

the different stakeholders could be given a voice and their perspectives possibly

identified from the interactive interviewing process. This aspect was significant in

this study, because many of the interviewees were illiterate and innumerate, thus

making the interview a sensitive and complex process as the researcher had to

pose questions and explain them in the local dialect. The justification for using

semi-structured interviews was reinforced by its several strengths, while the ways

in which its weaknesses and solutions were overcome are presented in Appendix

8.

6.5.3 Focus Groups

Focus groups generate discussion amongst participants, particularly those from

different demographic backgrounds, who may have diverse interests and roles

concerning the phenomenon being studied (Patton, 1990). The use of focus

groups is recognised in qualitative tourism research and participatory approaches

as a way of understanding views, attitudes and opinions. They promote

knowledge-sharing, cross-checking, and a reversal of roles whereby the

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participants rather than the researcher lead the process of discussion.

Significantly for this research, focus groups can be used when the researcher

expects that the interaction between participants will give voice to the

marginalised or excluded, enriching the data collected. The researcher can obtain

data based on diverse lived experiences and tacit knowledge of interviewees

through the process of group questioning, clarification and discussion.

The typical size of focus groups is usually between six and eight (Patton,

1990:335) or between six and ten people (Bryman, 2001:349). A danger of larger

focus groups is that some participants become passive and marginalised

because a few influential stakeholders tend to be vocal and dominate the

interactions.

The rationale for using focus groups in this research was to discuss themes

emerging from the unstructured and semi-structured interviews and to give a

voice to local groups who appeared marginalised and excluded in the research

field. This allowed the researcher to collect data from both formalised groups and

a cross-section of groups through dialogues, e.g. fishmongers and the Castle

Boys (unemployed). The justifications for using focus groups in this research

were buttressed by the identified strengths and solutions to overcome any

weaknesses as presented in Appendix 9.

6.5.4 Participant Observation

Participant observation was employed in this study to enable the researcher to

become immersed in the social setting, systematically noting and recording the

behaviour of participants in their local surroundings. Participant observation is

described and categorised in a variety of ways by social scientists, with Jennings

(2001:169) identifying several types of participant observation employed by social

scientists in qualitative inquiry, including being a ‘complete observer’, the

‘observer as participant’, the ‘participant as observer’ and the ‘complete

participant’. Gan (1982 cited in Jennings, 2001:169-170) distinguishes three

roles: the total researcher, the researcher participant; and total participant.

However, Spradley (1980:60) identifies four main types of participant observation:

(i) passive participant (where the fieldworker is present at the scene or event but

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does not participate or interact with other people to any great extent); (ii)

moderate participant (the fieldworker maintains a balance between being an

insider and outsider); (iii) active participant (the fieldworker is partially immersed

in the situation; (iv) complete participant (the fieldworker is immersed in the

events). However, it is difficult to state categorically that during the fieldwork the

researcher will be ‘one’ or the ‘other’ as the roles are not static and pre-

determined in qualitative inquiry, but are prone to fluidity and determined by the

social setting of the research.

Spradley (1980) views the significance of participant observation as enabling the

researcher to describe events and objects in a factual and accurate manner,

unlike other qualitative techniques such as unstructured and semi-structured

interviews. However, participant observation is difficult and complex because the

researcher has to select between using ‘overt’ or ‘covert’ ways to record

information. It was therefore important to consider the purpose of the study and

the need to deepen understanding of meanings given by the interviewees, as

well as to compare data collected based on other techniques.

The rationale for using participant observation in this research was to gain direct

access to events as they occurred in their social setting. Hence, this study used

participant observation to complement the interviews and focus groups

techniques. Through observation the researcher clearly gained an insight into the

meaning and understanding of interactions between local people and tourists and

also described some of the problems and conflicts. Furthermore, participant

observation was an integral part of the pilot phase of the fieldwork in order to

minimise potential biases. For example, it included frequent visits to the local

community, verification of information, undertaking guided tours to the castles as

a tourist, patronising local chop bars (local eating places) and drinking bars to

familiarise himself with the local setting. Thus the aim of seeking clarification and

cross-checking data was to reflect on actual and factual information and not what

the researcher perceived to have happened. The justification for using participant

observation was reinforced by its several strengths, while solutions to overcome

the identified weaknesses are presented in Appendix 10.

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6.6 Participatory Rural Appraisal

As discussed in Sections 2.4.3 and 2.7, participatory development approaches

are significant ways of identifying how local people define and measure poverty

(Chamber, 1997) and sustainable livelihoods (Krantz, 2001). Two participatory

approaches used by qualitative researchers are Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) and

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). The Rapid Rural Appraisals approach is

associated with the positivist paradigm and emphasises extractive and deductive

methods of data collection in a rapid manner, being characterised by fewer

interactions between the researchers and respondents.

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is employed in this study because it

emphasises the interpretive philosophical approach. While PRA encompasses

many of the methods used in this study, unstructured, semi-structured, focus

groups and participant observation, it is recognised as a specific method because

of the priority it gives to participatory (socially inclusive) data collection. While it

promotes face-to-face interactions it enhances the sharing of information and

empowerment of the local people involved in the study. Although the data

collected for this thesis was not done in a way that was particularly rapid, in order

to allow long-term participation within the study groups, it fits into the generally

accepted recognition of PRA in several ways. What is of importance is the

accepted recognition of PRA as a holistic, socially inclusive and interactive tool

which reverses the role and power of the researcher while giving voice to the

poor. The context was relevant to the study because a wide range of ‘rich’ data

was required, thus involving lengthy interaction with the participants and sharing

of knowledge. The PRA tools employed in the study included the use of oral

history, photos, diaries and stories as exemplified in the data collection processes

during the pilot study and main fieldwork.

6.7 Secondary Data

Secondary data, as Denscombe (1998) suggests, has a high rate of accessibility

and information can be usually obtained without much delay, typically subject to

limited authorisation procedures. In this study, secondary data was obtained from

a variety of sources including academic books; journals articles; newspapers;

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government publications (e.g. development plans and policies); unpublished

papers; photographs; maps; and official correspondence. The sources proved

useful for establishing the climate that existed in the tourism industry and the

wider economy during the period of this study. For example, general information

on poverty and tourism trends was extracted from official documents and

websites for comparisons and updates of data. The National Tourism Plan (1996-

2010) of the then Ministry of Tourism, publications of the Ghana Tourism Board

and Ghana Statistical Service were useful sources of information on poverty and

tourism in Ghana.

6.8 Principles of Data Collection

Bricoleurship and triangulation are two central principles underlying the data

collection in this research study. Both bricoleurship and triangulation are

qualitative research approaches embedded in the interpretive paradigm (Denzin

and Lincoln, 2005). The principles and rationales for using bricoleurship and

triangulation are discussed in the following sections.

6.8.1 Bricoleurship

Bricoleur, as Kincheloe (2001:680) notes, is a French word that describes a

‘handyman or handywoman who makes uses of the tools available to complete a

task’. In the context of interpretive methodological inquiry, the term bricoleur

describes a qualitative researcher using multiple methods and perspectives to

collect and analyse data. Thus, bricoleurs recognise the limitations of single

methods when investigating dynamic and complex phenomena, but their aim is to

seek a rigour that alerts them to in-depth understanding and meanings from the

perspectives of the respondents.

The rationale for integrating principles of bricoleurship in this research is to avoid

one-sided reductionism, by using the interpretive paradigm to learn a variety of

ways of seeing and interpreting in the pursuit of knowledge (Hollinshead, 1996;

Kincheloe, 2005). The principle of being a bricoleur integrates with the multiple

methods and interpretive philosophical paradigm employed in this research

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inquiry. Hence, the bricoleur emphasis on rigour connects with poverty and

tourism which are multi-dimensional in nature and may be better analysed from

multi-perspectives. As Hollinshead (1996:73) suggests, ‘let tourism/travel

research of all kinds locate the multiple and subjugated voices of the world.’ As a

bricoleur, this researcher will produce a bricolage, triangulating methods and

using empirical materials at hand to piece together a set of representations that

are fitted to the specifics of a complex situation. The identified strengths and

solutions proposed by the researcher in response to the identified weakness are

listed in Appendix 11.

6.8.2 Triangulation In this research, methodological triangulation is utilised as opposed to the

process of ‘crystallisation’. Although social scientists argue that crystallisation

concentrates on quality and depth of multiple themes and perspectives, it is also

recognised as being more cumbersome and time-consuming approach

(Richardson, 2000). Additionally, as a workable technique, the concept of

crystallisation has not been widely used in qualitative research, neither have

examples of its operation and integration in tourism studies been extensively

published.

Triangulation has become an important encompassing methodological practice in

qualitative research to help evaluate, minimise bias and improve the quality of

data and social research (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). Triangulation helps to

ensure data reliability and is one means of acquiring a wider acceptability of

research results. Denzin (1987 cited in Jennings, 2001:151), identifies four types

of triangulation: data triangulation; investigator triangulation; theory triangulation

and methodological triangulation. In this study, data triangulation was employed

to enable the researcher to draw on several sources of data, i.e. the use of

journals, library books and annual reports. Theory triangulation also entailed the

use of several theories, concepts, and perspectives from the tourism and poverty

literature to analyse data; for example, tourism and poverty concepts. Method

triangulation, as used in the study, involved using multiple methods to collected

data on poverty and tourism; for example, unstructured interviews, semi-

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structured interviews, participant observation, focus groups and participant rural

appraisal.

Whilst the use of triangulation in tourism research has led to wider acceptance of

research findings by both academics and policy makers (Decrop, 1999), it is also

criticised because of the combination of different methods, which can be

cumbersome to use, and because the findings can be inconsistent. Nevertheless,

Denzin (1987 cited in Jennings, 2001:151) notes that triangulation is utilised

because there is no single method that adequately ensures data reliability, hence

there is a need to employ multiple methods.

Subsequently, triangulation was employed in this research in order to provide an

in-depth understanding of tourism’s role in tackling poverty from different

perspectives, attempting to reflect multiple and diverse realities. By utilising

triangulation, the researcher was able to combine several methods to collect data

from different sources as described in Chapter 7. Triangulation allowed the

researcher to cross-check research findings in order to ensure consistency, whilst

a single method would not have reflected the actual presentation of issues in this

study. The use of triangulation of methods provided flexibility in data collection

from different interviewees’ perspectives and aids the securing of ‘rich’ data and

trustworthiness of the research findings.

6.9 Ethical Considerations

Ethical considerations are considered crucial in the conduct of social research

(Gaglio et al., 2006; Giordano et al., 2007) and researchers have become

increasingly mindful of ethical considerations in tourism studies (Nyanzi et al.,

2008). Typical ethical issues in tourism studies and social science research

include, as Bryman (2004) suggests, the requirement for researchers to seek the

consent of the respondents and to ensure that their studies do not have any

harmful effects. In addition, the privacy and anonymity of the respondents should

be respected and they should not be deceived about the rationale for the study.

Alongside the generic ethical considerations of social science research, there is

also a requirement to consider the cultural practices, values and beliefs of the

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people in Elmina, as well as Ghanaian ethical conduct in respect to traditional

customs, religion and political sensitivities. Extra significance is lent to ethical

consideration in this study because of the effects of ‘poverty’ upon the lives of

interviewees and their understandings of the phenomenon. Given the ethical

considerations of culture and the poverty issue, the author also a Ghanaian,

made constant efforts to ensure the sensitivity and adhere to the traditional

values of all the respondents from whatever background. In all cases, the

confidentiality of information and autonomy of respondents was ensured, whilst

the need to establish a rapport and a reciprocal relationship with the respondents

was effected.

In respecting cultural traditions, the researcher established a rapport with leaders

and their community members in general. Respondents were given the choice to

participate and to withdraw at any time from the research without explaining their

reasons. Some of those approached refused to participate in the study. A token

of appreciation for the effort of participation is a cultural practice in the study area,

and money and refreshments were given by the researcher in an effort to

encourage participation and to thank participants for their contribution. Attention

was given to the appropriateness of these tokens during the pilot and main

fieldwork, given the sensitivity of traditional values, and with the aim of avoiding

any misconstruing of them as some kind of bribe.

6.10 Matters of Reliability, Validity and Trustworthiness

The notions of ‘reliability’, ‘validity’ and ‘trustworthiness’ of data are important

issues in social science research because of the different philosophical and

methodological approaches that may be adopted to investigate human activity

(Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Decorp, 1999). Saukko (2005) stresses the significance

of validity and reliability in culturally related studies, since the issues tend to be

interwoven in philosophical discourses that mediate human experiences and

realities within historical, social and political structures of power. This is relevant

in the context of Elmina where the inter-play of political and traditional systems

influence the daily lives of the people, as described in Section 1.5.2.

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Validity relates to whether the research study accurately explains what it aims to

achieve and the appropriateness of the methods to the research question.

Validity also concerns how the data is interpreted in terms of its ‘objectivity’ or

‘subjectivity’; that is, the researcher should demonstrate that the results are not

his/her own invention. Although the notion of validity is rooted in the positivist

paradigm, and some researchers argue that validity is not applicable to a

qualitative approach, for issues of acceptance of the results to a wider audience

there is a requirement to be able to demonstrate their validity.

Closely associated to validity is the notion of ‘trustworthiness’, which in the view

of Decrop (1999:5) a: ‘tourist researcher must not only be conscious of the

criteria which make a qualitative study trustworthy, but s/he has to implement

them.’ Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest four basic criteria of trustworthiness that

parallel the traditional positivistic paradigm for authenticating the validity and

reliability of research findings. The four criteria can be explained in the following

ways: (i) ‘Credibility’ relates to the truthfulness of the findings based upon

prolonged engagement, persistent observation, peer debriefing and triangulation;

(ii) ‘Transferability’ explains the extent to which the findings can be applicable to

another setting based on the ‘thick’ descriptions of human activity being studied;

(iii) ‘Dependability’ focuses on whether the findings are applicable and

reproducible; and (iv) Confirmability addresses the findings of the research with

regard to their support from the data.

The way trustworthiness is established in this research, in the context of Lincoln’s

and Guba’s (1985) typology is outlined in Table 6.1. Lincoln’s and Guba’s (1985)

typology of trustworthiness is relevant to issues of poverty and tourism research

because of the need to produce ‘thick’ descriptions that reflect multiple realities.

This view is further strengthened by Jamal and Hollinshead’s (2001:74)

observation that ‘much of the current preoccupation in tourism is with the culture

of consumption (of facilities, service and experiences) rather than its production’.

Jamal and Hollinshead therefore suggest the need for researchers to take into

account both locality and local knowledge as significant considerations in

interpretive research inquiry.

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Table 6.1: Ensuring trustworthiness in this research study Criteria for trustworthiness

Techniques for enhancing trustworthiness

Enhancing trustworthiness in this study

Credibility Triangulation The findings are based on triangulation of data,

methods and theories to cross-check data and

subsequent analysis.

Transferability Thick description The generation of ‘rich’ description to be conducted

by demonstrating the bricoleurship to data collection

and its thematic analysis.

Dependability Auditing The audit approach entails keeping complete records

of all phases of the research process e.g. problem

formulation, selection of participants, field notes,

dates, time of interviews, transcribing and data

analysis. Peers of the researcher will act as auditors.

Confirmability Audit approach Consists of handwritten field notes, recorded

interviews and transcribed data.

The reflexive

journal

The reflexive journal emphasising methodological

and personal logs to observe confirmability.

Source: Adapted from Lincoln and Guba (1985)

6.11 Researcher Reflexivity and Access

Whilst reflexivity is significant to qualitative research, it has no unanimous

definition (Freshwater, 2001; Denzin and Lincoln, 2005; Davies, et al., 2004), but

can be understood as a process in which a researcher engages in a process of

self-analysis and self-disclosure concerning how inter-subjective elements and

him/herself ‘impact on data collection and analysis in an effort to enhance the

trustworthiness, transparency and accountability’ (Finlay, 2002:211) of the

research. This includes awareness of the wider complex and dynamic relations of

society that may consciously and/or unconsciously influence the research. It also

reflects an awareness of the researcher’s role in knowledge construction, both

‘formalised’ as in laws and institutions, and ‘informalised’ as in socio-cultural

values and traditions which underscore the researched experiences. Thus,

researchers need to declare their values, positions and interest in the research

since they are central figures who can influence both implicitly and explicitly the

collection, selection and interpretation of data. This is because meanings tend to

be negotiated within socio-cultural contexts, making the research result a joint

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product of the researcher and the researched, through their interactive

relationship.

Flood (1999) states that ‘without some degree of reflexivity, any research is blind

and without purpose’ (cited in Finlay, 2002:209), thus it is argued personal

reflexivity is an important process that allows the researcher to reflect on how

his/her personal interest and values affect the research. This needs to be

carefully documented, limitations highlighted and diverse perspectives outlined,

to enable other researchers assess the quality of the research. As a result, the

research process is made transparent and the personal experience brought into

the public space and discourse for scrutiny and verifiability of the knowledge

(Finlay, 2002). Finlay (ibid.) observes that a particular strength of the researcher’s

reflexivity account is the recognition of multiple, shifting researcher-participant

positions in the social setting, which offers the opportunity to utilise experiential

accounts within a theoretical framework about the social construction of power.

Undertaking fieldwork in any circumstance is prone to a wide range of problems

and bias, on the part of both the researcher and people being studied. These

include: language; socio-cultural norms; political and power balances; access and

entry into the selected study group in ways that may influence the data collected,

issues of being ‘emic’ and ‘etic’. Further, the researcher’s identity as a

government official often raised additional issues and questions of independence,

trust and usage of the results. The need to provide a wholly reflective account

was problematic as the researcher influenced, and was also influenced by the

respondents, subsequently having to negotiate endless self-analysis and self-

disclosure. The challenge was for the researcher to find a way of overcoming

these constraints as part of the process of ensuring the integrity and affirming the

validity of the research.

The researcher is a stakeholder in Ghana’s tourism industry. He was born in

Ghana, and educated both there and in Europe. For two decades, the researcher

worked in various senior management positions with a wide range of

responsibilities in tourism policy planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation,

as well as travelling extensively within the country and abroad on missions

related to tourism development. The researcher’s interest in exploring the nexus

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between tourism and poverty stems from the Government’s Poverty Reduction

Strategy (ROG, 2002) and Tourism Development Plans (ROG, 1996), which seek

to use tourism as a vehicle for poverty reduction in local communities that are

endowed with tourism resource potential. The involvement of donor agencies and

funding of two major tourism programmes in Elmina heightened the researcher’s

interest in investigating more closely the relationship between tourism and

poverty reduction.

The researcher has the advantage of understanding the dual administrative

systems, i.e., government versus traditional systems, and detailed knowledge of

the study area. He works in the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations in

Ghana and has professional relationships with government officials and private

sector practitioners. Therefore, he utilised these contacts to gain access to

respondents who provided relevant information pertaining to the research. Having

these contacts was advantageous; however, they also raise fundamental

methodological questions about the researcher’s own possible biases and values

which could subjectively impact on this study.

Local people in Elmina have their beliefs, values and institution of chieftaincy

which are integral to their way of life. The traditional authority is the custodian of

this community including the land and its people. Anthropologically, it would be

improper to research in the chief’s town without a proper and customary ‘greeting’

by presenting ‘drinks’ and being introduced. The offering of drinks is not about

influencing information that may be provided to the researcher, but a way of

showing respect and honour to the traditional ‘owner’ of the local community.

Thus, being a government official gave the research a bias which could affect the

study in a way that may have been different for an ‘ordinary’ non-initiated

researcher. Unexpected were the reactions of some informants, whom knowing

the identity of the researcher led them to feel that their personal and community

problems could be addressed immediately and/or passed onto the government.

In order to mitigate biases the researcher was careful and did not knowingly

interfere in any way with the economic, social and political norms and networks

that existed in the study area. This was particularly important, as the different

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stakeholders who participated in the study had diverse interests and roles which

impact upon poverty and tourism development.


This chapter has discussed the methodology used in this research to investigate

the role of tourism in poverty reduction in Elmina, justifying the philosophical

underpinnings for the data collection methods and analysis procedures. Issues of

research ethics, data reliability and researcher reflexivity have also been

discussed and evaluated. This study is therefore located in the interpretive

paradigm, an approach that attempts to produce interpretively ‘rich’ data and

‘thick’ descriptions of stakeholders’ experiences, understandings and meanings.

However, it is important to use qualitative methodologies with caution as the

researcher and respondents constantly interact with a complex socio-economic

and political research environment that potentially influences their decision both

formally and informally. Subsequently, the researcher has utilised bricoleurship

and triangulation as guiding concepts in an attempt to ensure the research

findings achieve trustworthiness, whilst focusing on the quality and richness of

the thematic data analysis and descriptions, not on the quantity of data which can

be collected and analysed.

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Chapter 7

Conduct of Fieldwork and Data Analysis

7.1 Introduction

This chapter describes and explains the fieldwork and data processes. It

highlights the sampling process, profile of respondents, development of data

collection, analysis of findings and reflections on the fieldwork.

7.2 The Pilot Study

Section 1.5 provided an outline for the rationale for the choice of Elmina and

Ghana. The researcher undertook a pilot study in order to identify potential

respondents to participate in the main study, to evaluate various potential sites

and to assess the logistical constraints that could impact upon the main fieldwork.

A pilot study was conducted over a period of one month, between 10th July 2007

and 10th of August 2007 in Elmina, Cape Coast and Accra. The pilot study

comprised of eight respondents including a fishmonger, a worker in a salt

company, a tour operator, a government representative, a “Castle Boy”, two

handicraft sellers and a tourist. The researcher used unstructured interviews,

semi- structured interviews and participant observation techniques for the pilot

study, with each interview lasting between 20 minutes and one hour.

The pilot study was important in many ways as it helped the researcher to make

initial contacts with government officials and acquire the necessary verbal, but

official permissions to speak to potential respondents. This was necessary as

government officials do not easily provide information to researchers because of

their ‘oath of secrecy’. They also need to seek permission from superior officers

before they are allowed to divulge information.

The pilot study was used as a means of negotiating access and gaining trust with

local people in Elmina, and to enable the researcher to begin to integrate into the

lives of the future respondents. Although the researcher is a Ghanaian, it was

obvious that local people in Elmina viewed him as an outsider, due to the social,

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economic and ethnic differences between themselves and the researcher. This

was emphasised by the inability of the researcher to communicate fluently in the

local Fanti language. Another reason for conducting the pilot study was to seek

permission from key people who wield traditional and political influence in the

local community; e.g. the Chief of Elmina and the Municipal Chief Executive.

The pilot study helped the researcher to identify potential respondents willing to

participate in the study and to secure research contacts. Identifying useful and

committed respondents was initially difficult during the pilot study, as poverty is a

sensitive topic that penetrates deep into people’s private lives, issues which they

did not want to discuss openly. It helped the researcher to assess how

respondents understood questions, to detect ambiguities in questions, identify

acceptable norms, familiarise himself with social environments and estimate the

duration of the interviews.

The researcher reviewed the interview guide (Appendix 12) and the list of

stakeholders (Appendix 13) to ensure that the research issues and objectives

were properly covered. This was the first time the researcher was using some of

the research methods, hence he had to review the identified weaknesses,

including having to reframe some of the question guides and explaining terms

such as ‘tourism’ and ‘tourist’, which are not familiar terms to people. The results

from the interviews and observations from the pilot study were used to determine

the actual sample, location of potential respondents, as well as identifying key

stakeholders to include in the main field work.

7.2.1 The Sample and Sampling criteria

As part of the process of identifying suitable respondents, initial visits were made

to the identified government bodies to discuss with the officials issues concerning

the formulation and implementation of national and local tourism policies and

plans. Based on the information obtained from the government bodies, the

researcher visited the study area and spoke to various groups, whose responses

were very positive. The trust and relationships the researcher built with the

government officials and local people helped him to overcome the difficulty of

identifying more people to include in the sample.

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(a) The Sample

A combination of purposive and snowball techniques were found suitable in the

choosing of the sample. This involved a careful and time-consuming procedure,

since telephone contact in Ghana is often not successful, as the cultural norm is

a preference for face-to-face interaction. The first informants were then asked to

introduce the researcher to other potential respondents, which improved the

identification of potential stakeholders and respondents.

(b) Profile of the Pilot Study Sample

The eight respondents, out of the initial ten, who agreed to take part in the pilot

study and their full demographic details, are presented in Appendix 13 (marked

with asterisks). Pseudonyms have been used for reasons of research ethics to

protect the anonymity of the research respondents. The age composition was as

follows: 20 years old to 22 years old (two interviewees), 42 years old to 50 years

old (four interviewees) and 62 years old to 67 years old (two interviewees). The

academic background was ‘no formal’ education (two); secondary/technical

education (two); and tertiary education (four).

7.2.2 Pilot Study: Data Collection The data from the pilot study was collected using a bricoleur approach and

triangulation of methods involving unstructured interviews, semi-structured

interviews and participant observation. The focus group technique did not work at

the pilot study stage because of the long time involved in selecting and inviting

participants who eventually declined to participate in the discussions, due to

several reasons including work and travel demands.

(a) Pilot study: Unstructured Interviews The in-depth unstructured interviews took place with four interviewees comprising

a tourist, a fishmonger, a Castle Boy and a worker of a salt company. The total

time spent with each interviewee varied from twenty to sixty minutes

approximately. Due to the informal nature of unstructured interviews no

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appointments were made, therefore interaction was dependent upon

interviewees’ willingness to talk.

The researcher engaged the interviewees in conversation with one question from

a choice of questions (Appendix 12) and followed that with probing questions

while recording information in the notebook with their permission. The interviews

with the tourist and the Castle Boy were carried out in English, but the ones with

the worker and the fishmonger were conducted in the local Fanti language

because they have no schooling and could not communicate in the English

language. The unstructured interviews were significant for two reasons: (i) it was

possible to engage in informal discussion in a non-obtrusive and relaxed social

environment where the interviewees could move around and perform their

activities; and (ii) they allowed the researcher to interact with interviewees and to

probe for detailed information that became relevant in the main study, e.g. names

of respondents and themes for more investigations.

However, there were weaknesses associated with the technique; for example, it

was difficult to re-call the actual content of the conversation during transcription.

As a result, the researcher decided to conduct semi-structured interviews and

focus groups in order to cross-check the data obtained from the interviewees.

However, the unstructured interview was used for tourists during the main field

study as they did not have the time for the longer interaction demanded by semi-

structured interviews and focus group techniques.

(b) Pilot study: Semi-Structured Interviews The in-depth semi-structured interviews took place with four interviewees: a high

ranking government representative at the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan

Relations; a tour operator who organises all-inclusive package tours to the study

area in their offices in Accra (not in the study area); and two handicraft sellers

who did not live in the study area but brought curios and souvenirs to sell to

tourists at the launching of the ‘Joseph project’. This was part of the Pan African

Historical Festival and Emancipation celebrations, described in Sections 1.4.4

and 5.3 (a), which took place in Elmina on 1st August 2007, during the field work

period.

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The interviews were in-depth to allow both specific questions to be answered,

whilst allowing ample time for discussions to take place. They were conducted in

English and varied in duration between 45 minutes and 90 minutes, depending

on the number of questions being asked and the interviewee’s willingness to

discuss the issues. The semi-structured interviews were tape-recorded and

detailed notes taken as the interviewees gave the researcher the permission to

do so, but insisted that their ‘voices’ should not be brought into the public domain.

The importance of confidentiality and privacy of the interviewees were therefore

respected throughout, while rapport and trust were built between the researcher

and the interviewees. The responses were later transcribed and analysed to

guide the conduct of the main interviews.

The semi-structured interviews were important because the interviewees

responded to most of the questions, and when questions could not be answered

they directed the researcher to potential respondents from whom further

information could be obtained. In the cases of the government representative and

tour operator the interviews were disrupted by telephone calls, whilst disruption to

the interviews with the handicraft sellers was caused by tourists who wanted to

buy souvenirs. The disruptions were significant lessons for the researcher as

interviews during the main study were held during periods the interviewees were

not busy and least interrupted.

(c) Participant Observation: During Pilot and Main Fieldwork Participant observation was a core method used during the study, which Spradley

(1980:39-40) states serve the purpose of:

In doing participant observation you will locate yourself in some place; you will watch

actors of one sort or another and become involved with them; you will observe and

participate in activities. These primary elements do not exhaust the social and cultural

meaning of social situations, but they do serve as a springboard into understanding

them.

During the fieldwork, the degree of the researcher’s involvement, both with the

respondents and in the activities being observed ranged from non-participation

and passive participation to moderate and complete participation as described in

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Section 6.4. During interviews with tourists it was difficult not to become a

complete participant and to have a conducted tour of the castle with a group of

tourists and cultural events. While this was difficult at times, to minimise any

potential bias that may have come about from overly open behaviour, the

researcher did not ‘befriend’ any informant or traditional or government

representative.

Participant observation was used throughout the fieldwork, both in the pilot and

main study stages for three main reasons. Firstly, it was important for being able

to contextualise the wider social and economic environment in which the

interviewees’ statements concerning poverty and tourism were made. Secondly,

the observations were then applied to responses given during the interviews to

cross-check and to ascertain legitimacy. For example, respondents’ answers

concerning poverty could be easily connected to factors such as the businesses

they were involved in, including fishing and hawking by local people, as well as

buying of goods by tourists. Finally, the use of participant observation allowed the

activities of various groups to be observed without compromising the research,

for example by being seen to be aligning with a particular group or individual,

which was important because of chieftaincy and political differences and conflicts.

7.2.3. Changes for the Conduct of the Main Study

Following reflection upon the effectiveness of the pilot study, changes for the

main study concerning stakeholder groups and respondents; methods for

collection of the data; time and durations for interviews were decided upon. For

example, the sample in the pilot study comprised of eight, subsequently this

limited the analysis of the relationship between tourism and poverty which affect

the wider population, and other stakeholders including representatives of donor

agencies, fishermen, hotels and chop bars owners. In the main study, the sample

was extended to eighty-two, making the total number of people interviewed

ninety, as shown in Appendix 13.

The focus group method was added to the data collection processes for three

reasons: (i) owing to the large number of respondents, as well as fishmongers

and castle boy, who insisted on presenting their views to the researcher as a

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group with a common ‘voice’; (ii) unstructured interviews and semi-structured

methods were not convenient methods to interview groups with common interests

because they are time-consuming; and (iii) while allowing researcher and

participants to share knowledge, it allowed the information to be cross-checked

and affirmed by participants themselves, explained in Sections 6.5.3 and 7.3.2

(c).

7.3 Conduct of the Main Study

The main study was conducted over a period of five months between September

2007 and January 2008. The respondents were not only located in Elmina, but

also in Accra and the Cape Coast. Considering the changes that were made to

the pilot study, the main study was extended to include more stakeholder groups,

making a total of eighty-two respondents interviewed by the end of the main

study, already explained in Section 7.2.3. The researcher was more familiar with

the study area and had access to respondents because of the experience and

interactions gained from the pilot study.

7.3.1 The Sampling Procedure and Profile

The primary concerns of the main study were to include all the key stakeholders

already involved in tourism and ‘others’ who have been marginalised or excluded

from participation in it. The researcher used the data from the pilot study to

identify the key stakeholders whose activities directly and indirectly impact on the

development of tourism. These were: (i) all government bodies and donor

agencies that provided funding for the rehabilitation and management of the fort

and castle and the provision of infrastructure (e.g. education and sanitation); (ii)

businesses registered and licensed by the Ghana Tourist Board as belonging to

the tourism sector, e.g. hotels, restaurants, drinking bars, chop bars and tour

operators; (iii) stakeholders and businesses in the study area whose activities

impact on tourism, including fishermen and fishmongers, members of the Asafo

Companies; Castle Boys, hawkers, petty traders, salt workers and the Traditional

Council; (iv) individuals who were involved in the implementation of the tourism

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projects, e.g. the Cultural Heritage and Local Development in Elmina Programme

(CHLDEP), explained in Section 1.5.4; and (vi) tourists.

Personal contacts were made with members of the identified stakeholder groups

and the rationale for the study was explained to them. The names of those who

willingly agreed to participate in the study were taken and dates and time

arranged. The researcher wrote letters (Appendix 14), together with an

introduction letter given by the University of Bedfordshire and signed by his

supervisor. These were sent out to invite participants to the four separate focus

group meetings scheduled for the fishmongers, mixed women group, Castle Boys

and men’s group. This was followed by further visits and telephone calls to

confirm, or reschedule, the interview dates and times for the respondents who

decided to participate in the study and signed the participation form (Appendix

15) The Castle Boys initially did not want to participate in the study, thinking that

the researcher was a government official who wanted to arrest them because

they harass the tourists for money. The tourism business owners expressed

misgivings because they had been previously contacted by researchers, yet their

concerns have not been addressed. The fishmongers and women group were

happy to participate in the study because it was the first time they had had the

opportunity to express their opinions.

The interviews were conducted in English and local Fanti language depending on

the respondents’ languages ability. The semi-structured interviews took place at

the workplace or homes of the respondents. The unstructured interviews

conducted with the tourists took place at the Castle, restaurants, souvenir shops

and drinking bars; while the focus group with the different stakeholder groups

were held at different locations as decided upon by the participants in the study

area. The interviews took place from Monday to Sunday, between 07.00am to

10.00pm, to accommodate the day and time given by the respondents.

The researcher sought approval from the respondents before the interviews were

tape recorded, and in most instances played the tapes back for them to agree to

the information they had provided. This process was a convenient way of

sustaining the trust and rapport between the researcher and the respondents and

also ensuring accuracy. The researcher found that some English terms that do

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not have a corresponding local word had to be explained to the respondent. For

example, a tourist is commonly referred to as ‘Oburoni’, which also means a

‘white person’, whilst ‘tourism’ does not have a corresponding local word.

The sample for the main study comprised of eighty-two respondents, consisting

of representatives of stakeholder groups and individuals with no direct

stakeholder interests. Snowball and purposive techniques were used to develop

the stakeholder samples in the study. For example, the researcher was

introduced to respondent’s friends, colleagues and family members expressing

an interest to participate in the study, or given telephone numbers and

complimentary cards to contact potential respondents. The eighty-two

respondents of the main study and their full demographic details are listed in

Appendix 12 along with the eight respondents of the pilot study. The age

composition ranged between 19 to 70 years old, while level of academic

background varied from having ‘no formal’ education to graduate level. The

occupational background and gender of the respondents are also presented in

the Appendix.

7.3.2 Data Collection During the Fieldwork

The data collection for the main study was undertaken between 1st and

September 2007 and 31st January 2008. Following reflective analysis of the

methodologies employed in the pilot study, the researcher triangulated the

methods to comprise of unstructured and semi-structured interviews, focus group

and participant observation. This section of the chapter explains the use of each

method for the data collection from the respondents.

(a) Unstructured In-depth Interviews with Tourists

The in-depth unstructured interviews with eleven tourists took place at Elmina

Castle, restaurants, a hotel, a drinking bar and handicraft shops in Elmina, having

duration of twenty-five to forty minutes. The respondents were international and

domestic tourists visiting the castle. Sometimes, the researcher found it difficult to

access the respondents because they were engaged in shopping, observing the

attraction or talking to non-respondents. In order that the respondents’ anonymity

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and privacy were not compromised, the researcher did not approach them unless

and until they were alone. The data obtained was recorded in the field notebook,

after seeking permission from the respondents to do so. Occasionally, the

interviews were interrupted by friends of the respondents, but in-depth data was

collected, which was later transcribed from the field notes.

(b) Semi-Structured In-depth Interviewees: Government and Donor Agency Representatives; Private Sector; and Local People

In the main study, thirty-eight respondents were interviewed, using semi-

structured interviews at their work places, restaurants and homes in Elmina,

Cape Coast and Accra. The sample was chosen using the snowball and

purposive techniques, and the questions were based on emerging themes and

data obtained from the previous respondents. Of the thirty-eight interviews

conducted, twenty were tape-recorded with the respondents’ permission whilst for

the other eighteen permission was withheld by the respondents, although they

allowed the researcher to take notes. The duration of the semi-structured

interviews conducted with the respondents varied from approximately one hour to

three hours. Despite interruptions at various times by telephone calls, colleagues

and friends of the respondents, enough data was collected to exhaust the

repetitive thematic analysis.

The interviews were into two main thematic, focussing on how respondents

assessed poverty and their views on socio-economic changes attributable to

tourism in Elmina. Although the semi-structured interviews were time-consuming,

the researcher played back the tape-recorded interviews, or read the notes for

the interviewees to agree and cross-check the data. This process was adopted

by the researcher as a way of sustaining the trust and rapport in the context of

ethical considerations. The semi-structured interview conducted with each

stakeholder is explained as follows:

(i) Interviews with Tour Operators

Tour operators emerged as key stakeholders in Elmina during the pilot study, as

discussed in Section 7.2. None of the key tour operators had offices in Elmina but

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were located in Accra. The tour operators collaborate with foreign counterparts to

organise inclusive tour packages for international tourists who visit Elmina and

other attractions in Ghana. A list of registered tour operators was obtained from

the Ghana Tourist Board which enabled the researcher to contact ten companies

in Accra. However, only two tour operators agreed to be interviewed, each

interview lasting ninety minutes and seventy minutes respectively. The interviews

focused on key themes of: tourism-generating markets; services offered to

tourists by the local people; and business policy towards poverty reduction in

Elmina.

(ii) Interviews with Local People in Elmina

The interviews in the pilot stage helped the researcher to identify the different

local stakeholders in tourism in Elmina. The cross-section of respondents

included: hotel owners and managers, restaurant owners; hotel and restaurant

workers; chop bar owners; drinking bar owners; hawkers; a petty trader;

handicraft sellers; tourism consultants; a chief; fishermen/Asafo companies;

fishmongers; and teachers. As can be seen, a diversity of business interests was

represented. Figures 7.1 and 7.2 display the interviews the researcher conducted

with a fishmonger and beer bar operator respectively.

Figure 7.1: Interviews with a fishmonger Figure 7.2: Interview with a beer bar owner Interviews with the local people aimed to establish how they understand the

impacts of tourism upon their lives. The interviews also focused on the kinds of

opportunities created by tourism and identifying the barriers that restrict

participation in the industry and market. The key challenges in this part of the

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fieldwork was in gaining access to the respondents and using the local Fanti

language as a medium of communication to interview those who did not have the

ability to speak the English language. The author was able to overcome these

difficulties through probing and sought clarification from respondents when it was

necessary to do so.

(iii) Interviews with Government Representatives in Accra, Cape

Coast and Elmina

The government representatives interviewed included personnel from the

following departments: Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations; National

Commission on Culture; Ghana Tourist Board; Ghana Museums and Monuments

Board; Central Region Development Commission; Hotel, Catering and Tourism

Training Centre, Nana Etsiapa Methodist Primary School; and Komenda-Edina-

Eguafo-Abrem Municipal Assembly (KEEA). The key focus of these interviews

was to understand the influence of national and local tourism related policies and

plans upon local people in Elmina. The interviews aimed at ascertaining the

variety of ways tourism benefits are perceived and the impacts upon the local

people in the context of government’s poverty reduction strategy as explained in

various sections in Chapter Five. Through identified similarities and differences in

views, the researcher intends to highlight policy measures that can be adopted

and are likely to enhance tourism’s contribution to poverty reduction. A key

challenge with these interviews was identifying the respondents, making

appointments and travelling from the study area to Accra and Cape Coast, which

was time-consuming and expensive in terms of transportation and

accommodation. Furthermore, some of the appointments were cancelled, whilst

others were rescheduled by the respondents at the last hour for a variety of

reasons including the urgent need to travel and family commitments.

(iv) Interviews with Representatives of Donor Agencies

Of the five donor agencies that provided funding for tourism projects and

programmes in Elmina, only two respondents agreed to participate in the study.

The remaining three agencies attributed their refusal to participate in the study to

a lack of time. Whilst the interview with the representative of the European Union

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took place in his office in Accra, the interview with the representative of the Dutch

Department of Culture was held in Elmina, as displayed in Figure 7.3. The main

focus of these interviews was to understand the policy objectives and the views

of the donors on the impact of the Elmina Cultural Heritage and Tourism Project.

A primary issue was to identify and compare the views of the donor agencies vis-

à-vis those of the local people in order to enable the researcher to highlight the

discrepancies and suggest possible ways to address them. Although the

interview appointments took more than a month to schedule, the researcher

overcame the problem through persistence.

Figure 7.3: Interview with a donor agency in Elmina

c) Focus Groups

The researcher used focus groups to collect data from interviewees who were

marginalised, or excluded from tourism in a variety of ways, e.g. Castle Boys and

Asafo Companies. The focus group allowed the participants to share knowledge

with the researcher, reflecting the traditional system of consensus building in the

study area; that is, ‘Tikro nko agyina, which means ‘more heads are better than

one in a decision-making process’.

The researcher encountered a number of challenges with the focus groups. For

example, the tourism business owners, such as chop bar owners and handicraft

sellers declined to participate in the focus groups because their concerns had not

been addressed after similar meetings with researchers and government officials.

The researcher responded to these concerns by stating that although his was an

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academic research, copies of the work would be given to the government to

guide tourism development in the study area.

Following a series of meetings four focus group formats categorised by

stakeholder type were established, with the Asafo Companies/men (who are also

fishermen), fishmongers, unemployed Castle Boys and a cross-section of

women, the full composition of the groups being given in Table 7.1. During

preparation for the focus group interviews, the researcher had to gain consent

from the groups, negotiate with its members with regard to when and where the

meetings were to be held. The researcher held discussions with two separate

women’s groups, with each session attended by thirteen and ten female

participants respectively.

Table 7.1: Focus groups with stakeholders in Elmina

Group Number of Participants

Venue Date

Castle boys 5 Forecourt of the

Elmina Castle

8 August 2007

Asafo Group

(Fishermen)

5 Newspaper vendor

shop

25 October 2007

Fishmongers 13 Courtyard of the

Elmina Castle

9 November 2007

Mixed Group of

Women

10 Conference room of

the Elmina Castle

20 December 2007

Source: Author’s own work

Whilst one of the focus group meetings took place in the upper courtyard of the

Castle, the other was held in the conference room of Elmina Castle (Figures 7.4

and 7.5). The choice of venue was to allow the fishmongers to observe the

fishermen who brought in the catch so that they could be ready to run to collect

their share. The five-man Asafo companies decided upon a newspaper vendor

shop where they always meet to chat and talk about a variety of issues (Figure

7.6). In contrast, the five Castle Boys preferred the forecourt of the castle (Figure

7.7), because they considered any enclosed area could be a ploy on the part of

the researcher to have them arrested by the police or the management of the

castle.

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Figure 7.4: Fishmongers focus group Figure 7.6: Asafo men focus group

Figure 7.5: Mixed women focus group Figure 7.7: Castle Boys focus group The researcher formulated three open-ended questions for the interviews,

covering the following issues:

i. What do you say has contributed to the quality of life (poverty) of people in

Elmina?

ii. What opportunities has tourism created, and what benefits do you receive

from tourism?

iii. How does tourism complement or conflict with your daily activities and

priorities, and what constraints do you face in achieving your aspirations?

A total of thirty-three group members attended the focus group meetings,

comprising ten men and twenty-three women, which were significant for

incorporating a gender perspective into the tourism and poverty reduction

strategy debate. The meetings lasted between two and three hours and were

conducted in both the English language and the local Fanti dialect, with

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translations being provided by members of the groups when appropriate. The

researcher, having sought permission, tape-recorded the discussions and each

participant was given a notebook and pen, while the general responses were

recorded on flip chart paper. For each question, the researcher asked the group

to discuss and their responses were listed on paper because some of them could

not write. A plenary discussion was adopted because the small group sessions

were always not convenient, as the researcher wanted each participant to be

actively involved, eliminating the situation were vocal members would dominate

the meetings.

A key constraint with the focus groups was that it took more time to complete

each group than anticipated because participants were late to the meeting and

digressed from the interview questions. However, the focus groups generated a

wide range of data and issues at each meeting, which were relevant for

subsequent semi-structured interviews with other stakeholders.

7.4 Thematic Data Analysis

‘A qualitative researcher analyses data by organizing it into categories on the basis of

themes, concepts, or similar features. He or she develops new concepts, formulates

conceptual definitions and examines the relationships among concepts’. (Neuman,

2000 cited in Jennings 2002:196)

Qualitative data analysis, as Neuman suggests, involves the organisation of

identical categories of data and the development of their inter-relationships based

upon constant comparisons. Thematic analysis was used to establish the

categories of data, its suitability being explained by Boyatzis (1998, cited in Braun

and Clark, 2001:79), who describes thematic analysis as a ‘method for

identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data.’ Thematic

analysis offers a flexible and useful means for data analysis, enabling the

researcher to produce and describe a rich and detailed, yet complex account of

data. It can summarise the key themes of a large body of data, providing ‘thick’

descriptions whilst highlighting the similarities and differences across the data

set, making it useful for informing policy (Jennings, 2001; Gomm, 2004).

Thematic analysis is widely used by social scientists as a more accessible form

of analysis, as it is not ‘wedded to any pre-existing theoretical framework, and

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therefore it can be used within different theoretical frameworks’ (Braun and Clark,

2006:81). However, it can also be criticised because of its lack of embededness

in a particular theoretical framework and a subsequent lack of associated

analytical method.

In the context of this research, the production of ‘rich’ and ‘detailed’ descriptions

of respondents’ experiences, meanings and realities of poverty, permits the

researcher to examine the ways in which issues related to poverty and tourism

are interwoven, as displayed in Figure 7.8. Thematic analysis also enabled the

researcher to immerse himself in the data throughout the manual and analytical

process of the data. Although computer software qualitative data packages such

as Nvivo are available, they were not used by the researcher, as the researcher

wished to immerse himself in the data through the use of manual analysis in

order to produce ‘thick’ descriptions. Before commencing the thematic analysis,

all data was transcribed by the fieldworker and cross-checked to the tape

recorded interviews and field notes, and also with respondents where feasible

(refer to Appendixes 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20). Although the researcher could speak

and understand the local Fanti language, he could not translate all the words

used by some of the respondents. As a result, he sought the assistance of some

interviewees to translate the Fanti words into the English language, which were

later cross-checked with interviewees in order to confirm the accuracy of

meanings.

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MAIN THEME

SUB-THEMES

SUB-SUB-THEMES

Figure 7.8 Summary of thematic analysis of data into themes, sub-themes and sub- sub-themes in the study



This chapter has explained the procedures and conduct of the pilot and main field

stages of this research. By piloting the study the researcher was able to clearly

identity the different stakeholders; questions would be revised to overcome

ambiguities and mis-understanding; it helped to overcome barriers to access of

stakeholders; and address matters of sampling, data collection and analysis in

the main field work. The main study developed the sampling and methodologies

to generate interpretively ‘thick’ and ‘rich’ multiple understandings of poverty and

tourism relationships in Elmina. The interpretive research contributed to

producing a reflexive account of the researcher’s emic and etic positions in the

Steady Income

i.Exclusion from Decision-Making

ii.Unemployment iii.Access to Education iv.Access to Social

Amenities

Income

Non -Income

Understanding Poverty

i.Business Establishment

ii.Tourists Philanthropy iii.Tourism Market iv.Training v.Employment

i.Access to Loans/Micro-Credit

ii.Tourism Market iii.Education iv.Exclusion from

Decision-Making

Barriers to Participation

Socio–Economic Opportunities

Tourism Participation

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conduct of the study, particularly recognising cultural differences as key

component of research practice and understanding. The research methodology

utilised in the fieldwork was useful in understanding issues surrounding power

relations, socio-cultural and political institutions, different stakeholders’ interests

and concerns, as well as accessing the ‘voices’ of the marginalised and

excluded. The research philosophies, methodologies and methods laid out in this

chapter, may be subsequently adopted and adapted by future scholars

investigating poverty and tourism issues, and transferred to other fieldwork areas.

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Chapter 8

Local People’s Understanding of Poverty in Elmina

8.1 Introduction This chapter presents the variety of ways local people comprehend poverty in

Elmina. It illustrates three key propositions in which the phenomenon of poverty is

understood and defined by the local people. Firstly, the definitions of poverty by

local people encompass several dimensions, including a lack of income and

access to social amenities. Secondly, people in Elmina perceive the causes of

poverty as interlocking factors that interweave into a vicious circle of

reinforcement. Finally, issues of ‘poverty’ are comprehended as being relative

and not static, with the view that social and economic factors can contribute to a

change in the life of the people at any particular point in time.

8.2 Poverty: As Lack of Steady Income

A main theme of local people’s definition of poverty is a lack of steady income.

When respondents were asked ‘how they understood poverty?’, a variety of

responses were given which reinforced a lack of steady income as a dimension

of deprivation. The emphasis on lack of steady income was repeatedly

interpreted in relation to the main livelihood activities of the people as illustrated

below:

(a) A poor person is someone who has not got money. [Female Participants, Focus

Group]

(b) Poverty in Elmina is not about getting a meal a day…It is related to our

businesses…it is about not feeding your children, buying fuel for the fishing boats and

buying firewood to smoke the fish. [Participants, Focus Group]

(c) Poverty is not having a job to earn regular money. [Participants, Focus Group]

(d) Poverty is not being able to go to school and not knowing how to read and write.

[Participants, Focus Group]

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(e) Poverty is not being involved in decision-making. [Participants, Focus Group].

When probed further to explain the underlying causes of poverty, the

interviewees forcefully mentioned the dwindling fishing and salt mining industries,

whilst emphasising that employment opportunities in tourism are limited. The

economic importance of fishing to the local people was central in all the

responses given by the respondents with regard to the question: “What do you

think, are the most important employment opportunities in Elmina?”

(a) The fishing industry is the umbilical cord of the people…and anything that

happens to it leads to the quenching of the fire in our homes [Mohammed, Fisherman]

(b) Every household in this community has someone who is working in the fishing

industry. [Adwoa, Fishmonger]

(c) Elmina is the second largest fish landing market in Ghana…and the people you

are seeing involved in the fishery activities include many immigrant fishermen and

fishmongers who come to live here during the bumper fishing period…It is fishing

which has made this town very popular in Ghana.[Fishmongers, Focus Group].

Although the fishing industry is considered the main economic activity, generating

employment and income opportunities through linkages to production, handling,

processing and distribution of fish, respondents said that the fishery activities

were on the verge of collapse which threatened their livelihood. As one fisherman

said; “I think my business as a fisherman is coming to end shortly because the

government is not helping us with premix fuel, loans and equipment. That is why

you find me being poor."

Given the fact that fishing is the main economic activity in Elmina, the researcher

considered it valid to understand the underlying causes of a lack of steady

income, from the fishermen and fishmongers, who attribute it to three main

factors. Firstly, an increasing frequency of a low catch of fish due to competition

with pair trawlers, which are large Ghanaian and foreign fishing vessels operating

illegally in designated local fishing waters, rather than in the deep waters where

they should be. Concern was expressed by the respondents about the

government’s failure to curb the inimical practice of the pair trawlers which catch

fish from territorial waters and destroy the nets laid by the local fishermen.

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Although local people have complained several times to the government, their

concerns have not been addressed, whilst the continuous activities of the pair

trawlers cause low yields of fish and subsequent low income, affecting the well-

being of local people.

Secondly, the high investment and operational costs necessary for fishing affect

the income earned from it as an economic activity. The operating costs of boats,

premix fuel and outboard motors have become high due to the removal of

subsidies by the government. This has affected income and made fishermen

borrow money from friends and the fishmongers to buy fuel for subsequent

fishing expeditions. Whilst the removal of subsidies is consistent with the

government’s neo-liberal policies, their reinstatement was considered by the

interviewees as a central way to helping them earn a steady income and reduce

poverty amongst the locals.

Finally, seasonality was cited as a significant contributing factor to the lack of

steady income experienced by local people in Elmina. From the perspective of

fishery activities, the effect of seasonality can be explained in terms of

fluctuations in the supply and demand of fish and subsequent changes in income.

During the high season, which lasts from January to September, the fishermen

bring in a larger catches of fish and earn higher levels of income than in the low

season. When asked how much they earned from each fishing expedition after

deduction of operational costs, income earned ranged between GH¢400.00

(£174.41)1

During the low season, i.e. from October to December, the fishermen bring in

small catches and consequently earnings are low. It was observable during the

field research that on many days the fishing boats were not in operation, as

typified in Figure 8.1. The lack of income and seasonality of the fishing industry

means fishermen are forced to migrate to other fishing communities to seek

and GH¢600.00 (£261.62). However, even in the high season, the

earnings from income are marginal after deductions for operational costs and the

repayment of loans and money borrowed from friends and the fishmongers to buy

boats, nets and outboard motors, so they barely had enough money for

themselves.

1 Bank of Ghana Conversion Rate as at 5th February 2010: GH¢1.00= GB£0.43

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economic opportunities, with consequences for their marriages and the

upbringing of the children.

Figure 8.1: Fishing boats lying idle during low season Similar to the fishing industry, the income earned by salt miners and workers is

also considered as irregular by the local people. This is largely a consequence of

salt production being reliant upon solar evaporation, making it susceptible to the

vagaries of the weather and seasonality. The salt miners reported that whilst

more people were employed during the dry season, which lasts from November

until April, most workers were laid off during the wet season from May to October,

when there is less evaporation from the flooded salt pans. As a consequence

during the wet season many salt workers are unemployed and have insufficient

income to meet basic needs, such as food and the payment of school fees for

their children.

The patterns of seasonality that affect production and income in the fishing and

salt industries are repeated in the tourism industry. However, the causal factors

of seasonality are pre-dominantly related to the organisation of special events

rather than the seasonality of the weather. From the perspective of the tourism

business owners, incomes earned between June and January are higher

because of the large influx of tourists who attend the various planned activities on

the national tourism calendar, e.g. the Emancipation Day celebration and Pan

African Historical Festival. However, income dwindles during the low season,

from February to May, seriously affecting their profits, forcing them to lay-off

employees, which in turn negatively impacts upon individual and family

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livelihoods. In order to reduce the effect of seasonality and earn income,

respondents suggested the need for the government tourism bodies to sensitise

and involve the local people in the organisation of regular tourism programmes,

aiming to attract more domestic and international tourists to visit Elmina

throughout the year.

In summary, this understanding of poverty as a lack of steady income concurs

with its ‘conventional’ view, as is explained in Section 2.3. However, in the

context of Elmina, the ‘poverty line’ is defined as a lack of regular and consistent

income earned from the economic activities local people are involved in. The

respondents did not emphasise consumption and expenditure as measures of

poverty, stressing the multiple causes of irregular incomes, including: the illegal

activities of the pair trawlers; high costs of business operation; and effects of

seasonality.

8.3 Poverty: As a Lack of Social Amenities

Local people in Elmina also comprehend poverty in terms of a lack of availability

and affordability of basic social amenities including clean drinking water, toilet

facilities, waste disposal management and education. Sections 8.3.1 through

8.3.4 explain this perception of poverty related to issues of social amenities.

8.3.1 Lack of Access to Good Drinking Water

The relationship between access to good drinking water and poverty was

explained within the context of its availability and affordability. Interviewees

complained about the irregular supply of water from the community stand pipes to

their homes, sometimes being left for eight months without water by the service

providers, the Ghana Water Company. As a result of lack of water, people were

forced to rely on other sources of supply, typically wells, streams and tanker

water supply. Of specific concern was the use of unclean water by food vendors,

including chop bars, to prepare food for sale to the locals.

In terms of affordability of water, the clean drinking water the locals buy from the

tanker drivers is expensive. The tanker drivers are commercial vehicle owners

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who fetch clean water from rivers and streams in distant areas and sell it to the

local people. For example, they sell a bucket of water, in terms of volume, at

GH¢2.00 (approximately GB£0.86), whilst from well owners it costs GH¢1.00

(approximately GB£0.43). A chop bar operator commented:

I have to buy water everyday which increases my cost and price of food I sell to my

customers…and also I have to make some available for drinking. [Chop bar owner].

The irregularity of the water supply, combined with the high costs of buying it

from the tanker suppliers and ensuing health threats from the use of

contaminated water, led many of the respondents to comment that the lack of

government action to secure a regular supply was indicative of a lack of their

commitment to poverty reduction.

8.3.2 Lack of Toilet Facilities

The lack of toilet facilities in many homes was also attributed to the non-

availability and affordability of water. The discussions within the focus groups

revealed that only a few individual homes had access to dug-out toilet facilities,

whilst the majority of the people used the limited public toilets facilities provided

by the Municipal Assembly. The participants said users of the public toilets

facilities had to pay two hundred Ghana pesewas (approximately GB£0.09),

which they felt was expensive considering the fact that they were poor, as

exemplified in this statement:

We are poor…we don’t have money to pay for using the toilet when we are not

catching fish and don’t have money. The use of the toilets must be free for us

[fishermen], if they don’t want us to defecate on the beach which they say tourists

don’t want to see. [Fisherman]

When the researcher asked ‘how the people cope with the payment of the fees?’,

they said the majority of them did not pay but chose to defecate on the beach or

into plastic bags which were thrown into the gutters, thus creating sanitation and

health problems. They wanted free access to the use of the public toilets and

accused the Municipal Assembly of not being sensitive to their plight. However,

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the position of the local government is that the municipality is constrained by a

limited budget and cannot provide free use of toilet facilities. One representative

principally blamed the local people for the indiscriminate defecation on the beach

and gutters:

It is a cultural attitude because they [people] believe in a ‘free range system’ and

would not use the best facility you provide…We hope tourism will change the mindset

of the people [Municipal Assembly Representative]

The discrepancies between the views of the local people and the Municipal

Assembly demonstrate contrasting perceptions with regard to the provision of

public facilities and their usage. It suggests a lack of consultation and

involvement of the local people who wanted their priorities to be considered in the

provision and management of social services.

8.3.3 Poor Waste Disposal Management

Poverty was further interpreted as being characterised by having to live in an

environment with obvious signs of poor waste management. The respondents

presented a number of examples of their understanding of poor waste

management, including gutters filled with filth; streets littered with refuse;

household refuse being dumped at the beach and refuse at the dump sites not

being collected. Observational evidence of the waste problem is shown in Figure

8.2, displaying a dumping site, refuse container and a wooden toilet facility on the

beach, not far from the tourist site of Elmina Castle.

Figure 8.2: A refuse dumping site and toilet in Elmina

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While local people felt the issue of poor waste disposal management could be

addressed, they criticised the Municipal Assembly for shirking its responsibility

and failure to encourage the locals to undertake self-help activities to tackle the

problem. In terms of how the Municipal Assembly was addressing the waste

management problem, three senior officials interviewed blamed the locals for

continuously disposing of garbage at unapproved dumping sites. In their view,

waste disposal was free and they questioned why the locals could not dump the

refuse in the containers provided at the vantage points. They cited the apathy

and recalcitrant behaviour of the people towards waste management as

challenges the Municipal Assembly were finding difficult to tackle. Thus, the

different views expressed by the officials and local people suggest a lack of

participatory approach in the provision and management of social services. While

the people wanted improved social services, the Municipal Assembly had no

plans to consult them in any future development.

8.3.4 Poverty: As a Lack of Access to Education Access to only a low level of formal education was considered as a defining

characteristic of poverty by the local people in Elmina. Respondents recognised

that having the opportunity for further education had enabled people to escape

poverty, cited examples included politicians and children of neighbours who had

secured employment opportunities in several sectors of the national economy. As

one fishmonger commented:

At first we didn’t realise the benefits of education…but now we [the women] are

making our children to go to school…When they complete schooling, we want them to

work in the factories, restaurants, hotels and government offices in order to earn more

money and care for the family.

The above comment reflects the low level of education of the local people in a

predominantly fishing community, where several factors account for the high level

of illiteracy amongst the total population which affects their well-being. For

example, with a few exceptions, the majority of the interviewees could not

communicate with the researcher in the English language, which the respondents

felt was a barrier for negotiating for business opportunities. The majority of the

local people have a low level of education or did not attend schooling, restricting

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their opportunities for employment to the traditional activities of fishing and salt

mining. By comparison, the few local people employed in the hotels and

restaurants have a higher education level, which allows them to communicate

with tourists and gain higher incomes.

One characteristic of poverty is that children are often forced to work in fishing

and stone-breaking activities, as shown in Figures 8.3 and 8.4, when they are

supposed to be in school. The reason for engagement in such menial jobs is to

earn an income and to help their parents in their business activities. In the case

of children not at school or working, the researcher found them loitering around

the attraction site of the Elmina Castle or begging for money from tourists.

Figure 8.3: Children pushing a truck of fish Figure 8.4: Children breaking stones An interview with a head teacher revealed that, although the government policy

of free and compulsory universal education (see section 1.5.3), had raised levels

of primary enrolment, actual school attendance was still low and not all children

were in school. The fundamental problems, in her view, related to the lack of

resources from government and attitude of parents. For example, the limited

education budget and delay in its release led to shortages of books and teaching

materials, whilst teaching staff who felt they were poorly supported economically

left the profession to seek better employment opportunities. The problem was

further exacerbated by the poor attitude of parents towards the education of their

children. The head teacher said that efforts to encourage greater parental

involvement in children’s education through sensitisation programmes had not

yielded the desired results, as some parents were still not convinced of a need for

change, and many had yet to understand the importance of education.

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When the respondents were asked “why parents refuse to allow their children to

go to school?”, the following explanations were given. The parents considered

their income as being low and irregular, resulting in their not having enough

money to buy the items demanded by the schools, e.g. uniforms, books, sandals

and other incidentals. Hence they would prefer their children to join the family

business, continuing the tradition of on-the-job training as a way of acquiring the

rudiments of the family business. For example, some fishmongers and fishermen

held the view that fishing activities did not require any formal education, that the

necessary skills and experiences could be acquired through practice from an

early age. It is suggested that access to livelihood opportunities are impeded by

limited horizons as well as actual deprivations.

8.4 Poverty: As a Lack of Involvement in Decision-Making

A further characteristic of poverty to emerge from the findings was local people’s

non-involvement in decision-making that affected the livelihoods of the

community. A variety of interviewees viewed the exclusion of key groups, who

needed to be involved in decisions making on a regular basis, as denying the

people a ‘voice’. Interviewees described the nature of their society as being

heterogeneous and cited examples of the key and influential groups as including:

the Traditional Council; the Asafo companies; Fishermen Association; and the

Fishmongers Association.

When a question was asked to gauge the extent to which the groups had been

excluded from decision-making, two main examples were given by the

interviewees. Firstly, the Asafo companies uttered their displeasure with the

manner that the Cultural Heritage and Local Development in Elmina Programme

(CHLDEP) was planned and implemented by the Municipal Assembly and Donor

Agencies without their involvement. For example, the Asafo posts, as listed in

Table 1.2, are the family shrines and traditional military units of the people,

composed of seven Asafo companies that signify the family clans. The leaders of

the Asafo companies wield influence in the traditional decision-making process

including the enthronement of the paramount chief and the control of

development projects in the local community. Whilst the leaders were informed of

the need to rehabilitate the Asafo posts as part of tourism development, they

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were not involved in any further consultative process by the CHLDEP team, only

to see that their buildings were being demolished. Their intervention led to the

proposed rehabilitation works being abandoned, as exemplified in Figure 8.5.

They argued that their views should be respected and that they should not be

informed through hearsay and word-of-mouth, suggesting the need for

participatory process in the formulation and implementation of projects intended

for the local people.

Figure 8.5: Abandoned rehabilitation of an Asafo Post in Elmina

The importance and need for women to have a ‘voice’ was repeatedly mentioned

by the female participants, although there was no specific agreement on the

extent to which women should be involved in decision making processes. The

women ascribed their exclusion and non-participation to cultural norms which

lend a greater degree of power to men within the family and wider society. The

interviewees held the view that as most women in Elmina are the ‘bread winners’

for the families, and are involved in all types of businesses in the local

community, they should be involved in all decisions at local community level. The

fishmongers, all of whom were women, said they were only asked to contribute

money to the celebration of the annual festival but were not involved in its

planning, nor did the planners disclose to them how the monies were spent,

typifying a lack of accountability. They argued that having control over decisions

and resources, would give the women the opportunity to create more business

opportunities in the fishing, tourist and retail trading businesses, which could

allow them to better cater for the family.

The reasons cited by the respondents to explain the exclusion of the various

groups in the decision-making process include personality conflicts between the

traditional and political leaders, nepotism, corruption and political differences. For

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example, local people perceive that individual and groups’ affiliations to political

parties and personal relationships with higher government and traditional

positions are ways to access information and resources. Additionally, the

disparity between the participation and influence of women and men in decision

making reflects a dimension of human poverty in terms of inequality. This non-

involvement in decision making is understood by the locals as ‘exclusion’ which

corresponds to the concept of ‘social deprivation’, as explained in Section 2.4.

The need for government and the municipal assembly to make information about

proposed developments available to the total population was suggested by the

respondents as a first step toward empowering the people and encouraging their

participation in decision-making processes. They argued that whilst providing a

‘voice’ and empowering local groups that are typically excluded from the

development process is held as important, individuals should also be given

access to information, citing instances of a lack of information leading to

malpractices by local leaders in the distribution of premix fuel and the allocation

of micro-finance credits to the fishermen.


It is evident from the interviews that a number of factors contribute to the

understanding and defining poverty by local people in Elmina. Based upon their

perspectives, poverty is not just about a lack of income, but also non-income

factors that are central to their quality of life, e.g., a lack of clean water and

opportunity for education. While income poverty analysis and statistical

measurement dominate government policies and literature, local people’s

understandings and interpretations of poverty differ from two key perspectives.

Firstly, poverty is not just a matter of low income but also a lack of steady

income. To this, can be added a lack of availability and affordability of basic

social amenities, and a lack of participation in the decision-making process of

matters that affect local people’s well-being. Poverty is understood as a relative

and dynamic phenomenon, as opposed to the ‘conventional’ view of it being

static and focused on ‘poverty lines’.

Secondly, the people in Elmina know their situation and needs better than policy

makers and want to be involved in the designing of policies and projects intended

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to improve their lives. Given them opportunity to participate in decision making

processes is perceived as a means of empowerment, which can make them

committed to community projects aimed at tackling poverty. The findings of the

research emphasise the failure of the government’s neoliberal policies that focus

on macro-economic ‘growth’ and ‘trickle-down’ effects as the pathway to reduce

poverty in Elmina. While economic growth may be essential at the macro level,

the respondents argued that a lack of human, financial and social capacities were

deprivations that restricted them from taking advantage of any emerging

economic livelihood opportunities. The local understanding of poverty emphasise

that proposed development strategies must aim to meet the priority needs

identified by the people, if they are to be successful in reducing and mitigating

poverty. The next chapter analyses how the different stakeholders perceive the

significance of tourism as a socio-economic activity for poverty mitigation in

Elmina.

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Chapter 9

The Use of Tourism to Combat Poverty in Elmina: The Stakeholders’ Perspectives

9.1 Introduction

This chapter analyses the perceptions of the various stakeholders of the socio-

economic opportunities created by tourism development within the local

community. As explained in Section 1.5.4, the two integrated development

programmes which have been implemented by the Government of Ghana and

development agencies, aimed at using the existing cultural heritage in Elmina as

a tourist attraction to improve the socio-economic well-being of the people. The

programmes advocate the conservation and promotion of cultural monuments as

a strategy to stimulate private sector investment in tourism facilities. The following

sections chapter explore how the various stakeholders view the socio-economic

opportunities that have arisen from this tourism development.

9.2 Local People’s Understandings of Tourism Opportunities

In Elmina, local people perceive socio-economic opportunities arising from

tourism in various ways. Thematic analysis of the data showed that there was a

perception of several socio-economic opportunities to be attained through

involvement with tourism. These included: (i) business ownership; (ii) access to

the tourism market; (iii) employment and income opportunities; (iv) improved

infrastructure development and social amenities; (v) tour guide training; and (vi)

enhancement of cultural values, all of which are explained in the following

sections.

9.2.1 Business Ownership Local people view the establishment and ownership of small scale and micro

businesses as an opportunity to gain employment from tourism, as a

consequence of increasing demand for goods and services from tourists. The

main types of tourism businesses include hotels, restaurants, chop bars and

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drinking bars. Whilst the stock of tourism businesses has increased, businesses

have also diversified their range of services as exemplified in the following

statement:

We [my wife and I] started with a decent restaurant to serve the tour operators who

don’t find the chop bars attractive for the tourists...We then added the guest house

because of popular demand, and now own and manage a 12-room hotel and

restaurant. [Hotel owner]

This comment reflects a more general finding that local people would like to take

advantage of emerging opportunities from tourism, provided they can be assured

of a ready market and access to credit facilities, which they expect the

government to provide through its policy strategies.

Tourism businesses are characterised by being small scale and owner-managed

enterprises requiring a low level of financial capital to start-up, which can

sometimes be mobilised from personal and family sources. Two main categories

of business owners are evident from the study: government and the local

community.

The tourism business owners identified three main reasons for investing in

tourism. Firstly, with the decline of fishing and mining and in the absence of other

industries, there was perceived to be a comparative security of investment in

tourism. Secondly, tourism businesses are perceived to be comparatively less

susceptible to seasonality and price fluctuations than fishing and salt mining,

ensuring a more stable income. Finally, the demand for services by tour

operators and tourists had encouraged some of the respondents to re-invest in

their businesses. Despite these business opportunities the owners commented

that there were still issues that needed to be addressed to enhance participation

and local investment in tourism; including a lack of available credit facilities and

the multiple taxes demanded by the government.

9.2.2 Access to the Tourism Market

Local people in Elmina view access to the tourism market as central to the

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opportunity to offer a variety of services and goods to the tourists. The kind of

businesses that were mentioned by a cross section of interviewees included:

handicraft shops, chop bars, drinking bars, restaurants, hotels, fishing and

hawking. While these businesses have access to the tourism market, the kind of

opportunities available to each business segment differs, being dependent on

issues of location, linkages and constraints as explained in the following sections.

(a) Handicraft sellers

The majority of handicraft sellers interviewed indicated that although a few

tourists buy souvenirs from them, the limited market access they are permitted, is

for the creation of livelihood opportunities in tourism. They felt craftworks

depicted traditional values and formed an integral part of cultural tourism

development, but their development is ignored by the government and the

municipal assembly. Typical craftworks tourists bought from the handicraft sellers

include beads, kente textiles, baskets, leather products and trinkets, as shown in

Figure 9.1.

Figure 9.1: Tourists buying souvenirs in Elmina The handicraft sellers trade in three different locations: in the designated craft

market; in front of the Elmina castle, adjacent to the car park; and in rooms and

corridors within the castle. The opportunity to trade in different locations gives

rise to dissatisfaction among some of the handicraft sellers, who feel they are

marginalised from the best location and sell only a few goods in a day, whilst

their counterparts, who sell their goods in the castle, have greater access to the

tourism market. The respondents felt that the designated craft market, shown in

Figure 9.2, which was constructed by the municipality and donor agencies, is not

situated on the tourist pathway, nor do the tour operators encourage tourists to

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visit their shops.

Figure 9.2: Official craft market in Elmina

A further limitation to the effectiveness of handicraft sales is that sellers are

displaying almost the same items. The problems faced by the handicraft sellers

are exemplified in the following two comments from handicraft sellers:

No tourists go there [craft market] to buy anything because it is not located near the

castle and tourist path…The majority of the sellers and all the producers have left

because they can’t sell anything. [Handicraft seller]; and

We sell craftworks which are brought to us by the producers and we need to pay

them after sales, as well as earn profits to feed our families, but the sale we make a

day is very low. [Handicraft seller]

As a means through which to earn a livelihood, handicraft selling is beset with

challenges. The variability of the location of where traders are allowed to sell,

affects both the sale and income earned. The location of the official craft market

away from the tourist trail is indicative of the lack of consultation by officials of the

municipality with traders in the planning process. A further missed opportunity to

maximise the economic benefits of handicraft sales is reliance upon imported

products, rather than selling locally produced craftworks, which would increase

product diversity, create employment opportunities and reduce economic

leakages.

(b) Chop bar owners

Chop bar owners interviewed were aware of the economic opportunities created

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by having tourists come to buy and eat the local food they prepare and sell. As

displayed in Figure 9.3, the chop bars are constructed in wooden structures,

often located in obscure places off the ‘beaten-track’ and provide a variety of

local cuisine at low prices. The foods include ‘fufu’ (i.e. boiled and pounded

cassava and plantain), ‘banku’ (i.e. pulp corn meal), fried plantain and beans and

‘waakye’ (i.e. boiled rice and beans), which are usually not found on the menus

of hotels and restaurants, unless they are pre-ordered, which makes them

expensive.

Figure 9.3: A chop bar

Although the primary customers for chop bar owners are local people, they are

also frequently used by backpackers, who find the food tasty and spicy and were

often interested to learn more about the preparation of local foods. However, a

major concern that was expressed by the chop bar owners was the refusal of

tour operators to bring tourists to eat at the chop bars usually, because they

perceived them as unhygienic. Whilst the chop bar owners recognised the need

to improve hygiene, they also believed that tour operators are not contributing to

the promotion of local food, as is evident in the following comment:

Only a few tourists come here to eat…We want more tourists but the tour operators

are not bringing them here…The tourists don’t come to Ghana to eat foreign food

(author’s note: ‘foreign’ meaning non-Ghanaian). [Chop bar owner]

The comment exemplifies the general view of the majority of local people that

local food is one way Ghanaian culture can be promoted, hence the need for

government and tour operators to give attention to its promotion. The building of

partnerships and networks between chop bars owners and tour operators was

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advocated to overcome the challenges they face to enhance their business

opportunities.

(c) Drinking bar owners

Interviews with drinking bar owners indicated that their establishments, as shown

in Figure 9.4, were often frequented by backpackers, who not only consumed

beer but also drank locally distilled drinks such as ‘akpeteshie’, (distilled from

palmwine or sugarcane) as an integral part of experiencing the local culture.

Figure 9.4: A drinking bar The need to promote locally produced drinks and encourage tour operators to

use their facilities was considered one of the ways income opportunities could be

improved. As two bar owners commented:

The Tourist Board has not tried to train us and promote our businesses…It is a

shame that nobody cares about how we can have more access to tourists and get

them to buy from us rather than spending most of their time in hotel bars. [Drinking

bar owner]

I don’t have regrets in the beer bar business...I have ran a transport and a retail

trading businesses before but stopped since I was not making profits...Now I have a

thriving business because people drink everyday…But there is a need to improve my

marketing efforts and offering quality services to satisfy the tourists, who come here

to drink. [Drinking bar owner]

The comments suggest that although opportunities exist for drinking bars owners

to attract tourists, opportunities are limited due to a number of constraints that

include a lack of promotion, poor service delivery and a lack of partnership with

tour operators. Subsequently, partnerships among drinking bars owners, tour

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operators and the Ghana Tourist Board to formulate strategies for enhancing

capacity and access to credit, were viewed as essential for gaining enhanced

access to the tourism market.

(d) Restaurant owners

Compared with the chop bar owners, the restaurant owners have regular access

to the tourism market thanks to the location of the restaurants in the main tourist

zone at Elmina. Some restaurants are an integral part of the hotels, providing

breakfast and dinner to tourists who have been sold all-inclusive packages by

tour operators. By contrast, restaurants owners who are not attached to a hotel,

as shown in Figure 9.5, rely upon walk-in tourists and tour operators for snacks

and lunches after visits to the attraction sites.

The restaurant owners’ share of the tourism market is larger than the chop bar

owners, having greater access to tourists through their relationships with tour

operators. In contrast to the chop bars, the restaurants serve ‘continental’ food,

i.e. European, which is familiar to tourists, easier and faster to prepare.

Figure 9.5: A restaurant at the Elmina Castle

When one restaurant owner was asked why she did not serve local food such as

‘waakye’ and ‘banku’, as explained Section 9.2.2(b), her response was: “You give

the tourists what they want and not what you want.” While this response reflects

the need to satisfy tourists, it also illustrates the lack of effort to promote local

food which concurs with the views expressed by the chop bar owners. However,

the benefits of the relationship between restaurants owners and tour operators,

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reinforces the importance of partnerships and networking that enhance

businesses and market opportunities.

(e) Hotel owners

Although the hotels have greater market access to western and domestic tourists

than the other tourism facilities, the extent of this varies according to the size of

the hotel. The hotel owners stated that the two larger hotels in Elmina have more

rooms and better facilities, including internet services, conference and sport

facilities, alongside having established networking relationships with tour

operators who organise all-inclusive packages tours for group tourists.

Conversely, the smaller hotels offer basic facilities and low room tariffs, mostly

attracting backpackers. As one small hotel owner said:

The tour operators and tourists say our facilities and service are poor and basic…but

how can you offer a quality service at cheaper prices when the government does not

give you loans and tour operators don’t bring the tourists here? [Hotel owner]

This illustrates both the limited opportunities and challenges hotel owners

encountered in trying to gain a share of the tourism market. Small hotel owners

recognised the need for two key initiatives to enhance their businesses: (i) the

making available of micro-finance to permit them to invest in up-grading their

facilities; and (ii) the enhancement of market opportunities through the

construction and establishment of partnership with the tour operators.

(f) Fishermen and Fishmongers

Tourism has created economic opportunities for fishermen and fishmongers in

Elmina, through selling of fish to the hotels, restaurants and chop bars. The

selling of fish to tourists, as shown in Figure 9.6, is also an important way for the

fishermen and fishmongers to increase their income. The common standard of

measure used by the fishermen and fishmongers in trading with the hotels and

chop bar owners is a bucket and bowl respectively. The fishermen prefer to trade

with the hotels, as a fixed price is given for the duration of the season, permitting

the security of being able to estimate the income from sales. However, in both

cases of the chop bars and restaurants, the price is open to constant negotiation

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and bargaining, making income unpredictable.

Figure 9.6: Tourists buying fish from fishmongers

The hiring of their boats and services to tourists undertaking sea or lagoon

cruises, organised by the Tourism Information Office, was recognised by the

fishermen as a further income opportunity. The total income the fishermen earn

from hiring the boats varies according to the type of service they offer to the

tourists and length of trip. The fishermen earn more income when they undertake

an overnight fishing trip than a day cruise to nearby communities. While these

activities imply a link between tourism and fishing activities, the respondents felt

such opportunities are limited but could be enhanced through government

support and tour operator partnerships. For example, tour operators could be

encouraged to include fishing trips in their inclusive packages, whilst the

government could supply cruise boats and train the fishermen in customer care

and safety issues.

(g) Hawkers

In Elmina, hawkers perceive that tourism is creating an opportunity for selling a

variety of goods including snacks, seashells, oranges and coconuts. Hawkers

typically interact and frenetically bargain with tourists, whether on the buses or

the street, as shown in Figure 9.7.

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Figure 9.7: Hawking activities in Elmina

Hawking is the traditional way of buying and selling of goods on the streets and

markets and is characterised by shouting, bargaining and haggling. However,

some interviewees commented that some tourists are unenthusiastic about

hawking and resent the manner in which they are approached, as one hawker

stated:

Hawking is a freely, ubiquitous activity which demonstrates our traditional way of

retailing to earn money…It should be appreciated by tourists. They should not be

offended when we say, '‘Oburoni’ [white person] buy something from me. [A Hawker]

Other hawkers were more positive about the hawking and tourist interaction,

commenting that some tourists are fascinated by the activity, often believing they

have bought goods at a better price. Overall, the respondents perceive tourism

as providing opportunities for their hawking activities, but these could be

enhanced if the tour operators educated tourists about the traditional practices of

buying and selling. They further suggested a training programme for themselves

as hawkers, would enhance their skills and ability to interact with tourists, without

driving them away.

9.2.3 Employment and Income Opportunities

The majority of interviewees indicated that tourism has created a variety of

employment and income opportunities for the local people, although they are

limited in number. The main places and types of employment that local people

were directly and indirectly involved in, both in the public and private sectors, are

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illustrated in Table 9.1.

Table 9.1: Places and types of tourism employment opportunities in Elmina

Public Sector Locally Owned

i.Elmina Castle and Fort St. Jago

ii.Tourist Information Office

iii.Elmina Beach Resort

i. Hotels

ii. Restaurants

iii. Chop bars

iv. Drinking bars

v. Handicrafts

vi. Selling of fish to tourism facilities

and tourists

vii. Hiring boats for sea/lagoon cruises

viii. Hawking iced water, minerals and snacks

ix. Petty and retail trading

x. Transport

xi. Construction

Source: Researcher’s fieldwork

In the public sector, sixteen local people are employed by the Ghana Museum

and Monuments Board (GMMB) at Elmina Castle and Fort St. Jago, two are

employed at the Tourism Information Office (TIO), and 122 by the Elmina Beach

Resort. However, as is common in many developing countries in which there is a

lack of human resource capability, respondents indicated that the local people

were employed in lower positions of the organisations due to their low education

levels. In the case of the locally owned facilities, employment for local people is

typically in the hotels, drinking bars, handicraft shops, restaurants and chop bars.

Examples of the numbers of employees working in these organisations include:

two chop bars owners that employ five and seven locals respectively; a small

budget hotel that employs fourteen people; and a 3-star-rated hotel that employs

sixty workers.

The interviewees identified two main challenges to gaining employment in

tourism, particularly in hotels and restaurants. The first of these was that local

people felt migrant workers were favoured by hotels and restaurant owners

because of their higher level of education and skills. This observation by local

people was supported in interviews with facility owners and emphasises the

requirement to enhance the training and capacity of local people to work in the

tourism industry. The second major challenge is gender specific, relating to

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cultural prohibitions to women working in the tourism industry. Some men do not

want their wives and daughters to work in either hotels or bars, equating such

employment opportunities as being associated with prostitution, due to likely

sexual advances from male customers. As result, the majority of men prefer

women to be involved in activities that entail limited male interaction, such as

hawking and chop bars. This gender bias is emphasised in the data obtained

from one hotel manager, which showed that they employed eighty-three male but

only thirty-nine female employees.

It was accepted that tourism employment generates a variety of income

opportunities, typically through salaries for workers, profits from the selling of

goods and services, and entrance fees collected from tourists who visit the

castle. Workers employed at the Elmina Castle earn salaries based on the

Government's minimum wage of GH¢ 1.9 (GB£0.82) a day. One castle worker

disclosed he earned GH¢150 (GB£64.50) per month, which he felt was low, but

comparatively better than what he could have earned in the fishing and mining

industries.

Income data in the private sector was more problematic to obtain. There

appeared to be no norm of minimum wage in the private sector, so workers who

are employed in roles that require lower skills levels, the majority of the people in

Elmina, could have low levels of remuneration. For example, one restaurant

worker revealed she earned a monthly cash income of GH¢30 (GB£13.08) which

is substantially less than the castle worker earned. Although respondents

recognised the marked differential in their salaries, they often considered their

work offered them a better status and a more regular income than if they were

unemployed or working in other economic sectors. Unsurprisingly, the owners of

tourism businesses were unwilling to divulge their incomes, interpreting the

question as a personal intrusion or citing a lack of available accounts.

It is apparent that local people, with the exception of the owners of facilities that

already have access to the tourism market, realise there is a much greater

potential for tourism to enhance employment opportunities and livelihoods than it

does at present. For example, the fishermen who hire their boats and services for

the sea and lagoon cruises recognise that their income is low, but that it could be

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substantially improved through better coordination between the Tourism

Information Office, tour operators and themselves. The themes of improved

networking, partnerships and participatory involvement in development planning,

are recurring ones, of how tourism can be used to benefit the poor in Elmina.

A requirement for greater transparency of how the monies acquired through

public-owned tourism facilities was also demanded. For example, local people

suggested that a proportion of the entrance fees to Elmina Castle collected by

the GMMB should be handed to them to finance community development

projects. Interviewees questioned why revenue generated from the entrance fees

is paid into the Government Consolidated Fund without a share being given to

the local people. When a government official was asked why the locals were not

allocated a share of the revenue, whilst there was a government directive to re-

direct a percentage of the revenue to the Traditional Council and Municipal

Assembly, he gave a non-committal reply that government policy has not been

implemented due to administrative procedures. This lack of openness and trust

between government bodies such as the GMMB, and local people, needs to be

overcome if structures are to emerge that enhance the participation and control

of local people in the tourism development process.

9.2.4 Improved Infrastructure Development and Social Amenities

Local people recognised that the development of tourism was concurrent with

improving infrastructure and social amenities. Improved road access has led to

an easier movement of goods and people to and from Elmina, for example, the

roads are now tarred and linked to the Trans-West African Highway, giving

access to regional and national capitals. Besides this improvement providing a

convenient and faster way of travel for tourists, it also gave easier access for

traders to markets, and made commuting to work and school easier. One

observation by the researcher was that the only arterial road not tarred, was

regularly repaired by the owner of a hotel during the rainy season for use by

guests, also offering locals a route to commute to work and market centres. This

example illustrates how local people may benefit from tourism in an indirect way

without reliance upon the municipal assembly.

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A further improvement in infrastructure attributed to tourism development was the

securing of a more regular supply of electricity for household and business use.

The expansion of the provision of electricity poles in the local community was

attributed to the location of hotels, letting individual house owners extend the

wires to their homes, negating the payment of installation fees to the electricity

company. Alongside the availability of household electricity enhancing the quality

of life, it has also brought income earning opportunities, for example local people

can now sell ice blocks to fishermen and fishmongers, and cold minerals and

water to tourists, as shown in Figure 9.8.

Figure 9.8: Tourists buying cold drinks However, the cost of electricity is considered expensive and many people

questioned why the government is not promoting the use of solar energy as a

potential source of cheaper electricity for locals and tourism businesses.

Additionally, whilst tourism has indirectly improved the electricity supply, it is

associated with a reduced access to water, as was explained in Section 8.3.1. It

was evident to the local people, that whilst they lacked access to good quality

drinking water, the owners of the large hotels buy water for swimming pools and

irrigation of hotel gardens. This demand from the hotels is felt by local people to

be a significant reason for water scarcity and high prices. It also highlights an

element of competition between the tourism industry and local people for

resources. Criticisms were also made that the revenues generated by the tourism

industry had not been used to improve systems of waste disposal and sanitation

in Elmina, the problems of which were discussed in Section 8.3.3.

In summary, local people felt that whilst tourism has indirectly provided access

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roads and a supply of electricity, it has not improved access to good drinking

water, nor the sanitation and waste management disposal systems. The

challenge is therefore to plan tourism development in such a way that it does not

utilise resources at the expense of local people but rather offers them the chance

to gain enhanced access to improved social amenities.

9.2.5 Tour Guide and Artisans’ Training

One area where local people perceived that opportunities had been enhanced

through the provision of training was for local guides and artisans. Interviewees

stated that the provision of the training schemes was an outcome of the analysis

conducted during the Cultural Heritage and Local Development in Elmina

Programme (CHLDEP), explained in Section 1.5.4. The basis of this analysis

was to understand which types of products and services tourists were looking for.

Tour guiding, wood carving and kente weaving were identified as priority areas

for development.

The training was free of charge which allowed sixty artisans and twenty tour

guides to attend training for between three and six months, in broad areas of

customer care, communication skills and presentation of information on Elmina.

While respondents believed the training had improved their local knowledge and

skills, they questioned its effectiveness because there was no additional support

to access credit. The artisans said that whilst they lacked capital, they were not

given credit to buy raw materials and equipment that would allow them to

produce the goods for sale; hence they had to look for alternative employment

opportunities. Whilst the respondents perceived training as one aspect of

enhancing their capacity to participate in tourism, they also stressed the need for

access to credit facilities, and the requirement to establish partnerships with tour

operators.

9.2.6 Promotion of Cultural Values

A positive outcome of the arrival of international tourists to Elmina is that local

people view Elmina’s international recognition with pride and self-esteem.

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Specifically, the restoration of the castle and fort, rehabilitation of fourteen

historical merchant houses and the organisation of the Panafest and

Emancipation festivals, as explained in Section 1.5.4, were viewed as lending

symbolic importance to Elmina. However, some interviewees felt too much focus

had been directed on the castle, while other local cultural elements had been

neglected as being of insignificant interest to tourists. For example, they wanted

to see the annual traditional festivals (i.e., Bakatue and Edina Buronya festivals),

foods, traditional dress, craftworks, and music and dance elements developed

and promoted, as a way of offering tourists the opportunity to experience their

culture. The need for the government to engage in dialogue with chiefs, Asafo

companies and fishermen and women, was suggested as a strategy to develop

and promote these cultural attractions, whilst creating livelihood opportunities

and mitigating seasonality.

9.3 The ‘Castle Boys’ and Tourist Harassment A group called the Castle Boys, who are associated with tourist harassment, as

is explained in Section 7.3.2 (c), understand their interactions with tourists as a

means to monetary and non-monetary benefits which allow them to escape from

poverty. The Castle Boys consisted of approximately forty-five local boys whose

ages ranged from ten to twenty-three years, and who possessed varying levels of

educational achievement. Some were still in school, others had completed their

schooling, whilst some had dropped out of the educational system. This last

category cited reasons such as their parents’ inability to pay school fees and an

inability to find employment on finishing school. The Castle Boys are

unorganised, lacking a leader and designated responsibilities, although the

majority have been interacting with tourists for many years. Despite this

undefined structure, members were known to each other, implying that outsiders

could easily be identified. New members had to be either informally or formally

introduced by current members before being considered for entry into their fold.

The Castle Boys interacted with the tourists in a variety of ways to earn money

including the selling of seashells, providing informal tour guiding and begging,

typified in Figures 9.9 (a) and 9.9 (b). The amount they each earned per day

varied between GH¢5–GH¢10 (GB£2.18–GB£4.36), dependent upon the number

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of tourists they could interact with and their willingness to give them money. The

income is used to meet their livelihood needs and typically those of their siblings

including food, school fees, clothing and saving for their future. Some of the

Castle Boys have had their schools fees and ancillary expenses paid for by

‘philanthropic tourists’ to enable them to continue secondary and tertiary level

schooling, whilst one former Castle Boy interviewed said that apart from being

sponsored to attain higher education, he was invited by his benefactors to visit

them in Switzerland. He explained:

I was a street boy for more than 11 years and begged for money from tourists…I was

lucky a couple told me to stop begging, sponsored my education and helped me to

visit them in Switzerland. [A former Castle Boy]

Although the kind of tourist ‘harassment’ indulged in by the Castle Boys is

disapproved of by government officials, tour operators and some tourists, it does

have positive aspects in terms of combating poverty. The perception amongst the

Castle Boys was that the benevolence of tourists improved the quality of their

lives and had economic benefits. However, the Castle Boys argued that

government officials, and some tourists and tour operators viewed them as

having a negative effect on tourism and the image of Elmina. As a result, the

police were deployed to restrict their activities and opportunities for contact with

tourists. For example, one Castle Boy noted:

The big men don’t know how we are suffering…They don’t sympathise with us…They

did not train us as tour guides but are using the police to chase and prevent us from

the tourists…Our survival depends on the money we receive from tourists. [Castle

Boy]

Significantly, the Castle Boys, unlike officials and tour operators, interpreted the

benefits they received from the philanthropic tourists as voluntary support for

reducing poverty in the local community, a task that they viewed as being the

prime responsibility of the government. They suggested the need for the

government to offer them training in local tour guiding, after which they should be

employed by the management of the castle and municipal assembly as a way of

earning regular income.

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Figures 9.9a: and 9.9b: Activities undertaken by the Castle Boys In summary of Sections 9.2 and 9.3, local people understand tourism as

generating a variety of monetary and non-monetary opportunities which impacts

on their well-being including: business opportunities and access to the tourism

market; infrastructure development; employment creation; enhancement of the

image of their culture; and philanthropic support from tourists.

9.4 How Other Stakeholders Understand the Significance of Tourism

As discussed in Sections 1.4.4 and 7.3, tourism development in Elmina is

influenced by a number of stakeholders. Alongside local people, they include

government, donor agencies, the private sector and tourists. Their

understandings of the benefits of tourism are explained in the subsequent

sections.

9.4.1 Government

The government considers tourism a significant sector for development and

poverty reduction, as is evident from its role in the Ghana Poverty Reduction

Strategy and Millennium Development Goals (Sections 3.2.3, 5.2.2 and 5.3). The

development of cultural tourism in Elmina forms an integral part of the national

policy to encourage growth in international arrivals and realise macro-economic

benefits, including foreign exchange earnings, revenue from taxes, contribution to

GDP and employment. Integral to realising these benefits is the stimulation of

private sector investment, micro-businesses and small and medium size

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enterprises (SMEs), including hotels, restaurants and chop bars. There is a

general acceptance that through the stimulation of tourism development there will

be employment and income opportunities created for local people through the

‘trickle-down’ and multiplier effects. However, when asked whether an evaluation

of the impact of tourism in Elmina has been undertaken, the government officials

replied ‘no’.

Although government officials perceived salaries generated by tourism as income

benefits accruing to local people, this was a conjecture without empirical data to

substantiate the assertion. This lack of research is primarily a consequence of

resource and personnel constraints at both local and national levels collection

and analysis of tourism data. The government officials also explained that local

people do not benefit from entrance fees collected at the castle because

government directives for revenue sharing have not been implemented because

of administrative constraints, as was mentioned in Section 9.2.3 with reference to

the Government Consolidated Fund. The government interviewees stated that

local people are given resources in the form of grants to organise durbars and to

showcase their traditional culture to international tourists during Panafest and the

Emancipation Day celebrations. Additionally, the government supports the Chiefs

and people to celebrate the traditional Bakatue festival through monetary and

non-monetary donations. The government’s policy is that these donations are

integral to developing cultural values as part of stimulating tourism development

and thus improving economic opportunities in Elmina. In their view, the

government is playing a key role in providing the enabling environment for the

sustainable development of tourism which will provide economic and livelihood

benefits for the poor. Integral to this framework is the policy and regulatory

development, marketing and promotion of tourism to Elmina. Little emphasis has

yet been placed upon developing human resource strategies for training and

enhancing the capacity of the poor to gain employment in the tourism industry.

9.4.2 Donor Agencies

In Elmina, donor agency involvement in tourism is critical to its development, with

funds being used for the restoration of key tourist sites. For example, the

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European Commission’s involvement in tourism as the funding agency for the

restoration of the Elmina Castle is shown in Figure 9.10.

Figure 9.10: A donor agency’s involvement in tourism in Elmina

Representatives of the donor agencies cited their involvement in a number of

tourism activities including the restorations of Fort St. Jago, the Dutch cemetery

and fourteen merchant houses. They perceived their primary objective in Elmina

to be aimed at conserving the historical heritage and to develop tourism as a lead

sector to unlock sustainable livelihood opportunities for poor people in Elmina.

This objective of creating livelihood opportunities was understood as a part of

helping Ghana move towards fulfilment of its Millennium Development Goals and

the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy. When asked “to what extent the local

people were involved in the projects”, one donor agency representative said;

The people were only consulted in the project selection of a number of activities from

which the priority list was drawn by the Steering Committee of which a representative

from the Traditional Council was a member …Apart from that the implementation of

all the identified activities were done by the experts.

Although the belief was emphasised that tourism has created employment

opportunities for local people, they could not prove how their projects had

impacted on the population as evaluations had not been carried out. As in the

case of the Central Regional Integrated Development Programme (CERIDEP)

programme, as explained in Section 1.5.4, the respondent noted that the

evaluation report only spelt out the lack of involvement of the key beneficiaries

such as the District and Municipal Assemblies, not local people.

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Two main challenges with the implementation of the Cultural Heritage and Local

Development in Elmina Programme (CHLDEP) were identified despite the

absence of an evaluation report. The first related to an increase in project costs

as a consequence of delays associated with the required tendering processes to

recruit expert advice on project development. The representatives noted that they

would have saved time and reduced the expenditure on foreign consultants if

qualified local personnel had been available, underlying the lack of local

expertise in tourism. Additionally, these projects were embedded in political and

bureaucratic policies, which delayed decision-making, and were a causal factor of

the non-participation of key stakeholders who ought to be involved in the project

implementation. For example, although a key government official was appointed

to a higher political office outside of the Municipality, he refused to relinquish the

position of Chairman of the Project Steering Committee to his successor even

though he could not attend the majority of the scheduled meetings, thus creating

dissatisfaction amongst the members.

9.4.3 The Private Sector

The private sector identifies itself, and is identified by government, as a key

stakeholder in tourism development in Elmina. In terms of having resources to

influence the direction of tourism development, the major players in Elmina are

the tour operators, who operate the all-inclusive tour packages. When asked

what policy strategy they were implementing to help reduce poverty, the tour

operators stated that they contribute to national development in a variety of ways

which benefit the people of Elmina, for example through payment of taxes and

employment opportunities created by their business operations.

The interviewees considered poverty reduction action as a government

responsibility, not theirs, which could be partially addressed by providing an

enabling environment for private sector investment. As was emphasised by the

local people and explained in Section 9.2, there was thought to be a need to

improve and diversify the tourism product. It was also stressed that capacity

building was necessary for local people in aspects of tour guiding, service quality

and food hygiene preparations, before they could be given serious consideration

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as employees. However, the responsibility for establishing the capacity training

programmes was felt to be that of government vis-à-vis the private sector.

It is evident that similar to the government, poverty was viewed by the tour

operators as something that was to be alleviated through economic growth.

There was no evident consideration by the operators to change the structure of

their operations away from all-inclusive packages which they viewed as creating

wealth and employment opportunities in Elmina. The emphasis appeared to be

that it was the responsibility of government to address the economic and social

problems of Elmina, not theirs.

9.4.4 Tourists

It was evident that tourists recognised the economic impact of their expenditure in

the Elmina community. The main types of expenditure they identified included:

food and beverage; souvenirs; lagoon and sea cruise; walking tours; entrance

fees; accommodation; local transport; and giving money to beggars as reflected

in the comments of the respondents.

(a). I bought minerals from the castle restaurants and paid the entrance fees… I don’t

have any money left to give to the beggars. [Tourist]

(b). I was asked by some of the boys to give them money which I did and also bought

one of the sea shells with my name written on it as a souvenir. [Tourist]

(c) Elmina is a wonderful place to visit but there are not enough activities to make me

excited to stay…the accommodation and meals are expensive at the hotels and I

cannot give money to any beggar. [Tourist]

Influential to the significance of the economic impact of tourism is the tourist

typology arriving in Elmina. For example, the all-inclusive international tourists

spend less time in the local community, with their expenditure being limited to the

payment of entrance fees and the purchasing of souvenirs bought. In contrast, it

was found that backpackers spend a longer time in the local community and

spend their money on a variety of goods and services including smaller and

budget hotels, food, fish, snacks and beverages.

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As is the case of local people, a recurring theme amongst respondents was the

issue of tourist ‘harassment’. Some tourists felt they were already financially over-

burdened with the total cost of their holiday and should not become involved in

poverty issues, which they viewed as the responsibility of government. Other

tourists cared about the livelihood of local people, viewing their welfare as the

collective responsibility of tourists, donors, the private sector and government.

Subsequently, monetary and non-monetary donations made to beggars were

sometimes emphasised as the tourists’ contribution to poverty reduction in

Elmina, as exemplified in the following statements:

(a) People only talk about the castle and not the town. There are some signs of

poverty here, the children playing on the street and are not well dressed, open drains

and poor sanitation, and they need to be helped. [Tourist]

(b) Giving money to local people is tourists’ voluntary support to poor

communities…the people are poor and need to be helped because you can see that

the children are walking on the street without having decent clothes on. [Tourist]

(c) Although I am not rich, but coming from a rich country I feel like giving something

back to this community to help the people go to school. [Tourist]

Although these comments reflect the willingness of these philanthropic tourists to

make contributions to the local community, respondents felt a proper and

transparent way to solicit support from tourists was for the government to provide

information about specific projects that could help the poor. Generally, it is not

uncommon for tourists to be approached by the Castle Boys or a chief during a

festival event, to make donations for very specific causes, for example for

medical equipment or books for schools. A notable example of the extent of the

help that can be given by individual tourists, is the Nana Etsiapa Methodist

Primary School, where funding for the building of six classrooms has been given

by one tourist.

However, the respondents generally felt that a practical way to increase tourists’

length of stay and expenditure to create more economic opportunities for local

people was to diversify and improve the tourist experience. Whilst the tour of the

castle was generally acceptable, they felt that the cultural experience would be

richer if the beach and lagoon were developed with recreational facilities, and

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cultural dance and music performed by the local people. As Lisa said; “I want

good and clean cafes and local food, open places to seat and relax”,

emphasising the need to diversify the tourism product. However, not all the

tourists had positive views about how the culture in Elmina was being used for

tourism. Concerns were raised by tourists of African-American identity about the

use of Elmina Castle for tourism, as exemplified in the following quote:

They are desecrating my ancestral heritage for tourism…whoever is responsible for

this idea should stop…this castle has to be preserved as sacred ground for

pilgrimage by Blacks in the Diaspora. [Tourist]

The issues being raised about the ‘use’ of culture in tourism may become more

prevalent in the future, as tourism continues to develop in Elmina. The use and

presentation of culture for tourism strengthens the call for participatory

involvement in the planning of tourism, to attempt to avoid accusations of

inauthenticity, neo-colonialism and patronisation that can accompany cultural

tourism. However, an evident difference would seem to exist in this case between

those living in Elmina and the diaspora resident in America. The concerns over

how history and culture were being used for tourism were being raised by the

diaspora, not the local people.


This chapter has explained the different ways stakeholders understand the role of

tourism in combating poverty in Elmina, from which a conclusion may be drawn.

This relates to perceptions of the socio-economic opportunities from tourism,

which is understood in several ways. These include opportunities for: business

investment; infrastructure development; employment creation; cultural

enhancement; and philanthropic support from tourists. A combination of several

factors interacts to determine the extent of benefits that local people obtain from

the tourism industry. Issues of resource ownership; availability and access to

finance; educational levels and skills capacities; and the degree of openness and

access to tourism market are all influential in deciding the degree of benefits

gained from tourism. The inter-actions of these variables are also influential for

determining the role that an individual plays within the tourism industry of Elmina,

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for example whether as a business owner; public sector employee; worker in a

hotel or restaurant; Castle Boy; hawker; fisherman; and fishmonger.

Whilst tourism is evidently providing some employment opportunities, it is evident

that livelihood opportunities through tourism are presently limited. There are

several reasons for this, ranging from the structural, to the individual. A lack of

attention from government to encourage local people's participation in tourism,

combined with the engrained practice of the tour operators, restrict opportunities

to gain a livelihood through tourism. Tour operators have a key role to play in the

tourism market in Elmina but they have not attempted to form linkages with

businesses in the local economy. The practice of all-inclusive tours negates any

real benefits for local people through tourism. The control of the movements of

tourists by the operators when on tours, for example to the selected restaurants

and handicraft-selling outlets, restrict opportunities for other local people to

become involved in the tourism market.

At the individual level, there is a lack of knowledge and skills to work in the

tourism industry, which is compounded not only by a lack of specific training

opportunities but a more general failing of the educational system. This failure is

mainly a consequence of poverty, with parents unable to afford the ‘extras’, e.g.

uniforms that are required within the non-fee paying state sector, and the

necessity for children to help out in their parents’ work and businesses.

In terms of willingness to have a direct impact on poverty, the most important

stakeholder in Elmina at present is the tourist, some of whom have directly

supported schools and individuals. However, acts of philanthropic tourists merely

treat the symptoms of poverty, not its structural causes. The role of direct

intervention in poverty alleviation by tourists could be enhanced, if they were

provided with information by government and non-governmental organisations of

which types of projects to channel their contributions to, to bring benefits to the

wider community.

The emphasis of both the government and tour operators is upon ‘growth’ as the

way to reduce and alleviate poverty. The dominant paradigm is neo-liberal, with

an emphasis upon wealth ‘trickling-down’ to the poor. Whilst there is a limited

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evidence of this, through employment creation and indirect benefits such as local

people being able to ‘tap’ into the electricity grid developed for hotels, from the

perspectives of local people opportunities to improve their livelihoods are not

emerging. There are also adverse effects on people lives from pursuing growth

through increased international tourism arrivals, e.g. water supply problems and

increases in prices.

It is suggested that there is a need to shift away from an approach of ‘Tourism

First’ to ‘Development First’ which embodies within it the principles of

participatory approaches and sustainable development. Partnerships between

government, donor agencies, the tourism industry and local people need to be

established, to ensure an inclusive approach to tourism development. If not,

many local people will remain marginalised from the tourism market, unable to

access it in the absence of the availability of finance and individual capacity to

work in the tourism industry. Thus tourism in Elmina will remain demarcated

between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, meaning missed livelihood opportunities

and possible rising social tensions. Thus, understanding the social and economic

perspectives within the local community should be an important part of policy

formulation for tourism interventions aiming to maximise gains, livelihood

opportunities for local people. However, a range of barriers exist, identified by

local people that currently restrict their participation in tourism, as is explained in

Chapter Ten.

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Chapter 10

Barriers to Local People’s Participation in Tourism

10.1 Introduction

This chapter explains the barriers that impede local people’s participation in

tourism in Elmina and subsequently restrict their livelihood opportunities.

Although the local people’s desire to participate in tourism is strong, opportunities

are restricted by several barriers which are explained in the subsequent sections.

10.2 Lack of Financial Capital

A lack of income, credit and financial capital has been identified as a major

constraint in the establishment of new businesses and the expansion of existing

ones.

10.2.1 Lack of Income

Lack of income for investment was identified by respondents as a major barrier

affecting local people’s participation in tourism in Elmina. This supports the

finding in Section 8.2, that a lack of steady income was identified as one defining

characteristic of poverty by local people, which was attributed to the dwindling

salt and fishing production activities. As a consequence, profits generated from

non-tourism business are too low to allow savings and possible investment in

tourism. Although tourism has created a variety of business opportunities,

tourism business owners reported that the income generated from their business

operations was low, consequently they lacked the investment to expand their

businesses. The reasons they cited to explain their low income included the

effects of seasonality, limited access to the tourism markets and payment of a

multiplicity of taxes.

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From the perspective of workers, lack of income was a consequence of low

wages earned as employees in tourism and salt production businesses. They

said that whilst wages were generally low, the high costs of basic needs including

food and buying of drinking water did not allow for savings or investment in

tourism, as indicated in the following comment:

How can I buy a taxi to pick up tourists from Elmina to Cape Coast [regional capital

and also a tourist destination] when I don’t have enough money to pay for my rent,

buy water to drink and food to feed my family…the wages are not good…there is

nowhere to go…there is no alternative employment for me as a worker. [Hotel

worker]

From the point of view of the Castle Boys, their lack of income related to their

inability to gain employment due to their low level of education and skills.

Although unemployed, the Castle Boys receive money from tourists through

begging activities but do not earn enough to make savings to invest in tourism

enterprises. When respondents were asked whether they received financial

support from their families which could be invested in tourism businesses, some

respondents said “yes”, but added that such remittances were inadequate for the

needs of their household.

10.2.2 Lack of Access to Credit

Lack of access to credit was a major obstacle facing local people who wished to

establish or expand tourism businesses. Although formal financial services are

offered by different banks, including the Edina Rural and Standard Chartered

Banks in Elmina, tourism and non-tourism business owners reported that they did

not have access to credit. There are two principal reasons for this: local people’s

inability to provide the necessary collateral security demanded by the formal

banks, normally land and property; and the high transaction costs to prepare

business plans, including the requisite payment of bribes to officials at the banks.

When asked whether they were able to access loans from the micro-finance

scheme that was implemented by the Municipal Assembly, the respondents’

replied ‘no’, and reported that tourism was not included in the list of beneficiary

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sectors. When an official of the Municipal Assembly was interviewed concerning

the micro-finance loan scheme, she stated that disbursements were made by

priority poverty economic sectors. She explained that whilst the tourism industry

is important, farmers and fishermen were the main beneficiaries in the Poverty

Reduction Strategy Report, prepared by the Ministry of Local Government and

presented to the Municipal Assembly for implementation. However, tourism

business owners felt that the action taken by the Municipal Assembly reflected

inequality in the distribution of financial resources and a lack of support for local

people’s initiatives in tourism development. One beer bar owner said:

We don’t have money to operate guest houses or restaurants as demanded by the

donors and Municipal Assembly…many of us [local people] asked the banks for loans

but they did not give us…how can I use a family house as collateral to obtain a loan

from the bank…[Beer bar owner]

The statement reflects the general view of local people that without access to

income it is difficult to invest in tourism businesses, unless they can have access

to credit without collateral security. Given that this is usually taken as being

property and land ownership, the poor in Elmina are effectively disenfranchised

from acquiring credit.

Due to a lack of accessible credit from the formal and micro-finance scheme, the

‘Susu’ savings and credit scheme has become a major source of fund

mobilisation for local people. ‘Susu’ is a traditional and informal banking system

that allows individuals to make daily or weekly fixed deposits into a ‘pool’, which

they collect at the end of the month. Although the contributors to the ‘Susu’

scheme do not earn interest, they perceive it as a mechanism to mobilise a

substantial sum of money, which is used to buy goods to expand their business

operations. They can also have access to loans with little interest from the ‘Susu’

operators without having to offer collateral. The respondents said that the ‘Susu’

scheme was making a significant contribution to business start-ups and

expansion because it guaranteed regular access to savings and loans, typified in

the following statements:

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(a) I don’t receive any loan from the banks…I don’t have property and can’t pay the

interests…I only save with the ‘Susu’ man and collect my contribution at the end of

every month to plough back into my business [Handicraft seller].

(b) I pay my daily ‘Susu’ contribution of one Ghana Cedis [GB£0.43]…You see, the

money I collected last month was used to buy tables and chairs for use by my

customers…which bank will give me money to buy them? [Beverage seller]

As the above comments imply, financial resources are not available, hence the

dependency on savings outside the formal banking system. As a result the

growing link between tourism business owners and ‘Susu’ collectors has become

an important financial mechanism to provide credit to local people in Elmina.

These views not only emphasise the lack of available credit that has restricted

local businesses from fully realising the opportunities and benefiting from tourism

development, they also exemplify how the lack of financial capital acts as a

barrier to local people’s participation in tourism. Local people do not have enough

capital to establish new businesses such as guest houses nor to upgrade

existing enterprises such as hotels and chop bars to serve tourists. As the

business owners stressed, a lack of financial capital makes it difficult for local

people to play a leading role as entrepreneurs in the tourism industry in Elmina.

They also suggested that the government should establish a ‘Tourism

Development Fund’ that could provide credit facilities to accelerate small scale

enterprises in tourism by local people.

In summary, a lack of financial capital for investment in the locally owned tourism

industry has resulted from a marked lack of available income and credit to local

people from the formal banking and micro-financing institutions. The respondents

suggested the need for the government together with themselves to discuss their

financial problems. They said that this partnership could create an opportunity to

share information and help the financial institutions to understand the nature of

tourism businesses, hopefully moving them to consider it as a priority sector in

their lending portfolios.

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10.3 Lack of Human Capital

As alluded to in Section 9.2, a lack of capability has been found to impede local

people’s participation in tourism. One aspect of this capability is a lack of human

capital, which can be separated into a lack of education and skills, combined with

the apathy of local people toward programmes initiated by the government and

tour operators

10.3.1 Lack of Education and Skills Capacity

The low educational level of tourism business owners and workers was found to

be the most fundamental challenge facing their participation in tourism. This

concern was expressed most forcibly by the tourism business owners, who were

aware that to be successful in tourism in an international market demanded

training. However, a problem associated with education in Elmina is that some

girls and boys do not attend school because they have to spend a great deal of

time helping their parents in their fishery and retailing activities, as explained in

Section 8.3.4. Others leave school because they can not afford to pay for their

school fees, as was the case of some of the Castle Boys. The low level of

education of local people had stimulated an influx of employees from other parts

of country to work in tourism in Elmina. One Castle Boy said: “when you go to the

hotels to look for job, they tell you to bring your certificate…but we don’t have it”.

Whilst local people had been offered employment by the public sector tourism

organisations, they occupy unskilled positions that pay low wages, as a

consequence of their low level of education. Workers interviewed said that as a

consequence of a lack of skills, opportunities to earn higher wages, seek

promotion and find employment with better conditions of services were highly

restricted. Tourism business owners also strongly felt that they lacked skills and

identified a range of training needs that could enhance their capabilities,

including management skills, customer relations, record keeping, pricing and

negotiation techniques. For example, chop bar and drinking bar operators

identified that an improvement in their skills in customer care and book keeping

would have a substantial positive impact on their business in the long term.

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Three main measures to tackle the barriers to participation and enhance

livelihood opportunities through tourism were identified. Firstly, training should

target the needs of the unemployed and tourism business owners. For example,

the unemployed should be offered training in the skills needed in businesses

such as chop bars, drinking bars and craft shops. Secondly, preference should

be given to ‘on-the-job training’ and ‘on-site training’ and held in Elmina, which is

closer to the potential trainees. Respondents stated that training programmes

organised to take place in the regional and national capitals restricted their

participation because of the costs of fees, accommodation, meals and transport.

However, a representative of the Hotel Tourism and Training Centre (HOTCATT)

did not see this proposal as feasible because his organisation lacked the

requisite logistics to organise training in Elmina, unless the trainees could

demonstrate their ability to pay the costs involved. In his view, non-participation

by local people was not associated with the course fees but rather the fact that

the business owners and workers lacked meaningful commitment to training and

improving their skills. Finally, the training of local people for employment in

tourism should be seen by government as an integral aspect of poverty

reduction, to include the establishment of a ‘Tourism Training Fund’ as a means

of making training in tourism accessible to local people.

10.3.2 Issues of Apathy

Apathy amongst local people is a contributory factor to their non-involvement in

tourism. Whilst local people hold the government and tour operators accountable

for the extent to which apathy has become a problem in Elmina, the government

and tour operators blame the locals. Chop bar and drinking bar owners stated

that local people lacked motivation to be involved in tourism, mainly as a

consequence of being ignored by the government in its planning and

development, which rendered them apathetic about taking part in matters beyond

their traditional, religious, businesses and family domains. The respondents

stated that the Municipal Assembly and other government organisations did not

give money for transportation costs the very few times they invited local people to

meetings, making the cost of participation expensive. Moreover, attending

government meetings was seen as a waste by local people as their views were

usually ignored in the final decision-making. It was felt that their presence was

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little more than symbolic tokenism and no one was really interested in what they

felt would bring about changes in their well-being. Very often local people were

never invited to meetings about tourism development in Elmina. For example, the

fishermen said that they had never been invited to any meeting connected to

tourism, as exemplified in these comments of a fisherman and a fishmonger.

(a) They [Government] did not invite us [fishermen] to the Panafest meetings

because we have not been to school…if they had invited us we would advise them to

include boat racing to the programme which would offer a competition between

fishermen in Elmina and our brothers in Komenda, Cape Coast and others…this is

also tourism [Fisherman]

(b) You can’t invite yourself to a meeting…it is somebody’s responsibility to invite you

if he values your idea. [Fishmonger]

However, a government representative said that the majority of the people

involved in fishery activities were not interested in issues of tourism development,

believing that these did not directly affect their businesses. He also said that

owners of tourism businesses often failed to attend scheduled meetings to

discuss issues on tourism because they were generally not interested in activities

undertaken by the Municipal Assembly. The government representative said:

They [local people] don’t want us to hear their side of views …and so we talk to the

Chief when we need to discuss tourism development programmes, and it is his

responsibility to inform his people…of course, this approach may not service a large

proportion of local people, but they [local people and business owners] don’t want to

be converted through the meetings which forms an integral part of the awareness

programme to sensitise the people on tourism development in Elmina. [Government

representative]

Tour operators interviewed also said that there was apathy among tourism

business owners, who often failed to attend meetings planned to facilitate the

formation of local associations and promote co-ordination. For example, three

meetings organised to help promote partnership amongst stakeholders were

poorly attended, whilst some of the owners were represented by employees who

could not take decisions.

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Given the divergence in views held by stakeholders about the ‘apathy’ of local

people, it is difficult to gauge the extent of a real attempt at a participatory

approach for tourism development in Elmina. There exists no formal government

strategy to encourage local participation, and there would seem to be a mutual

deafness, of the government and local people each accusing the other of not

wanting to hear. Any attempt of a participatory approach would on the evidence

of the results of this research seem to be highly ineffective. For a participatory

approach to be truly pluralistic, giving voice to all sections of the community,

whether ‘educated’ or not, implementation of capacity building programmes

through co-ordinated activities amongst government, private sector and local

people is essential.

10.4 Lack of Social Capital

Besides financial capital, a lack of a variety of social resources needed to

advance livelihoods has been found to impede local people’s participation in

tourism. One aspect of this social resource is a lack of ‘social capital’, which can

be separated into several main components. These are a lack of access to: the

tourism market; diversified tourism product; institutional capacity; information;

involvement in decision-making; co-ordination; and poor infrastructure. These

seven themes are explained in the following sub-sections.

10.4.1 Lack of Access to the Tourism Market

Variable and a total lack of access to the tourism market is a major constraint in

realising economic livelihood opportunities. The degree of access to the tourism

market varies between tourism businesses, for example, the larger hotels had a

greater share of the market than the smaller ones because of their frequent use

by tour operators for all-inclusive packages. The smaller hotels were

predominantly used by adventure tourists who often sought basic and low-priced

accommodation; however in the opinion of the owners the number were too small

to provide livelihood all year round.

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Access to the tourism market for restaurants and chop bars also varied

significantly due to their location in relation to the larger hotels and the different

types of foods they offer to tourists. Whilst the chop bars sell local foods to

mainly adventure tourists, the restaurants primarily serve imported foods to both

package holiday and adventure tourists. The chop bar owners were particularly

critical of the tour operators, regarding their frequent use of the hotels and

restaurants as the underlying reason for their marginalisation in the tourism

market. They hoped the government would persuade the tour operators to

patronise their services within a context of promoting local food promotion,

subsequently unlocking economic opportunities for chop bar owners.

Handicraft sellers reported that a major causal factor of the lack of access to the

tourism market is the location of the craft market well away from the main tourist

area around Elmina Castle, meaning it is not visited by either tourists or tour

operators. As a consequence, some of the handicraft sellers and trained artisans

who produce arts and crafts felt compelled to leave Elmina and establish their

businesses elsewhere, as witnessed in the following statements:

(a) Most traders have left the business and re-located to the Cape Coast Castle

where space has been allocated to them by GMMB…we don’t understand why the

same GMMB has given preference to only one handicraft seller to operate in the

Elmina Castle, whilst asking the rest of us to go to the craft market that has been

provided by the Municipal Assembly. [Handicraft seller]

(b) Who goes there [craft market] to buy souvenirs? The market is not properly

constructed, besides tourists don’t go there. The craft market should have been

constructed here [near Castle] so that tourists who come to the castle can have more

time to buy things from us. [Handicraft seller]

The handcraft sellers said that tour operators who transported tourists to and

from Elmina had entered into a contract with the large hotels, restaurants and

selected handicraft shops, from whom they gained a commission from the goods

and services sold to the tourists. However, the tour operators indicated that such

contracts were ‘normal’ business practice to earn additional income from their

operations. Whilst the tour operators accepted that their business operations

were influenced by their profit motives, they argued that tourists felt unsafe from

harassment when outside their hotels or not participating in organised tours.

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Subsequently, for tourists to visit more handicraft sellers, the tour operators

stressed the need for a solution to harassment and the poor sanitation

arrangements that created a low quality environment in Elmina.

Restricting local people’s access to the tourism market affects employment and

income earning opportunities, whilst also negating the potential use of tourism for

poverty reduction. For tourism to realise its potential, it is important that barriers

to access to social capital for the poor are overcome. Local stakeholders felt it

important for the relationship between tour operators and local people to be

strengthened, through partnership and capacity building programmes, which

would ease access to tourists and considerably enhance opportunities for selling

their products and services. The variety of strategies the respondents proposed

to strengthen the relationship included: (i) promoting complementary products

including local foods and arts and crafts; (ii) making Elmina more attractive to

tourists to lengthen their stay, so that they integrate more fully with the local

economy, whilst increasing their spending on local goods and services; and (iii)

establishing capacity building training programmes to provide the skills training

necessary for local people to be able to offer a quality service to tourists.

10.4.2 Lack of a Diversified Tourism Product

A lack of development of productive activities that could allow local people to

generate income in the tourism market was constantly emphasised by

respondents as a barrier to their participation in tourism. Although there is a

range of festivals and places where tourists and locals can interact, e.g. Bakatue

festival, the beach and the lagoon, and where arts and crafts are sold, they are

not sufficiently developed to give local people a focal point from which to sell to

tourists. From the perspective of the business owners, the development of the

lagoon and beach areas, combined with provision of recreational facilities, could

draw tourists away from their regular routes and offer them more localised

experiences upon which they could spend money. They suggested the need to

diversify tourism development away from an over dependency on the immediate

locale of Elmina Castle, and were also of the view that major events of the Pan

African Historical Festival and Emancipation Day, had yielded few livelihood

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opportunities for local people. They also added that their views had not received

any attention from the government.

The craft sellers favoured the development of arts and craft production to sell to

tourists, which would create employment for skilled and unemployed local

people, helping to arrest the increasing rate of emigration to seek livelihood

opportunities elsewhere. However, the Municipal Assembly [government] has

failed to provide the financial and institutional support to stimulate local

entrepreneurs to produce arts and crafts. Subsequently, there is reliance by

handicraft sellers upon the importation of curios from outside Elmina for sale to

tourists. Whilst recognising that the cultural elements of Elmina offer great

opportunities to increase and diversify the range of tourist services, a

government representative interviewed felt that the initiatives to meet this

demand should come from local people. This approach is indicative of a non-

commitment on the part of the government, to provide capability building aimed

at diversifying tourism activities, as a strategy to widen livelihood opportunities.

10.4.3 Lack of Institutional Capacity: Business Registration and Regulation

A lack of institutional capacity to facilitate business registration and regulation,

and the payment of the multiple taxes demanded by government, were identified

as constraints affecting local people’s investment in tourism. The tourism

business owners criticised the highly bureaucratic system of business registration

and requirement of licensing (permits) in the industry. Table 10.1 lists the various

permits that tourism business owners must acquire before they are allowed to

establish and operate a tourism enterprise. These range from the certification of

incorporation of a business to building permits and feasibility study reports. All

registered business have to cope with voluminous paperwork, as several copies

of the application forms have to be completed, and together with the required

fees, submitted to the governing bodies that are located outside of Elmina, i.e.

Cape Coast or Accra. This involves high transaction and travel costs, often

involving the payment of bribes.

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Tourism business owners reported epidemic corruption amongst officials from

the various governing bodies who often demanded money to facilitate the

process of acquiring the necessary permits and licenses. This included bribes to

officials during the submission of registration forms, establishing electricity

supplies, requests for police and fire reports, and establishment inspections to

ensure they met required safety standards. During the fieldwork, the author

witnessed more than one situation whereby electricity company officials were

seen demanding money from hotel owners to ensure a regular supply of

electricity. The hotel owners would experience a constant interruption of the

electricity supply if they refused to give money to the officials. Corruption is not

uncommon and it is clear that ongoing and unresolved corruption can hinder

participation in tourism by local people, especially those without access to

resources. Respondents said that bribery has the effect of fostering a climate of

apprehension amongst tourism business owners, whilst also diverting resources

that could have been utilised to expand their business and create employment

opportunities. This situation of the payment of ‘incentive’ to speed up the process

favours the wealthy over the poor.

The tourism business owners also wanted government bodies to revise the

multiplicity of taxes imposed on their enterprises. The cost of these taxes was

perceived as a disincentive to investment in tourism, made more perplexing by

the imposition of more than twelve different annual taxes. These include: permit

fees, property rates; value added tax; income tax; internal revenue tax; and

music copyright tax. While the interviewees acknowledged the need for

regulation of their operations, the present registration, regulation and tax systems

were perceived as constraining the growth of businesses. They wanted the

various government agencies to consult them and establish a mutually beneficial

streamlined approach.

However, Ghana Tourist Board and Municipal Assembly representatives

interviewed categorically denied that the registration and regulations were

cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive. When asked if it was not possible

to enter into dialogue with the tourism business owners to resolve this problem,

they were non-committal but stated that they (business owners) should submit

their grievances to the government [Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan

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Relations]. The views of the government representatives indicated a lack of

transparency and accountability, whilst the highly cumbersome, corrupt and

inefficient registration and regulation procedure weakened the government’s

policy of using investment in tourism to tackle poverty in Elmina.

Table 10.1: Different permits required by tourism business operators in Elmina

Formal Tourism Establishment Informal Catering Establishment

Certification of Incorporation of

Business

Manager’s name, sex, educational background and

professional experience

Certificate of Commencement of

Business

Ownership (Partnership, Limited Liability, Sole

Proprietorship)

Company Regulations Nature of Business (Drinking Bar, Snack Bar, Traditional

Catering Establishments, Others such as Outdoor Caterer)

Site Plan and Basic Drawing Structure (Kiosk, summer hut, concrete etc.)

Evidence of Ownership of

Premises

Service (waiter/self-service)

Building Permit Hours of operations

Development or Change of use

of permit from Town & Country

Planning Department

Discotheques, Concerts and Cinemas.

Report from the Police (CID) on

the security of the premises and

criminal records of the proprietor,

manager and key personnel

Environmental Unit permit from Metropolitan/ Municipal/

District Assembly

Suitability Report from the

Ghana National Fire Service

Report from Ghana National Fire Service

Suitability Report from

Environmental Protection

Agency

Permit from Commissioner of Police

Feasibility Report/Plan Business Registration Certificate

Sources: Author’s Own Work

10.4.4 Lack of Involvement in Decision-Making

Local people in Elmina see their non-involvement in decision making as a barrier

to expressing their priorities and making choices. To the open-ended question;

“how have the local people been involved in the decision making process relating

to tourism?”, the government view was that a representative from the Traditional

Council represented local people on the Project Steering Committee, which

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supervised the implementation of the Cultural Heritage and Local Development in

Elmina Programme (CHLDEP), discussed in Section 1.5.4.

However, tourism business owners and the Asafo companies felt strongly that

they had been excluded from tourism programmes, citing the example of the Pan

African Historical Festival (Panafest) and annual Emancipation Day celebrations

which are being planned by a committee in Accra away from the venue. Typical

views of the lack of involvement of local people are expressed in the following

statements:

(a) The Authorities aren’t helping to develop tourism in Elmina. They aren’t using

local experts like me…I wasn’t involved in the Elmina project, Panafest and

Emancipation Day activities which took place here [Elmina]…A prophet is not

accepted in his home... [Tour guide]

(b) During the 1992 and 1994 Panafest, the local people were involved and felt it was

their festival and the world was coming to them…but now the owners of tourism

facilities and local people who receive the tourists are not consulted and involved in

the designing of activities…the organisers are doing their own things in Accra. [Beer

bar operator]

However, a representative of the Ghana Museums and Movements Board

(GMMB) wondered why the views of the local people should be sought when

they were not providing the funding for the programmes. Asked whether there

were a policy and strategies to involve the local people in tourism programmes,

the GMMB official responded:

We only consult and give money to the Traditional Council when we need them to

organise durbars to showcase their traditional culture during national and

international events held in the area…Apart from that, there is nothing to discuss with

them. [Government representative]

These statements are an example of the context in which the decision making

process works in Elmina, suggesting a lack of the elements of participatory

approaches such as consultation and imposition as opposed to dialogue and

partnerships.

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In terms of poverty reduction, it is essential to understand and develop strategies

of how local people can overcome non-involvement in decision making in order

to actively participate in and benefit from tourism. A lack of involvement can

exacerbate tensions between local people and government in Elmina, due to a

lack of trust and transparency in the institutions responsible for tourism

development and the conservation of the cultural sites. A lack of participation

combined with an absence of transparency can also lead to bureaucratic abuse

in the process of the allocation of resources for tourism, subsequently denying

livelihood opportunities for local people in Elmina. For example, only consulting

and giving money to the Traditional Council to organise durbars during national

and international tourism events, supports a ‘top-down’ approach. This means

local people, including the poor, have no voice and cannot express their views or

be involved in decision-making about development programmes which impact

upon their livelihoods.

10.4.5 Lack of Information

A lack of information about tourism development in Elmina was found to hinder

local people’s participation in the industry. The Municipal Assembly and Ghana

Tourist Board were frequently cited for their failure to openly and transparently

inform the people about issues that impacted upon their business activities as

well as their well-being. For example, respondents reported that the two bodies

often did not inform tourism business owners about changes in government

policies and the implications for their business activities. They were dissatisfied

that the larger hotels had easy and open access to the governing bodies

responsible for the regulation and approval of tourism investment and incentives,

whilst as small business operators they were marginalised.

The lack of information is worsened by a lack of resources for the government

bodies and Municipal Assembly to gather up-date information about tourism or

even produce marketing literature. For example, the Tourism Information Office

in Elmina lacks a website and does not have maps and brochures to give to

tourists and local people. Asked why the office did not have promotional

materials, the official interviewed said that;

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This office is finding it difficult to market Elmina because whilst it lacks financial

resources there is also a lack of collaboration among the Municipal Assembly, the

Traditional Council [chief and elders], Member of Parliament and the Tourism

Organisations…Every body is doing its own thing...Although the Assembly is

responsible for this office, they are not allocating money for production of promotional

materials…Apart from that only few operators bring copies of their brochures here to

give to tourists. [Official, Tourist Information Office]

As a consequence of this lack of information there was a communication gap

between local people and tourism governing bodies, often compelling locals to

rely on word-of-mouth to know what was going on in the context of tourism

development. Consequently, such a system is open to widespread

misinformation leading to marginalisation and exclusion from tourism. Access to

up-to-date information was considered important by respondents since it could

help enhance their understanding of economic opportunities in tourism and

consequently the roles that they could play.

10.4.6 Lack of Co-ordination

The lack collaboration between stakeholders to market Elmina is representative

of a wider malaise of a lack of vertical and horizontal co-ordination. At a vertical

level, there is an absence of a working relationship and networking between

governing bodies and the local people in the selection, designing and

management of tourism projects and programmes. For example, the chiefs and

Asafo companies maintained that the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board

(GMMB) did not co-ordinate issues regarding the management of the Castle, Fort

and Dutch Cemetery which attract tourists to Elmina. As stakeholders, they

expected the government agency to have a co-ordination mechanism focusing

around the identification of tourism programmes that were mutually beneficial

and likely to enhance the sustainable management of the cultural heritage. One

chief commented:

We [local people] own the land and the government and donors claim they own the

Castle…this means that there are three parties owning it and there must be co-

ordination amongst them to manage the property. You don’t exclude the Traditional

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Council and expect it to tell the people to stop defecating around the

Castle…management is a joint effort and the government must know that the people

are also shareholders…

By contrast, horizontal co-ordination was explained as a lack of networking,

relating to intra-government agencies and intra-tourism business owners. For

example, a government representative said that often government bodies kept

their respective policies and activities a secret from other government

departments, a practice that often contributed to an ineffective implementation of

development programmes. Often structures such as ‘steering committees’ and

‘planning committees’ were formed, comprising representatives of various

agencies, but they were frequently abolished during the project implementation

process or immediately after the task had been completed. One government

representative said:

You don’t know who is responsible for tourism development in Elmina…everybody is

having a piece of a small cake…

Respondents reported that although business activities within the tourism

industry were fragmented, a lack of co-ordination had been a major causal factor

impeding the ability collectively to identify strategies to create business

opportunities. For example, when respondents were asked whether there had

been meetings on some specific tourism issues, such as tax regimes and

marketing initiatives, they all replied ‘no’.

Co-ordination was advocated by respondents as an important mechanism that

could allow tourism business owners to have a common ‘voice’, constructed on a

broad basis of trust and networking collectively, to formulate actions and

negotiations with government bodies and tour operators on significant issues

affecting their operations. They reiterated that the co-ordination of business

activities could be a route to creating a strategy of tourism development in which

cultural tourism, based on the diverse cultural heritage of Elmina, would

contribute to an overall strategy of sustainable development.

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10.4.7 Poor Infrastructure Development

As explained in Section 9.2.4, tourism was held as a direct and indirect

contributor to the provision of social amenities, particularly tarred roads and the

supply of electricity, whilst poor waste disposal management and limited access

to drinking water supplies were frequently cited by local people as restricting

investment in tourism in two main ways. Firstly, local entrepreneurs needed to be

able to operate their businesses without having to purchase water from private

tanker drivers which led to increased costs of operations as explained. They felt

that the provision of clean and safe drinking water by government could catalyse

expansion of local businesses, whilst encouraging the further establishment of

guest houses and home stays, once water was available to flush their toilets and

provide drinking water for guests. Secondly, poor waste disposal was cited by

tourism operators as one main reason they do not often encourage or include

walking tours as part of their programmes for tourists in Elmina. The problems of

waste disposal were discussed in Sections 8.3.3 and 9.2.4.

From a poverty reduction perspective, local people in Elmina considered the

provision by government of a range of affordable infrastructure facilities, including

drinking water and improved sanitation, as instrumental to encouraging small

scale investment in tourism.


While tourism is important to the government in terms of its potential contribution

to macro-economic growth, it has not created widespread livelihood opportunities

for local people in Elmina. The analysis indicates that barriers exist that restrict

different groups from participation in tourism in a variety of ways. A lack of

available financial capital has impeded local people from investing in tourism

businesses and expanding existing ones, limiting tourism’s role as an agent of

poverty reduction. A lack of access to credit from banks and micro-finance

institutions further limits opportunities and local people are reliant upon ‘Susu’

schemes as an alternative financing mechanism. However, the Susu scheme is

limited by the quantity of financial resources that it has available to lend to local

people.

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A lack of human capital, caused primarily by a low level of education skills and

lack of training opportunities, has become a major barrier to participation in

employment in the tourism industry. Whilst training programmes are organised

outside of Elmina by the government training body, the high costs of attending

them exclude local people from participation, limiting their opportunity for

employment in tourism. A lack of social capital was also considered a barrier to

participation, including a lack of a participatory approach to decision-making and

a local supply of information about tourism from the government.

From the perspective of tourism’s use for poverty reduction, several policy

implications can be drawn from the findings. Tourism has not brought greater

prosperity to local people because of barriers, i.e. a lack of financial, social and

human capital, which needs to be mitigated. As several scholars, including Tosun

(2000) and Scheyvens (2003), have indicated, it is not sufficient to stress that

local people should benefit from tourism, but rather that their capabilities should

be enhanced and that they should be empowered to participate in the tourism

development process necessary to create employment and business

opportunities.

Various policy measures are therefore needed to tackle these barriers. The

commencing point could be a shift in the development approach, suggesting the

need for government and donor agencies to de-emphasise modernisation,

economic growth and neo-liberal policies in favour of the adoption of sustainable

development, placing the concerns and ideas of local people at the centre of the

decision-making. Local people felt that the success of tourism should not be

assessed by indicators of growth, e.g. international arrivals and the stock of

tourist facilities, but by the effect on their well-being.

Policies could also aim at identifying all the stakeholder groups in Elmina and

engaging them in dialogue to identify their specific interests and roles in tourism

and poverty reduction development programmes. This could take place as part of

a co-ordinated plan to improve access to financial, human and social capital, the

lack of which has contributed to their marginalisation and exclusion from

participation in the tourism industry. In practice, local people seem more likely to

participate in activities when they are assured of trust, the sharing of knowledge

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and experiences, and are reimbursed with the cost of participation in meetings.

Local people therefore view these barriers as a cause of their lack of

empowerment, which hopefully can be overcome through capacity building

programmes, aimed at developing their potential and ability to participate in

tourism.

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Chapter 11

Analysis and Discussion

11.1 Introduction

Based upon the findings presented in Chapters Eight, Nine and Ten, this chapter

assimilates the main thematic findings into the context of the research aim and

objectives detailed in Section 1.4. The literature suggests that there has been

limited empirical policy and academic work in the relationship between poverty

reduction and tourism development, focusing on local people and other

stakeholders’ perspectives. Research works in this area have largely been reliant

upon macro-economic growth and ‘trickle-down’ effects, based on a number of

assumptions, as opposed to empirical data based on local people’s perspectives

that tourism does not automatically create benefits and opportunities to increase

their participation in the industry as evident from the findings of this research.

The poverty reduction focus of this research adds to a widening of the

comprehension of the role of tourism as a possible component of policy

development strategy and academic research in local communities. The thematic

question of this research study is: what enhances or impedes the role of tourism

in reducing poverty in Elmina? The following discussion is situated in this context,

considers the implication of the results for: (i) the advancement of tourism policy

as an aid to poverty reduction; and (ii) their application to a wider understanding

of the relationship between tourism and poverty in developing countries. This

discussion leads to investigation of the socio-economic opportunities and barriers

of using tourism as both policy and academic means of tackling poverty in

developing countries, and Elmina in particular.

11.2 Poverty and Tourism-The Multiple Perspectives

The findings of this study reveal the multiple ways stakeholders perceive the

relationship between poverty and tourism as explained in Chapters Eight, Nine

and Ten. As the body of literature suggests, there is certainly a potential for

tourism to contribute to poverty reduction in developing countries, however the

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theoretical and empirical analyses of the industry’s potential is largely focused on

‘conventional’ approaches (Roel et al., 2004; Scheyvens, 2007) explained in

Section 4.3. Evidence from the literature suggests that whilst research findings

were corroborated with other studies, the statistical analyses had been based on

insufficient data to establish trends of tourism’s contribution to national

economies. At the macro level, governments and donors are reliant on a neo-

liberal macro economic framework with which to examine the role of tourism

development in poverty reduction. In Ghana, evidence from the poverty and

tourism sector analysis agrees largely with the body of literature on tourism’s

contribution to poverty reduction in developing countries, in terms of tourism

revenues, employment and stock of facilities (GSS, 2006; GTB, 2007) as

discussed in Section 5.3. The importance of tourism is stressed as a major

contributor to foreign exchange earnings in Ghana, and a means of diversifying

the economy in view of the current over-dependence on cocoa, gold and timber

(ROG, 1996; Asiedu, 1997; Gartner, 1999; Bank of Ghana, 2007).

At the micro level, such as Elmina, the macro economic benefits of tourism are

the foreign exchange earnings represented by the visitor fees to Elmina Castle,

while hotels, restaurants and craft shops receive income earnings from direct

tourist expenditures as discussed in Sections 1.4.5 and 9.2. However, there is no

evidence that such expenditures are targeted at improving the well-being of poor

people. Thus, in terms of poverty and tourism perspectives, the findings of this

research suggest a gap exists between tourism’s role in poverty reduction at the

national and local economies. In order to overcome this challenge, there is need

to capture all the different ways in which poor people participate in tourism as

evident in the findings of this study. This action is justified on the basis that, while

growth in tourism revenue and tourist arrivals may have positive dynamic effects

on the rest of the economy, this research findings suggests that local people in

Elmina consider the creation of an enabling environment as requirement for

increasing livelihood opportunities and decision-making process. This is because

business and employment opportunities associated with tourism through trickle-

down effects have occurred by default, and not as necessary outcomes of

conscious efforts and poverty-reduction programmes. Evidence from this

research reveals that trickle-down effects that are linked to tourism, such as

employment, business and infrastructure development, are not significant to help

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alleviate poverty in Elmina. The findings of this research, therefore, challenge the

‘conventional view’ and adoption of neo-liberal approach for tourism development

as means of reducing poverty.

11.3 Tourism and Poverty Reduction in Elmina: A Discussion

Attention is now turned to the key focus of this research, i.e., the role of tourism in

poverty reduction in Elmina. This section discusses the key findings with regard

to stakeholders’ perceptions of the significance of tourism to reduce poverty, in

the context of objectives 1 and 3 of this research. The development of tourism in

Elmina has been influenced by its history of colonialism and slavery, a theme

which has remained inextricably linked to the government’s and donor agency

interests in the development and funding of tourism, discussed in Section 1.5.4.

The pull for Elmina’s tourist attractions for international tourists and the

associated economic impacts, means government and donor agencies are

increasing using tourism as a mechanism for economic development and poverty

reduction. This is a similar situation to other developing countries, for example

Burns (1999) comments on the role of tourism in development (and poverty

reduction) in Eritrea.

The government-funded tourism development in Elmina typifies donor-funded

projects in developing countries, which focus on economic, commercial and

conservation interests (UNDP, 1993; Bruner, 1996; ROG, 2006a). However, the

current tourism development plan of the government reflects a conventional top-

down approach, framed in a neo-liberal paradigm that emphasises a ‘trickle-

down’ effect. The potential for tourism to reduce poverty in Elmina is evident but

opportunities are negated by a range of economic and social factors and

discussed in the following sections.

11.3.1 Socio-Economic Opportunities from Tourism

This section discusses the key findings related to objectives 1 and 3, which relate

to the socio-economic opportunities of tourism. Based upon stakeholders

responses these can be categorised into foreign exchange and revenue

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generation; employment and income opportunities; and philanthropic support to

local people.

(a) Foreign Exchange and Revenue Generation

Government and donor agencies strongly emphasise the macro-economic

contribution of tourism to foreign exchange earnings and revenue. Foreign

exchange earned from international tourism is used for national development in

order to achieve the targets of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy and

Millennium Development Goals, discussed in Section 5.3 (a). Ghana’s need for

foreign exchange earnings from tourism is emphasised in the annual hosting of

international events, within which Elmina Castle and the history of the slave trade

are key components. The growth in international arrivals and receipts form part of

the indicators used by the Government of Ghana to highlight tourism’s success

and contribution to poverty reduction.

Revenue generated from entrance fees to Elmina Castle is viewed by

government and donor agencies as a major source of revenue for conservation of

the site and for national development, with the increases in visitor numbers and

revenue justifying the conservation of the colonial monument. However, the

revenue that is generated from the castle is paid into the central government

Consolidated Fund which excludes local people from a share of the income

benefit.

Nor is there evidence of a wider ‘trickle-down’ effect to local people from

expenditure on the castle. One explanation for this is that the government makes

decisions on how to re-allocate income flows for overall poverty reduction

programmes including provision of education and sanitation which, in turn, may

benefit local people in Elmina. The increases in tourism arrivals in Elmina are not

reflected in the well-being of local people, indicating the failure of neo-liberal

policy in this instance, a finding that challenges the conventional approach of

tourism development as the correct strategy for tackling poverty in Elmina.

Similar conclusions were reached by Roe et al., (2004), who noted that although

developing countries such as The Gambia and Kenya receive high volumes of

international tourism arrivals and receipts, they continue to have a large poor

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population because of the failure of conventional approaches. In Elmina, while an

increase in overseas tourists, foreign exchange earnings and revenue are held to

be significant from government and donor perspectives, growth itself is only a

means to an end, an end that currently does not benefit local people. It is evident

that growth in the volume of tourism simply does not automatically create benefits

in local communities. There is a subsequent need for an alternative approach to

tourism policy and development, incorporating principles of sustainable

development, aiming to create greater livelihood opportunities for local people in

Elmina.

(b) Tourism Employment and Income Opportunities

That tourism is a creator of employment opportunities is evident in Elmina, and it

is viewed by both the government and local people as an important mechanism

for reducing poverty. As discussed in Sections 9.2.2 and 9.2.3, local people are

employed in a variety of tourism businesses and although tourism activities are

affected by seasonality, it is evident from the study that employment in the

industry is relatively stable when compared with fishery and mining activities.

While some locals are employed by tourism establishments in the public and

locally owned sectors such as hotels and restaurants, others such as fishermen

and fishmongers are indirectly employed through the selling of fish and hiring of

boats.

It was evident from the study that the character of businesses influences income

opportunities, for example public sector tourism organisations and larger hotels in

Elmina offer better employment and income opportunities than family-owned and

small scale businesses. This is a consequence of access to tourism markets and

the types of the business activity such as hotels, restaurants and chop bars.

Schilcher (2007) has argued that pro-poor policies should emphasise income and

working conditions and require inherent regulations such as minimum wages.

However, this study found that local people consider access to employment and

steady income as priority needs, rather than wages and conditions of services.

Local people in Elmina do not consider conditions of service of tourism

employment as being important, whilst wages from tourism are relatively stable

and higher than those of the declining fishing and salt mining productions.

Subsequently, employment in tourism was often held as an attractive option in

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comparison to other economic sectors. Cukier (1996) reached a similar

conclusion in her study of Indonesia, finding that tourism-employment is well-

remunerated when compared with other business-employment options, making

employment in it attractive to local people.

It is argued that although the government regards tourism as a generator of

employment opportunities, these have occurred by default rather than as a

consequence of policy. As explained in Section 5.3 (b) tourism employment

statistics in Ghana only include data collected from licensed tourism

establishments, focusing on accommodation, restaurants, car hire and tour

operations. Thus employment creation in the more informal tourism sector,

including hawking, handicrafts and chop bars which have employed the largely

unskilled and semi-skilled labour force in Elmina, is ignored. Subsequently, the

economic and social impacts of job creation in the informal tourism sector are not

properly understood. Yet, the ability of this sector to employ unskilled workers

indicates that it has a potential role in poverty reduction strategies, if allocated

adequate resource support. It has also been found that local people desire

training in skills to work in the tourism industry, a desire that needs incorporating

into policy to capacity build the human resource base.

(c) Philanthropic Support to Local People

Tourists’ attitudes towards local people generally influence the potential role that

tourism can play in poverty reduction in Elmina, through consumption of good

and services and donations. The degree to which tourists are interested in the

inter-relationship between their activities as tourists and the well-being of the

local people suggest a far wider relevance in their role as stakeholders in tourism

and achievement of sustainable development in Elmina. It was evident that the

majority of tourists do not perceive their roles as having responsibilities to support

local people beyond looking for holidays, as the primary motivation for their travel

to Elmina.

However, the activities of a small number of tourists and their decisions to

provide support for local people have a significant bearing on the whole

sustainable development agenda, and the role that tourism could play in poverty

reduction. There was evidence of philanthropic tourist support for the Castle Boys

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in Elmina, through donation of money and sponsoring of their schooling. The

actions of the tourists have subsequently contributed to building capacity of the

Castle Boys, as explained in Sections 9.3 and. 9.4.4.

Thus, some of the tourists are prepared to contribute to poverty reduction

provided that local benefits could be clearly identified. This information that

centres around the assistance needs to be properly disseminated, although this

is not the case in Elmina. In the wider poverty perspective, organised tourists who

undertake holidays have contributed to the general improvement of well-being in

the society in developing countries (Wearing, 2001, UNEP/UNWTO, 2005).

Therefore the role of government, especially the Municipal Assembly in Elmina in

supporting and promoting the philanthropic schemes would be important to its

success, particularly emphasising the mechanism through which tourists’

assistance can be provided. Local people and tourists viewed as important the

need to promote transparency and accountability as mechanisms to minimise

corruption and enhance decision-making. This is a challenge for government: to

provide strong leadership and information in order to receive positive response

from tourists who need to be informed of the benefits of their contributions to local

people.

11.3.2 Barriers to Local People’s Participation in Tourism

This section discusses the key findings related to barriers causing local people’s

marginalisation and exclusion from tourism in Elmina. As discussed in Sections

10.2 to 10.4, local people in Elmina experience a combination of multiple and

interacting deprivations, which they consider as barriers to their participation in

tourism. There is a subsequent need to overcome these barriers through capacity

building. Local people view capacity building as developing their potential and

ability to make and implement decisions that could lead to sustainable

development of economic opportunities. Instrumental to this capacity building is

the need for: financial capital; human capital; and social capital.

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(a) Financial Capital

As explained in Section 10.2, the availability of financial capital, defined as

income and credit, is scarce for local people. This shortfall is considered a major

limitation of the necessary investment to create livelihood opportunities. Whilst

financing for tourism is not available from the formal banks due to local people’s

inability to provide collateral, they are also excluded from the government poverty

micro-financing programmes implemented by the Municipal Assembly as it does

not incorporate the tourism sector. A proposal to establish a ‘Tourism

Development Fund’ that could provide financing for tourism entrepreneurs in

Ghana and benefit local people in Elmina has not been implemented by

government.

Local people’s dependency on the informal financial sector ‘Susu’ scheme, as the

primary source for savings and credit for investment in a variety of small

businesses, is clearly evident among local tourism entrepreneurs. In spite of the

government’s objectives of stimulating tourism investment in Elmina, its micro-

financing policy that excludes tourism is a barrier to participation in tourism. Thus,

local people do not have enough financial capital to establish proper hotels and

shops to serve tourists. To achieve poverty reduction it is suggested that a

targeted tourism financing policy is needed to provide the capital base for local

entrepreneurs necessary to stimulate local investment in small enterprises.

(b) Human Capital

As explained in Section 10.3, a lack of human capital of knowledge and skills

restricts the opportunities for employment in the tourism industry. Subsequently,

the ‘best’ job in terms of employment and remuneration are taken by Ghanaians

from outside Elmina and foreigners, whilst local people are left to work in the

informal sector or the relatively poorly paid public sector, with many others being

excluded from employment in tourism.

Two reasons that could explain the lack of development of human capital in

Elmina are: (i) a lack of available financial resources required by the government

training institute to implement capacity building programmes targeted at the

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specific needs of the poor; and (ii) poor attendance in schools by children caused

by their families poor incomes and the subsequent necessity to work with their

parents. To date, government attempts to increase the levels of school

attendance through ‘Capitation Grant’, aimed at increasing the supply of

classrooms and teaching equipment, has not improved educational achievement.

School enrolment in the primary schools in Elmina has not significantly increased,

whilst books and teaching equipment are still inadequate. Therefore more

government action is required to increase levels of school attendance as is the

need to formulate policy and strategies to augment the capacities of local people

to work in tourism (Becton and Graetz, 2001; Benavides, 2001; Black and King,

2002; Mason, 2005). This requires a participatory approach that gives local

people a voice, listening to suggestions by local people for on-the-job training in

Elmina. The formulation of training programmes would require financial support

from the government and the willingness of local people to pay for any incidental

expenses related to their participation in the training programme.

(c) Social Capital

As explained in Section 10.4, local people are excluded from employment and

investment opportunities and the decision-making process partly as a

consequence of a lack of social capital, i.e. the non-monetary and institutional

resources used to secure livelihoods (Putnam, 1993; Berger, 1996; Portes, 1998;

Schaffer, 2008). The key social capital elements which restrict local people’s

participation in tourism are discussed in the following sub-sections.

(i) Inadequate linkages between and within the tourism and non-

tourism sectors

A lack of connection to the tourism market restricts tourism benefits and the

creation of further work opportunities for local people in Elmina. It was evident

that having access to the international tourism market matters to local people as

they are reliant on it to sell their products. For example, fishmongers sell fish to

tourism business hotels and restaurants, whilst fishermen occasionally hire their

boats and services to tourists for sea and lagoon cruises. There is also evidence

to suggest that other local goods and services could potentially benefit from

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better linkages to the tourism market. Currently, supplies of agricultural products

consumed by tourists, including eggs, chicken and fruits, are purchased from

market centres outside Elmina, located elsewhere in Cape Coast and Accra.

Similarly, the variety of crafts sold to tourists by the handicraft sellers are

obtained from production centres located outside Elmina. Not only does outside

sourcing increase the transaction costs of the businesses owners, it also restricts

revenue and employment opportunities for local people. Local people view the

development of the economic links between tourism and the agricultural and craft

sectors as important for the creation of demand and employments opportunities.

The position of local services of handicraft sellers, chop operators, beer bar

operators and hawkers is worsened by the all-inclusive holiday. The lack of

linkages between local people and tourism illustrates a shortcoming of the

‘trickle-down’ effect, emphasising the need to create meaningful economic

linkages between the tourism market and local people through capacity building.

A pragmatic policy could further demand for local procurement, employment of

local staff and partnership amongst a range of stakeholders, and subsequently

enhance upgrading of products and services, and distribution of tourism benefits

in the local economy.

(ii) Inappropriate institutional arrangements

The existing institutional relationship between the tourism governing bodies and

local people not only impedes tourism businesses operations, but also inhibits

their involvement in decision-making processes. The activities of various

governing bodies impact on local people livelihoods through control and

management of tourist sites, businesses regulation and licensing, and political

and traditional administrations. Whilst tourism businesses are excluded from

decisions taken by the governing bodies, the procedures for the payment of taxes

and registrations are bureaucratic and resource-intensive.

Local people also consider their non-involvement in the tourism decision-making

process as a cause of apathy. They argue that the government’s decentralisation

policy should encourage local people’s involvement and be more responsive to

their priorities. However, it has been found that mistrust and a lack of

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transparency characterise the relationship between policy-makers and local

people. There is therefore a need to develop participatory tourism strategies.

These can have success, for example different stakeholder groups were brought

into the policy-making process in Namibia, where local people play a central role

in tourism decision-making with regard to livelihood opportunities (Ashley, 2000).

The inclusion of local tourism stakeholders in Elmina, a participatory approach

could promote trust and networking between local people and the government.

However, a successful participatory tourism development approach would also

require the empowerment of local people through capacity building. Non-

governmental organisations, which Burns (2004) refers to as the interface

between local people, government and donors, could have essential role to play

in bridging the gap between local people and policy-makers in Elmina.

(iii) Absence of research and information flow

A factor that undermines the use of tourism for poverty reduction and acts as an

obstacle to local people’s understanding of it is the lack of research and

information on Elmina’s tourism industry. The limited amount of data that is

collected by the governing bodies is not disseminated in ways that are

understandable to the majority of local people, often being published in English

rather than local languages. However, access to information by local people

would allow them to participate in tourism decisions in a more informed manner.

It has been found that improving access to information could be achieved from

what the local people viewed as destination promotion, through print and

electronic media, and familiarisation tours for visiting travel writers, academics,

foreign and Ghanaian tour operators.

Consequently it is argued that more resources need to be invested in research

into the tourism industry in Elmina, with a principal aim being the production of

information that would enhance the opportunities for local people to be involved

in participatory decision-making. To achieve this would require increased funding

from the government aimed to strengthen the destination image in view of the

increasingly competitive international tourism environment and need to promote

local people’s participation in tourism.

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(iv) Poor infrastructure development

Contrary to the view that tourism development accelerates the provision of

infrastructure for a local population (UNEP/WTO, 2005; UNWTO, 2009), this was

found not to be entirely the case in Elmina. Although local people perceived

access road and the supply of electricity as indirect benefits from tourism, they

viewed access to clean water and the poor waste disposal system as restricting

their participation in the industry. It was evident from the study that locally owned

tourism businesses, for example chop bar owners, are not competitive in the

international tourism market in view of tourists and tour operators demand for

food prepared in a hygienic manner. Local people view the availability and

affordability of water, electricity, sewerage and waste disposal as of fundamental

importance for the successful functioning of the tourism sector. These can have

success, for example women were brought together into the decision-making

process, where local people play a major role with regard to the provision and

management of water in Nepal (UNDP, 2006).

Although, the direct provision of infrastructure facilities is solely the responsibility

of the government, the involvement of local people in their management should

be seen by the various governing bodies as an instrument of decision-making

making, and collective responsibility in the ownership and management of the

communal resources (Holden, 2005). From poverty perspective, provision of

infrastructure facilities is critical to the socio-economic sustainability of tourism,

and the provision of these services also forms a key component of the enabling

environment that needs to be created by government for a more sustainable

development tourism industry.

At present a focus on the use of tourism as a means to reduce poverty at the

local level is not a central part of the government’s plan. Whilst the ‘15-year Plan’,

described in Section 5.2.2, provides the framework for tourism development at

the national level, it does not encompass a strategy for poverty reduction in local

communities, including Elmina. Nor is the use of tourism to reduce poverty

incorporated into the Municipal Assembly Medium Term Plan (2002-2003) for

Elmina (KEEA, 2002).

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Local people felt that a systematic approach to link national and local tourism

development and poverty reduction is needed. It is consequently suggested that:

(i) in Ghana, tourism policy and planning needs to formulate an overarching

policy to reduce poverty through tourism at a local level; and (ii) a coordinating

body needs to be established by government to facilitate partnership amongst

tourism stakeholders, to identify and develop the natural and cultural resources

which can create livelihood opportunities for local people and achieve sustainable

development.

11.4 Recommendations: A Need for Symbiotic Relationship Between Tourism and Poverty Reduction in Elmina

The findings of this study suggest that whilst tourism development in Elmina

follows a conventional approach based on macro-economic and ‘trickle-down’

theory, tourism will not be a means for poverty reduction. The research findings

provide convincing evidence to support the claim that tourism development does

not automatically create more opportunities to increase participation by local

people in Elmina. The findings indicate that tourism projects in Elmina have failed

to deliver substantial benefits to local people because such initiatives had

inappropriately been government-and donor-driven and not local people-led,

hence the industry’s role in poverty reduction is questioned by local people. A

tourism policy that reflects the realities and aspirations of local people is needed

if poverty is to be significantly reduced and the objective of sustainable

development achieved. For the majority of people, the reality is that whilst the

opportunities from tourism appear to be marginal, they are faced with a myriad of

deep-seated barriers such as a lack of diversified products, availability and

affordability of social amenities, and limited employment and income. To achieve

a symbiotic relationship between the development of tourism and poverty

reduction a number of recommendations are made in the context of objective 4,

all of which have implications on financial, human and social resources. The

recommendations include: (a) Incorporate a poverty-focus into tourism policy; (b)

Emphasise local people’s priorities and circumstances; (c) Build partnership

among stakeholders; (d) Improve opportunities for the wider involvement of local

people in the supply chain of tourism products and services; (e) Increase access

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to training and skills capacity development for local people; (f) Strengthen

institutional capacity; (g) Increase access to financial capital for local people; and

(h) Enhance local people’s employment opportunities.

As presented in Tables 11.1 to 11.8, the recommendations illustrate a shift from

‘conventional’ approach to participatory approach geared towards policies,

impacts on tourism business and tourists, poverty reduction, as well as expected

outcomes. From a poverty perspective, the recommendations are important

means of building capacity and increasing opportunities for participation by local

people. At policy level, the expected outcomes could increase the role of tourism

in poverty reduction in the macro-and micro-economies through socio-economic

opportunities for all stakeholders. At academic level, the expected outcomes

could provide basis for longitudinal research, through constant monitoring and

evaluation of the relationship between tourism and poverty reduction at the

macro-and micro-levels. The recommendations and their potential implications

are explained in the following sub-sections.

(a) Incorporate a poverty-focus in tourism policy

For tourism to have a role in poverty reduction, a pre-requisite is recognition of

this relationship in tourism policy that is based upon a participatory contribution

with local people. Thus, as shown in Table 11.1, it is recommended that the

framework of a tourism policy for poverty reduction should focus upon: (i)

removing or reducing barriers that hinder local people’s empowerment and

participation in tourism; (ii) creating livelihood opportunities through strengthening

linkages between tourism and other sectors of the local economy; and (iii)

harmonising stakeholder economic-and non-economic benefits through

partnerships and participation in decision-making.

It is also important to develop poverty-focused indicators from the perspective of

local people, which will guide tourism policy, planning and monitoring of livelihood

opportunities and benefits. The shift in policy would be a departure from the

conventional top-down planning towards sustainable development at the local

level, emphasising the informed participation of all relevant stakeholders,

alongside the empowerment and participation of local people. As presented in

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Table 11.1, implementation of the policy issue is expected to yield outcomes to

help increase tourism’s role in poverty reduction. However, a major requirement

to ensure success of this recommendation would be the need for government

and donor agencies to provide adequate financial, human and social resources.

Table 11.1: Incorporate a poverty-focus into tourism policy

Policy Resource to be mobilised

Potential impact on business

Potential impact on poverty reduction

Potential impact on tourist experience

i. Make tourism a priority sector in policy and programmes agenda of the Central Government, District and Municipal Assemblies, Donor Agencies and Non-Governmental Organisations ii. Harmonise stakeholder economic and non-economic benefits through partnerships, local people’s participation in decision-making, and power- sharing iii. Remove/ reduce barriers that hinder local people’s empowerment and participation iv. Create livelihood opportunities through promoting small scale tourism businesses and strengthening linkages between tourism and other sectors of the local economy

i. Available and adequate financial resources, e.g. grants and budgetary allocation ii. Trained personnel with knowledge in leadership skills and clear understanding of the role of tourism in poverty reduction in local communities

Poverty-focused policy could stimulate small- scale business development through involvement of local people in decision-making process, streamlining of business registration and regulation, training and skills capacity building and infrastructure provision programmes

i. Greater emphasis on tourism should create an enabling environment for expansion in tourism livelihood opportunities ii. Local people have a strong sense of involvement in tourism development through investment, working and participation in decision-making process

i. A greater sense of local ownership should strengthen feeling of authenticity and eliminate residual hostility towards ‘rich’ foreigners ii. Strong local supply chains mean strong local purchases leading (for example) to the provision of fresher and more authentic food and other products iii. Stakeholders feel strong sense of ownership and pride leading to higher quality visitor experience

Context: The prerequisite in ensuring a useful role for tourism in poverty reduction at the micro levels is the idea of a participatory approach and linking macro-and micro-policy objectives to create an enabling environment that could help achieve sustainable development Expected outcomes: The possible outcomes would include: (i) Enhanced enabling environments and removed/ reduced barriers as requirements to stimulate small tourism and non-tourism enterprise development; and (ii) Streamlined institutional arrangements to encourage local people’s involvement and their priorities considered in the decision-making process.

Source: Author’s Own Work

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(b) Emphasise local people’s priorities and circumstances

A major factor in poverty-focused tourism is the need to understand local

people’s priorities with regard to the multiple ways they define and measure

poverty. It is evident from this research study that local people’s priorities in

Elmina are not understood by government, a consequence of lack of consultation

and participation in the decision-making process in tourism.

Table 11.2: Emphasise local people’s priorities and circumstances





i. Involve all stakeholders, particularly local people through participation and empowerment approaches in the decision-making process iii. Incorporate local people’s views in the formulation of poverty-tourism policies and selection of projects and programmes

Grants and budgetary allocation from Donor Agencies, Government and NGOs

Emphasis on local people’s involvement in decision-making could promote partnership amongst stakeholder groups and development of prioritised livelihood activities based on trust, transparency, responsiveness, and accountability

Local people’s involvement in decision-making could sustain the development process and ownership of policies, projects and programmes

i. Tourists are likely to support and commit themselves to projects that reflect local people’s ownership and have access to information about potential benefits to the wider society ii. Philanthropic programmes should bring local people and tourists together by drawing them out of season, or away from their regular routes to spend more time and money locally

Context: A major factor in poverty-focused tourism is the need to give local people a voice in the decision-making process, understand their priorities, realties and choices as means of emphasising partnership, ownership and wider distribution of benefits to the population. Expected outcomes: The expected outcomes may include: (i) Policies are formulated and projects selected and managed based on local people’s involvement in the decision-making process; (ii) Greater ownership of tourism resources as local people, especially the marginalised and excluded are empowered to make choices on policies and projects that affect their livelihoods; (iii) Emphasis placed on poverty-driven programmes that bring all stakeholders together through partnership; and (iv) Organised cultural events, provision of goods and services developed to bring tourists and local people together.


The recommendation that policies should facilitate local people’s welfare, in

which they have the opportunity to make a choice, as explained in Table 11.2,

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aims to promote empowerment and active participation in the decision-making

process by poor people.

A poverty-focused and participatory process could facilitate the inclusion of their

views into the tourism development planning process. This is important in Elmina

in view of the different social and economic groups, and the need to consider

their perspectives by giving them a voice to enrich the process of identifying their

priorities. For far too long, tourism development has been government and donor

agency-led and dominated by the private sector, and the policy direction has

been driven by search for growth and profit, rather than sustainability. This

recommendation would have financial implications and positive potential impacts

on businesses and tourists experiences in terms of activities that may be carried

out by local people to demonstrate their ownership and commitment to develop

and manage their own natural and cultural resources in Elmina. This could be

achieved from involvement of local people in decision-making process;

particularly those who have been marginalised and excluded from tourism.

(c) Build partnership among stakeholders The development of stakeholder consultation and partnership is weak within the

tourism sector in Elmina. However, partnerships are increasingly used to further

tourism development and for the creation of opportunities in developing countries,

as is the case in Nepal (Souvnou and Holden, 2005).

A recommendation is therefore made for a need to build partnership among

stakeholders. The purpose of establishing partnerships would be to give a ‘voice’

to local tourism owners and local people. Working successfully, these

partnerships should produce practical actions to enhance livelihoods, as

explained in Table 11.3.

A partnership amongst stakeholders could be applied to create significant

economic opportunities for local people as a means of providing insights into the

strengths and weaknesses of the individual stakeholders; and creation of a

platform for large and smaller businesses to share information, in-house training

and outsourcing of goods and services to their mutual benefit. Suggested

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strategies to achieve partnerships amongst stakeholder groups would include: (i)

the establishment of trust, networking and information; (ii) securing agreement of

the stakeholders to implement decisions collectively agreed upon; and (iii)

improving training and skills. As presented in Table 11.3, the achievement of the

expected outcomes would depend on release of financial and human resources

from government and donor agencies, non-governmental organisations and the

private sector.

Table 11.3: Build partnerships among stakeholders





i. Promote partnerships through networks and collaborations between and within identified stakeholders groups including tour operators, Municipal Assembly, Traditional Council, Tourism Businesses, Asafo Companies, Fishermen, Fishmongers and Castle Boys ii. Establish trust, networking and information iii. Improve training and skills

Grants and budgetary allocation from Donor Agencies, Government, Private sector and NGOs Availability of qualified personnel to provide leadership and facilitate the partnership process

Partnerships enhance collaboration and increased knowledge through sharing of information and training to encourage entrepreneurial skills and understanding of the tourism market and involvement in decision-making process

Partnerships amongst stakeholders should create an enabling environment and stimulate investment in diversified businesses, and creation of employment and income earning opportunities

Increased partnership amongst stakeholders should give tourists access to information and understanding of charitable donations and flows of philanthropic support which may reinforce tourists’ pride and commitment to wealth creation

Context: Partnership is a requirement for collaboration and networks amongst different stakeholders in the supply chain which help them to acquire knowledge and understanding of tourists and tourism business needs. Expected outcomes: The potential outcomes include: (i) Increased knowledge and understanding of tourism as a result of improved access to and sharing of information and training amongst stakeholders; (ii) Increased access to tourism market and market networks tapped into by small businesses through mentoring, shared information and training and capacity skills programmes amongst stakeholders; (iii) Enhanced distribution of tourism benefits in the society; and (iv) Stronger and consultative community Organisations as a result of having given voices to different stakeholder groups.


229

(d) Improve opportunities for the wider involvement of local people in the supply chain of tourism products and services

Apart from the sale of fish and the casual hiring of boats, goods produced by

local people are rarely sold to tourism businesses in Elmina. The government-

donor funded craft market and training of artisans to produce crafts have not

yielded the desired results as explained in Sections 9.2.2 (a) and 10.4. There is a

subsequent need to strengthen urgently the linkages between productions of

goods and services by local people and the tourism market.

Local people view linkage between tourism and other sectors, including

agriculture and fishing, as a matter that affects their livelihoods. Stronger linkages

could widen the supply chain, necessary to broaden employment and income

opportunities for local entrepreneurs and the unemployed through the increased

production of a range of goods including craft, poultry and vegetables.

Derived from Table 11.4, strategies to develop strong local supplies of goods and

services to the tourism market would involve a combination of policies and

mobilisation of human and financial resources. As shown in Table 11.4, the

strategies could include:

i. Evaluating and diversifying the tourism products to include attractions that

offer tourists additional experiences. For example, developing the beach

and the Benya lagoon, local foods and cultural performances which could

create additional employment for local people;

ii. Encouraging tour operators to use small tourism businesses including

hotels chop bars and handicraft sellers;

iii. Building partnerships among tourism businesses to create and sustain a

supply chain dependent upon locally produced goods and services;

iv. Improving local people’s capacity to produce products of a suitable quality,

quantity and reliability to service the tourism industry; and

v. Improving infrastructure development including water supply and waste

disposal systems.

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The major requirement to ensure a success of this policy recommendation would

be government’s commitment to provide loans from formal banks and micro-

credit facilities, as well as qualified personnel from governing bodies to the

implementation process.

Table 11.4: Improve opportunities for the wider involvement of local people

in the supply chain of tourism products and services Policy Resource to be

mobilised Potential impact on business



i. Diversify cultural tourism to include products and services, and provide opportunities for participation by poor people ii. Boost local inputs into the tourism supply chain through production and sale of diversified goods and services, and Improve linkages between tourism and other sectors

i. Available loans and micro-credits from the Government, Donor Agencies and NGOs ii. Qualified Government and NGO personnel to provide extension and technical advice on improving quality, volume and reliability of goods and services

Diversified tourism products create many livelihood opportunities for participation by local entrepreneurs, workers and unemployed

Poor people’s engagement in the supply chain could be an important and sustainable source of steady employment creation and income generation opportunities

Diversified tourism products should present tourists with a wide range of goods and services to buy and shop as means of substantially increasing the amount of money that stay in the local economy

Context: Engagement of local people in the supply chain through boosting local inputs into the supply chain may well be a positive change. This could lead to the creation of greater participation of the poor in tourism and non-tourism businesses and thereby create greater employment and income opportunities to overcome poverty and promote sustainable development. Expected outcomes: The anticipated outcomes may include: (i) Cultural tourism product diversified to include products of the poor; (ii) Increased local entrepreneurial skills and small enterprise; (iii) Established supply chain for tourism businesses through improved and greater access to tourism markets by local producers and suppliers of goods and services; (iv) Reduced leakages through emphasis on internal outsourcing and built linkages between local suppliers and buyers of goods and services, as a result of enhanced capacity to meet demands for quality, volume and reliability required by tourism enterprises and tourists; (v) Diversified and increased employment and income earnings; (vi) Reduced effects of seasonality through production and supply of diversified products to meet tourists demands and expenditure patterns; and (vii) Reduced/removed identified barriers that are obstacles to local people’s entry into the supply chain including access to information, training, business support and advice, credits, infrastructure and information.


(e) Increase access to training and skills for local people

The requirement to improve the human capital of local people through training

and skills provision is evident from the findings of this research. While training

was offered to tour guides and artisans as an integral part of the Cultural Heritage

231

and Local Development in Elmina Programme (CHLDEP), it excluded a greater

proportion of the population as explained in Section 9.2.5. Although the 15-year

Tourism Development Plan, explained in Section 5.2.2, highlights the need to

improve the skills of personnel who work in tourism, the costs of courses offered

by the training institutions are beyond the means of local people. Whilst a lack of

finance and the reluctance of local people to participate in training programmes

would be constraints to overcome, lack of training hampers their participation in

poverty reduction.

Table 11.5: Increase access to training and skills capacity development

for local people Policy Resource to be

mobilised Potential impact on business



Enhance access to education through a variety of training and skill capacity building programmes targeted at needs of different tourism and non-tourism stakeholder groups, especially the marginalised and excluded

i. Grants and budgetary resources from Government, Donor Agencies and NGOs ii. Social resources such as institutional and policy framework, classrooms, training institutions, teachers and teaching materials iii. Qualified personnel to facilitate training and capacity skills programmes

Help increase the pool of skilled and trained local people to work in tourism or invest in tourism businesses as entrepreneurs

Improved access to education helps reduce gender disparities, while formal training and apprenticeship targeted at the unemployed, workers, business owners and wider population should create ready labour force and general understanding of the relationship between tourism and poverty

Tourists should enjoy quality service delivery at tourism facilities and have access to information through interaction with trained tourism personnel and well-informed population

Context: Training and capacity building are necessary tools to develop targeted entrepreneurial and employment skills to meet the standards that tourism businesses and tourists require in view of the critical need to empower local people to participate in tourism businesses as workers and investors. Expected outcomes: These may include: (i) Schools and tourism training institutions equipped or upgraded to facilitate quality education and training delivery; (ii) Increased trained and skilled local people through schooling, on-the-job training, in-house training and on-site training and able to work in tourism and deliver quality service to tourists; and (iii) Developed local entrepreneurial skills to access existing and potential investment opportunities in tourism and non-tourism businesses.


As presented in Table 11.5, training programmes have to be specifically targeted

to meet the different needs and challenges of different stakeholder groups in

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tourism and non-tourism activities. As the development of the tourist industry

crucially depends on the availability of appropriate skills in Elmina, human

resource development is important for local people’s empowerment and

participation in tourism. Strategies to train local people need to include: (i) on-the-

job or in-house training for workers; (ii) on-site training for local entrepreneurs; (iii)

provision of subsidies to reduce the cost of training and increase the participation

of local people; (iv) formal training and apprenticeships targeted at the

unemployed; and (v) tourism awareness programmes among the wider society.

A major prerequisite to building the capacity of local people is availability of

funding from donor agencies, and grants and budgetary allocation from

governments; while Non-Government Organisations could be encouraged to

facilitate the implementation process through provision of leadership and logistic

support.

(f) Strengthen institutional capacity

Local people need strong support from government institutions to facilitate their

participation in tourism, as outlined in Table 11.6. Most significant in this process

are the Municipal Assembly, Ghana Tourist Board, Ghana Museums and

Monuments Board and the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, which

can assure access to: (i) markets for new and existing tourism businesses; (ii)

employment for local people; (iii) training and skill capacity building as well as

streamlining business regulation, licensing and tax regimes and promoting

incentives for small enterprises; and (v) providing social amenities and managing

tourist sites.

In Table 11.6, a major requirement needed to hasten tourism’s roles in poverty

reduction would be to strengthen the capacity of institutions whose activities

impinge on tourism development in Elmina. At the macro level, effective

advocacy and improved regulatory and legal frameworks are needed to sustain

the tourism-poverty reduction agenda in national budgetary allocations and

create synergies with other donors’ initiatives. At the micro-level, there would be

the need to build the capacity of targeted stakeholder groups including,

Fishmongers and Fishermen; Asafo Companies; Owners of Hotels, Chop Bars,

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Drinking Bars, Restaurants; Hawkers and Handicraft Sellers; Castle Boys; and

the Traditional Council.

Table 11.6: Strengthen institutional capacity of identified stakeholders





Build institutional capacity of identified stakeholder groups through NGOs facilitations

Grants from Donor Agencies and budgetary resources from Governments and NGOs

Institutional strengthening is likely to motivate local entrepreneurs to invest in a variety of tourism and non-tourism businesses, especially when information is accessible and licensing and regulation procedures are streamlined

Enhanced institutional capacity should help greater economic livelihood opportunities and make tourism businesses thrive to substantially create more employment and income prospects for local people

Institutional strengthening should ensure that tourists have information, incentives and capacity to spend more locally and contribute to identified and publicised projects as their contribution to poverty alleviation

Context: Institutional strengthening constitutes an important sustainable development approach for tourism to fight poverty through formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, projects and programmes that should aim to benefit poor people. Expected outcomes: The expected outcomes include: (i) Institutional capacity of public, private, civil society and local stakeholder groups strengthened to promote partnerships necessary to create enabling environment for business growth and development; (ii) NGOs established to facilitate capacity building programmes and interface between local people and other stakeholders; (iii) Business regulations and licensing procedures streamlined to encourage local entrepreneurial development and investment in small businesses; and (iv) Infrastructure facilities provided and managed to enable entrepreneurs to operate without having to purchase water and operate in hygienic conditions.


A number of outcomes are expected to be generated from this recommendation.

These may include: (i) strengthened institutional capacity of public, private, civil

society and local stakeholder groups to promote partnerships necessary to create

enabling environment for business growth and development; (ii) established

NGOs to facilitate capacity building programmes and interface between local

people and other stakeholders; and (iii) streamlined business regulations and

licensing procedures to encourage local entrepreneurial development and

investment in small businesses. However, to ensure successful achievement of

the outlined outcomes, government needs to provide adequate financial

resources to implement this recommendation.

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(g) Increase access to financial capital for local people

Local entrepreneurs need access to savings and credit if they are to invest in the

tourism industry in Elmina. Local entrepreneurs currently lack financial capital

and access to credit; as a result they are reliant upon the ‘Susu’ scheme as a

means of mobilising financial resources. As outlined in Table 11.7, access to

financial capital could not only facilitate investment in existing enterprises but also

lead to the diversification of products and services offered to tourists. Unless local

entrepreneurs are assisted with micro-credits and loans from formal banks, there

is no evidence to suggest that they could overcome their financial barriers and

thrive in the tourism market.

Tourism activities should be included in the list of economic sectors that benefit

from the government poverty reduction micro-finance facility being implemented

by the Municipal Assembly. Additionally, a Tourism Development Fund should be

established, with revenue from government and an accommodation tax, as a

mechanism for mobilising financial resources from which local people could

access credit for investment in small tourism enterprises. Such programmes have

gained popularity in many developing countries, such as Kenya (WTO, 2003) and

micro-finance has been widely implemented with varying degrees of success in

countries, such as Bangladesh and Bolivia (Hulme and Mosley, 1996). Despite

the potential risks that may be associated with the ‘Susu’ scheme through

savings with the ‘Susu’ collectors, it is evident that it is a widespread and popular

traditional mechanism for mobilising financial capital in the local community, as

explained in Section 10.2.2. Increased micro-credit and savings capacity for local

people and removing or reducing barriers such as collaterals and high transaction

costs would provide a potentially important source of financial resource for local

entrepreneurs.

However, as shown in Table 11.7, a major requirement necessary to achieve the

expected outcomes would be availability of micro-credits and loans, and qualified

personnel to facilitate local people’s access to potential credit and saving

schemes. Increased access to financial capital for local people could have

potential impact on businesses and tourists, with overall consequences for

poverty reduction.

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The anticipated outcomes could include: increased local entrepreneurs and

investment in tourism and non-tourism businesses, and diversified production

and supply of goods and services to satisfy the needs of tourism businesses and

tourists.

Table 11.7: Increase access to financial capital for local people





i. Increase micro-credit and savings capacity for local people ii. Remove/reduce barriers that restrict access to formal bank loans and micro-credits, e.g. high interest rates and collaterals, high transaction costs, nepotism and corruption

i. Availability and access to micro-credits provided by Governments and NGOs ii. Availability of qualified personnel to facilitate access to credit and saving schemes

Access to credit and savings schemes could stimulate investments new small scale tourism businesses and expansion of existing ones, e.g. chop bars, craft shops, hotels and restaurants and boat hires

Local people would have the capability to own and manage small tourism and non-tourism businesses as means of income generation and employment creation

The increased investment in diversified tourism businesses should give tourists wider sources of goods and services, and propensity to spend more time as means of deriving greater and ‘richer’ experiences

Context: A primary requirement for local entrepreneurs is availability of access to micro-credit and savings schemes, either as main source or complementary source of financial resources to facilitate investment in tourism and non-tourism businesses in the supply chain. Expected outcomes: The likely outcomes include: (i) Increased availability and access to credits and savings schemes (e.g. formal bank, micro-credits and ‘Susu’ schemes); (ii) Increased local entrepreneurs and investment in tourism businesses; and (iii) Diversified production and supply of goods and services to satisfy needs of tourism businesses and tourists.

Source: Authors Own Work

(h) Enhance local people’s employment opportunities

A deliberate employment policy strategy could unlock employment opportunities

but would require collective types of capital, i.e. financial, human and social. For

example, a considerable increase in the development of local suppliers and

lodges in Madikwe Reserve in the Republic of South Africa subsequently created

a significant number of direct employment opportunities for local people (Relly,

2004 cited in Ashley, 2006:15).

As presented in Table 11.8, a tourism employment policy in Elmina are expected

to generate various outcomes including: (i) equality of employment opportunity

created for men and women, aiming to remove cultural barriers; (ii) an enabling

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environment created for small enterprises to thrive through linkages in the supply

chain; (iii) access to credit provided and regulations and tax system streamlined;

(iv) the capabilities of unskilled and semi-skilled people enhanced in order for

them to gain entry into the tourism employment market, or invest in small tourism

business as entrepreneurs; and (v) access to information improved and

awareness among local people created in order to reduce apathy about

government programmes and encourage broader understanding of tourism

opportunities.

Table 11.8: Enhance local people’s employment opportunities





i. Promote employment opportunities through sustained access to education, training and skill capacity skills programmes ii. Remove/reduce existing and potential institutional and cultural barriers. iii. Build capacity and enhance capabilities of local people through education, training and programmes in order to participate in tourism as workers or entrepreneurs

i. Financial resources from Donor Agencies, Government and NGOs ii. Human resources in terms of trained personnel to train and provide extension services to local people iii. Social resources in terms of institutional policy and regulatory frameworks

i. Enhanced employment opportunities promote widespread re-distribution of income could stimulate savings and capital mobilisation to encourage investment in businesses. ii. Capacities of unskilled and semi-skilled people are built and their capabilities enhanced to allow them to access tourism employment opportunities

i. Tourism could generally become a contributor to improved local livelihoods through access to gainful employment and income earning opportunities for the poor, especially the marginalised, excluded and unemployed ii. Removal and/or reduction of barriers could create equality of employment opportunities for the marginalised and excluded, especially women and the Castle Boys

Wider employment and income earning opportunities should provide tourists to have rich experience as they shop and buy goods and services from local people

Context: The creation of employment opportunities through tourism is one of the key indicators used to analyse the industry’s benefits to local people and the poor as a huge potential exists in tourism development, but existing barriers restrict access to existing employment opportunities, and subsequent marginalisation and exclusion of a great number of the total population. Expected outcomes: The expected outcomes may include: (i) Barriers removed as means to increase employment opportunities for men and women; (ii) An enabling environment created for small enterprises to thrive through linkages in the supply chain; (iii) Access to credits and loans created and business regulations and tax regimes streamlined; (iv) Access to information improved and awareness created among local people to reduce apathy; and (v) Capacity skills of local people improved to work or invest in tourism businesses.


237

These outcomes could be achieved through regular public meetings, radio

programmes, workshops and involvement in decision-making process. However,

there is need for financial, human and social resources to be made available by

governments and donor agencies, while Non-Governmental Organisations are

encouraged to provide logistical and leadership support.

In summary, the recommendations provide policy strategies that could be applied

to achieve outcomes that could make tourism play a leading role in poverty

reduction in Elmina. Enhancing economic opportunities would not mean merely

maximising tourist arrivals and income but rather taking into account a wide

range of local people priorities, particularly removing barriers that cause their

marginalisation and exclusion from tourism.


In conclusion, this discussion has argued that financial, human and social factors

interweave to create opportunities, whilst their absence exacerbates or

perpetuates the poverty of local people. Whilst these factors reflect the complex

nature of poverty, they also mean that improving local people’s well-being can be

effected through development mechanisms that tackle the multi-dimensional

nature of poverty. The positive contribution of tourism to poverty reduction could

be significant, if the outlined barriers that currently restrict local people’s

participation are tackled through deliberate policy interventions and achievement

of specific outcomes in Elmina. This policy objective needs to, arguably,

emphasise principles of sustainable development through: (i) widening of socio-

economic opportunities; and (ii) effectively removing or minimising barriers that

impede participation.

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Chapter 12

Conclusion

12.1 Introduction

This research has aimed to analyse and discuss the role of tourism in relation to

poverty, and to suggest ways that tourism can contribute to poverty reduction,

based on the principles of sustainable development. Relationships between

poverty, development and tourism have been discussed in the context of Elmina

in Ghana. Fundamental assumptions inherent in the meaning and measurement

of poverty and the use of tourism as a development agent to reduce poverty have

been critically analysed and challenged by the findings of this research.

Recommendations have subsequently been made for how tourism policy and

implementation can be used to reduce poverty.

12.2 Failure of Macro-Economic Growth and ‘Trickle-Down’ Effects

It is evident from the analyses that, although tourism’s contribution to

development has been widely recognised, its relationship with poverty reduction

within the context of the ‘development’ agenda has not been given much

attention, as discussed in Chapter 4. Certainly, the economic and social impacts

that flow from the development of tourism are widely researched (Brohman,

1996; Cukier, 2002; Sharpley, 2002; Telfer, 2002; Hampton, 2005; Holden,

2005). Later works have started to link tourism and poverty, emphasising the

importance of tourism development in government and donor agency poverty

reduction agenda, particularly in achieving the targets of the Poverty Reduction

Strategy and Millennium Development Goals (Roe et al., 2004; Goodwin, 2006;

Hall, 2007; Scheyvens, 2007; Zhao and Brent Ritchie, 2007; Blake et al., 2008).

While the multidimensional nature of ‘poverty’ and ‘tourism’ are recognised in the

literature, the findings from this research suggest that the relationship between

tourism development and poverty reduction is obviously beyond simply tracking

macro-economic growth and trickle down effects, and inherently requires policy

interventions and comprehensive research.

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Although poor people are often viewed as the target of poverty efforts, the

development processes are not driven by local people’s needs and choices.

Despite the belief within both policy-making and academic circles that tourism

can be a tool for development, relatively little attention has been paid to the

inherent processes and their outcomes on poverty reduction. There are few

theoretical and empirical works in the literature, beyond the conventional tourism

development approach focusing on macro-economic multipliers and impact

studies within local communities in developing countries. It was against such a

context that the aim and objectives, and subsequent methodology of this

research were developed.

12.3 Tourism’s Role in Poverty Reduction in Elmina

Discussion of the findings of this research has highlighted three main issues of

theoretical importance, relevant to tourism’s role in poverty reduction in Elmina.

Firstly, it highlights the need to understand the multiple ways local people define

poverty; i.e. not in terms of low income alone but also non-income matters,

particularly opportunities and barriers that affect livelihoods and involvement in

decision-making processes. Secondly, it highlights the need to view the

relationship between poverty and tourism in the destination concerned, in the

context of development paradigms emphasised in the literature and policy

agenda of donors funding tourism development in developing countries (Harrison,

1995; Burns, 1999). In the case of Elmina, the development of tourism was

clearly conditioned by Ghana’s importance as a former colony of European

countries, to which Elmina is inextricably linked through monuments associated

with colonial rule such as Elmina Castle and Fort St. Jago.

Finally, the findings of this research reveal a conventional neo-liberal approach to

tourism development in Elmina, emphasising Government and Donor Agency

policies to reduce poverty through international tourism, economic growth, ‘trickle

down’ effects, and employment and income multipliers. By contrast, local people

see beyond issues of employment and income, to how tourism could provide

wider economic and social livelihood opportunities, in view of declining fishing

and salt production activities. Local people also stress the need for a participatory

approach to tourism development in Elmina, one in which they have ‘voice’ and

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influence. The conventional approach of emphasising the significance of tourism

in poverty reduction, particularly macro-indicators associated with ‘trickle-down’

effects through statistical employment and income multipliers, is of little

importance to local people. On the contrary, their priorities and realities are

embedded in a broad range of socio-economic impacts, including empowerment

and participation to make choices that affect their lives. This is important in

supporting a shift from a conventional approach to an alternative approach, the

‘Development First’ (Burns, 2004), focusing on sustainable development

principles, including a participatory and holistic interrelationship between tourism

and other sectors such as fishing and agriculture.

The findings have revealed a range of institutional and policy barriers that

undermine tourism’s role in poverty reduction, as well as a tendency for

government to place emphasis on tourism development at the national level,

rather than at the local level. This means that care should be taken by policy-

makers not to generalise tourism’s role in poverty reduction in Ghana. Policy and

practical measures to address the identified shortcomings have been discussed

in Chapter 11. The implication is that specific policies that deliver benefits to meet

local people’s needs are required, if poverty is to be reduced through tourism

development. However, a number of challenges are associated with tourism

development at the macro level in Ghana, as explained in Section 5.3.

Based on the above understanding, this research has questioned the prevailing

theoretical conventional approaches discussed in Chapters 3 and 4 that tourism

automatically contributes to poverty reduction without the need for clear poverty

policy interventions. It argues that whilst poverty reduction requires government

and donor intervention at the local level, the quantitative measurement of poverty

based on ‘poverty lines’ of income and consumption, and the measurement of

tourism success through volume of arrivals, receipts and licensed businesses,

pays inadequate attention to local people’s wider livelihood opportunities. Clearly,

whether the conventional approach of tourism development has succeeded in

reducing poverty in Elmina depends on how poverty is defined and tourism

assessed.

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12.4 Recommendations for Increasing Tourism’s Role in Poverty Reduction in Elmina

Based upon a comprehensive analysis of the literature and discussion of the

findings of this research, a number of research and policy needs have been

identified and recommended as worth considerable attention in Elmina. It is

recommended that a sustainable approach to tourism development be taken in

Elmina, which recognises the central role of local people, as well as economic,

social and political institutions at global, national and local levels. Sustainable

development principles emphasise poverty-focused development; focusing on

local people, a responsive and participatory process, inter-relationship at national

and local levels, and economic and social factors affecting livelihood activities

and decision-making. Such an approach does not radically reject neo-liberal

market forces but stresses holistic and participatory processes aimed at

balancing local people’s priorities and other ‘stakeholders’ objectives.

This shift in emphasis of the development paradigm towards a sustainable

philosophy is necessary, as whilst the current focus on arrivals, revenue and

expansion of licensed tourism businesses in Elmina provides macro benefits to

government, donor and private sector, it weakens the role of tourism in creating

socio-economic opportunities for local people. Instead of contributing significantly

to the goals of poverty reduction, rather they exacerbate or perpetuate poverty in

the local community.

However, the question should be asked: whether tourism can provide a legitimate

means of reducing poverty in Elmina? Whilst tourism policy provides a pathway, it

is not a panacea for poverty reduction in Elmina or elsewhere, unless livelihood

opportunities are created and barriers reduced or minimised. Five challenges to

this are identified:

i. As discussed in Chapters 2 and 8, poverty is dynamic and multi-

dimensional, passing beyond income to non-income perspectives.

Therefore, reducing poverty would require a broader tourism development

agenda, emphasising local people’s priorities and choices;

ii. The need to remove barriers causing local people’s marginalisation and

exclusion from opportunities in the tourism industry and market. As

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discussed in Chapters 9 and 10, although it has the potential to create

economic and non-economic opportunities for local people through

stimulation of small business, employment and decision-making

opportunities, there are several barriers that need to be overcome through

government policy interventions and actions by donors, non-governmental

organisations and the private sector. These include building capacity and

access to training, credit, diversified tourism products and markets;

iii. The existing lack of clear structure for the planning and development of

tourism and the uncoordinated actions of different stakeholders need to be

overcome to allow the potential socio-economic benefits of tourism to be

realised. It is recommended that an organisation solely responsible for

tourism development in Elmina is created. There is an existing lack of

accountability, responsiveness and transparency in infrastructure service

delivery and business regulation and legislation discussed in Chapters 8, 9

and 10, challenging donor commitment to tourism and good governance. It

is suggested that, an independent non-governmental organisation should

relieve government bodies, particularly the Municipal Assembly, of the

burden of tourism policy and planning, and emphasise partnerships with

local people in Elmina.

iv. The need to encourage the establishment of non-governmental

organisations that are participatory in approach and pay attention to local

needs is emphasised by Burns who, on the basis of a comparable tourism

developmental planning approach in Eritrea, concluded that ‘the extent to

which tourism goals are subsumed, diverted or even dropped will be the

result of the complex web of inter-relations among various actors involved

in planning which may pay little heed to development needs of (especially

at a local level)’ (1999:334). A tourism policy mechanism is thus required

that aims to develop institutions and promote inter-relationships amongst

stakeholders (Burns, 2004), and gives voice to local people (Hollinshead,

1996, 2006). Such an institution could be a wealthy non-governmental

organisation, may have the resources to stimulate economic livelihood

opportunities through micro-finance and empower local people and

governing bodies to assess and access a variety of tourism and poverty

reduction policy and planning options in Elmina; and

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v. The final major challenge is to address the shortcomings of the 15-year

Integrated National Tourism Development Plan (1996-2010) that was jointly

prepared by government and donors, but for which there has been a lack of

commitment to its implementation, with subsequent consequences of a lack

of creation of socio-economic opportunities.

Having advocated the need for a shift in policy towards sustainable tourism

development, there is a need to address how it can incorporate a poverty

reduction policy at the local level. As discussed in Section 3.3, despite the debate

about sustainable development, the influence of the concept has increased

significantly in national and international policy development, making it a core

precept of the policy documents of governments, donor agencies, non-

government organisations and the private sector. The concept stresses ‘needs’

and ‘aspirations’ (Mebratu, 1998:504), which are applicable to all forms of tourism

including cultural tourism; types of tourists; a variety of socio-economic

opportunities; institutional strengthening and the empowerment and participation

of local people-centred policies. However, the policy process is very broad and

sometimes ambiguous; embodying wider stakeholder group consultations and

formulation; the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of goals and

strategies; and requiring a political commitment to resources from the

government and donors.

One of the major obstacles to overcome in order to use tourism for poverty

reduction is to change the approach from ‘top-down’ policy planning. Despite the

implementation of decentralisation processes in Ghana, policy processes remain

‘top-down’. Occasionally there are consultations with stakeholders about policy,

but these never include any representation for poor people, whose views are not

considered in the final decisions by policy-makers. Where participatory processes

are adopted by policy-makers, typically a Rapid Rural Appraisal approach had

been utilised to extract data rather than a Participatory Rural Appraisal approach,

which emphasises a ‘bottom-up’ process of eliciting data from poor people as

discussed in Sections 2.4.3 and 6.4.3. For a poverty-reduction tourism policy to

be effective, policy-makers should be accountable, transparent, responsive and

able to distinguish between indicators identified by different stakeholders and

local people. While understanding the linkage between tourism policy and poverty

244

reduction is important, the significance of integrating a sustainable development

approach lies in placing emphasis on increasing stakeholder participation in the

policy process with an emphasis on local people.

To date, national tourism planning for Ghana has failed to consider the financial,

human and social resources necessary to promote local people’s participation.

Tourism’s potential for poverty reduction cannot be realised until there is a

development paradigm shift from macro-economic oriented goals to poverty-

focused livelihood opportunities and decision-making process. The lack of

integration between national and local level development objectives in Ghana

justifies research into tourism’s role in poverty reduction in local communities.

12.5 Strengths and Limitations of the Research

The strengths of this research are rooted in the emphasis on interpretive

paradigm and qualitative methodology, in which voice is given to local people

rather than other stakeholders, i.e. government, donor agencies, private sector

and tourists. Based upon methodological triangulation, as explained in Chapter 6,

this study aims to provide a broader view of local people’s understanding and

meanings of tourism’s role in poverty reduction, as opposed to earlier works in

Elmina. A key strength is enhancing the focus on the marginalised and excluded,

as means of advancing theory and empirical basis for research and development

policy for the relationship between tourism and poverty reduction.

However, a number of limitations can be noted in the study. A key limitation is

that interpretations of poverty and tourism opportunities were reliant upon the

respondent’s ability to identify the relationships between tourism and poverty,

remembering experiences from encounters and activities since the industry was

introduced into the local community in 1993. Therefore, methodological design

was limited to studying the perspective of stakeholders’ experiences and

knowledge of tourism development in Elmina. Although, these accounts were

verified to a large extent, using triangulation of methods and sources of data,

there was no way they could be value-free. In addition to this, investigating the

role of tourism in poverty reduction Elmina is prone to a wide range of influences,

on the part of the researcher and the people studied. These include the prevailing

245

economic, socio-cultural, political and power balances which influence the data

collected, and issues relating to being ‘emic’ and ‘etic’, as explained in Section

6.11. To overcome these weaknesses, the investigation into the role of tourism in

poverty reduction was conducted from the perspective of stakeholders, and not

with regard to a position that reflects the view of one particular stakeholder.

12.6 Contribution to Knowledge

A strength of this research lies in its emphasis on poverty reduction through

considering local people’s views in the decision-making process, rather than

policy-makers’ and the private sector’s. The tourism and development literature

has focused much attention on measuring the impacts of tourism development,

whilst comparatively little emphasis has been placed on poverty reduction in local

communities. This study represents a broader and more detailed comprehension

of tourism’s role in poverty reduction, within the context of sustainable

development of Ghana and in Elmina in particular.

A contribution to the current global tourism and poverty agenda has been made

through the critical evaluation of development theories and concepts, alongside

an assessment of their relevance to poverty and tourism relationships. A

significant contribution to knowledge has been made through bringing

understanding to how the ‘poor’ perceive poverty and the livelihood opportunities

that tourism has the potential to bring. It has given marginalised groups in

society, such as the women, Asafo companies, fishermen and fishmongers, and

the Castle Boys a voice, an opportunity to be heard that they have not previously

had. The study has also listened to their views of how the planning of tourism to

reduce and alleviate poverty should proceed. There is a clear emphasis on

participation; partnerships with the private sector and government; allowed

access to the market; the provision of affordable training, and having availability

of credit. The research also enhanced understanding of a group of marginalised

young men, the Castle Boys, the tourist ‘harassers’, of how and why they

undertake their activities and perhaps, more importantly, how they see a way out

of their present status.

246

This emphasis on participatory approach to decision-making greatly enhances

the understandings of the poverty and tourism relationship. It gives

understandings to the kinds of solutions that the poor think would help to deal

with their problems, rather than relying on externally imposed solutions, which

often fail to deliver the desired results. The research provides information upon

which to develop strategies to build the capacity of local people to gain

livelihoods through tourism. It is argued that these strategies should continue the

participatory approach with the poor and other stakeholders. As a means of

reducing poverty, this kind of strategy is likely to have a much better chance of

success than externally imposed solutions, which are construed in the absence of

local understandings.

The methodological approach of the research, emphasising participation and

consultation with all stakeholders, including the poor, establishes a framework

that is transferable to other geographical locations. In this sense it is advocating,

‘local solutions for local problems’, whilst at the same time recognising the global

character of the tourism industry. This methodology is also radical in the sense

that it challenges the traditional status quo of externally imposed solutions of

major donor agencies such as the World Bank, for poverty reduction.

12.7 Recommendations for Future Research

Based upon consideration of the literature and discussion so far, research needs

and opportunities have been identified and recommended for attention in future

enquires into tourism and poverty reduction in developing countries. There is a

need to address two main issues concerned with the practical outcomes of this

research. The results of this research need to be integrated into tourism policy

and planning for Elmina and applied at a local level. Longitudinal research then

needs to proceed with the local community to assess its effectiveness in ensuring

the use of tourism to combat poverty. The second issues relates to the

requirement to implement the methodological approach of this study to other

locations, to both provide comparative data of the understanding and

experiences of poverty, and to devise and implement appropriate tourism poverty

reduction strategies. This programme of research would develop knowledge of

how local people understand poverty in multiple ways, and how to develop

247

appropriate frameworks for using tourism to arrest poverty. This is difficult to

assess, in view of the lack of data on which livelihood opportunities can be

directly and indirectly attributed to tourism.

An emergent finding of this research was the role of philanthropic tourists in

aiding the Castle Boys and providing resources to extend schools. However,

philanthropic tourism is a relatively new concept and a much better

understanding of how it could be harnessed to fight poverty needs to be

acquired. Subsequently, research to understand philanthropic tourism more fully

is recommended.

Finally, research is necessary to develop frameworks that are appropriate for

tourism development in local communities. This should investigate the broader

roles of both the political and traditional administration systems in tourism

development vis-à-vis the decentralisation process. In the context of Ghana,

focus should be put on how local governments (District, Municipal and

Metropolitan Assemblies), Traditional Authorities, and local groups, can

effectively stimulate tourism development to tackle poverty. There is a need for

future research to understand how to build capacity and strengthen institutional

responses to resource allocation, providing an enabling environment that

supports local community decision-making, entrepreneurial investment and

employment opportunities.

248

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Appendix

272

Appendix 1: Licensed Tourism Establishments in the Central Region: 2004-2007

Year

Hotels

Restaurants

Home Lodge

Tour Agency

Car Hire

Drinking Bars

Traditional Catering

2004

114

21

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

2005

104

16

n/a

2

1

316

48

2006

108

7

n/a

5

1

n/a

n/a

2007

116

14

1

4

n/a

360

84

Source: Ghana Tourist Board Office, Central Region, 2007c.

Note: n/a= not available

273

Appendix 2: Projections for Tourism Growth in Ghana: 1994-2010 Indicator 1994 1995 2000 2005 2010

Tourism Arrivals (In

thousands

271 286 399 638 1,062

Tourist Receipts (In

USD Millions)

222 237 386 757 1,562

Contribution to

GDP (In

percentages)

3.5 3.5 3.9 5.2 7.4

Employment (In

thousands)

56 59 90 161 307

Source: Adapted from 15-year National Tourism Development Plan, ROG (1996:227).

274

Appendix 3: Registered Accommodation Establishments in Ghana Year Number Rooms Beds

1996 703 10232 13791

1997 751 10921 14164

1998 730 10879 14299

1999 834 11384 16184

2000 992 13641 17558

2001 1053 15453 19648

2002 1169 16180 21442

2003 1250 17352 22909

2004 1315 18079 23538

2005 1344 18632 23915

2006 1405 19967 28006

Source: Adapted from the Annual Reports, Ghana Tourist Board, 2005 & 2007.

275

Appendix4: Licensed Restaurants by Category in Ghana: 1995-2006 Classification 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Grade 1 29 30 33 43 51 50 101 66

Grade 2 78 61 67 74 88 90 154 97

Grade 3 113 115 149 145 169 134 186 153

Fast Food 13 25 22 50 59 25 59 n/a

Total 233 231 271 312 367 299 372 250

Source: Adapted from the Annual Reports, Ghana Tourist Board, 2000, 2005 and 2007

276

Appendix 5: Licensed Catering Establishments in Ghana: September 2007 Region Snack Bar Traditional

Catering

Establishment

Drinking Bars Total

Greater Accra 1 303 790 1094

Eastern n/a 138 266 404

Brong-Ahafo n/a n/a n/a n/a

Upper East n/a 16 51 67

Central n/a 84 128 121

Western 2 68 388 458

Upper West n/a 19 87 106

Volta n/a 88 107 195

Northern n/a n/a n/a n/a

Ashanti n/a 67 130 197

Total 3 783 1947 2733

Source: Adapted from the Annual Report, Ghana Tourist Board, 2007

277

Appendix 6: Appropriateness of Data Collection Methods to Research Study Objectives

Research Study Objective Data Collection Method Contribution to study

1. Comprehend how the socio-

economic opportunities arising

from tourism can be utilised to

combat poverty.

• Unstructured Interviews

• Semi-Structured Interviews

• Focus Group

• Participant Observation

The data collection

methods aim to contribute

to an understanding of

how local people view the

relationship between

poverty and tourism, and

impacts on their well-

being.

2. Identify the barriers that

cause the marginalisation and

exclusion of local people from

the tourism industry.



• Focus Group

• Participant observation

The data collection

method may assist in the

collection of data to

understand barriers which

restrict local people’s

participation in tourism.

3. Investigate the stakeholder

perception of the significance

of tourism as a means of

combating poverty.


• Semi-structured interviews

• Focus Group

The data collection

methods aim to identify

how other stakeholders,

apart from local people,

understand the

significance of tourism in

combating poverty.

4. Make recommendations on

how tourism can be utilised to

reduce poverty in Elmina.

• Unstructured interviews


• Focus Group

• Participant Observation

The data collection can

help provide key themes

and sub-themes for policy

planning and decision

making, ranging from local

to international levels of

tourism development to

tackle poverty.

Source: Author’s construction

278

Appendix 7: Unstructured Interviews: Strengths, Weaknesses and Solutions Strength* Weaknesses* Solutions to Weaknesses

Gather rich and thick descriptions of multiple

realities

The conduct of the

interview exposes the

multiple realities that

explain poverty and

tourism relationship.

Inability to obtain data from wider population

It can only be used for a

small sample size, and not

extrapolated to the wider

population.

Combined with other methods

To engage many respondents in

the construction and

interpretation to gather ‘rich’ data

and ‘thick’ descriptions of poverty

and tourism.

Establish rapport and trust

The rapport and trust

between researcher and

interviewer facilitate the

interaction and depth of

discussion on the

research ‘topic’.

There is a large investment time in

gathering data from interviewees

The researcher has to

explain the rationale of the

study to interviewee and

sought permission to take

notes, or tape-record the

interviews, or make no

record at all and have to rely

on his memory to recollect

the salient information

Interviewed respondents

The interviewee was assured

that the information provided was

absolutely confidential, and

would not be held against

him/her.

Probing for in-depth information

It is the open-ended

interview that allows the

researcher to interact with

interviewees at any setting

and probe for detailed

information

Limited time does not allow

the researcher to probe for

more details for a long

period, during interviews

with tourists.

Allow Interviewees to talk more

Engage interviewees to talk more

whilst the researcher listens

attentively.

*Source: Adapted from Jennings, 2001

279

Appendix 8: Semi-Structured Interviews: Strengths, Weaknesses and Solutions

Strength* Weaknesses* Solution to Weaknesses

Multiple realities can be determined from the

interviews

The interviews allowed data to

be collected from different

stakeholder groups and do not

constraint the interviewees to

following the researcher a priori

reasoning.

Unwillingness of interviewee to participate in the interview, or

answer questions

The interviewee is not obliged to

respond to any or all questions

during the interview. Analysis of

data is difficult when key

interviewees refused to divulge

information.

Scheduled time at the convenience of the

respondent

The interviewees should

be put at ease before

beginning formal

questioning.

Data on sensitive and complex Issues can be

obtained through established

rapport between the researcher

and interviewees.

Rapport is important for

collection of complex and

sensitive data in the social setting.

Researcher assured interviewee of confidentiality and

privacy

Allowed the interview to

answer questions freely

and to seek for further

clarifications and details

without negatively

affecting the quality of

data collections process.

Follow-up questions can be

framed to clarify issues for the

interviewees and further extend

responses.

Takes much longer time due to

interruptions during the

interviews, which seep into

fieldwork time.

Re-schedule interviews, or wait for interruption

to cease

Therefore, interview

should be conducted and

questions revisited at a

later date, or time using

different data collection

techniques.

*Source: Adapted from Bryman, 2004

280

Appendix 9: Focus Groups-Strengths, Weaknesses and Solutions Strength* Weaknesses* Solutions to Weaknesses

Focus groups can promote time effectiveness of collecting data from more

people in a short period

This approach fits into the

traditional system of consensus

building.

The focus group can be dominated by vocal and strong participants

Session can be easily dominated

by few participants and

subsequently divert attention from

the issues.

Facilitator needs skills related to group discussion.

Researcher encouraged

interactions amongst participants,

ensure all views are respected,

equal time to participants to

contribute and no one dominate

the session.

Focus groups allow the researcher to gather and cross-check different opinions

from different stakeholders

Different viewpoints add to the

richness of the data collected

through group members

questioning, clarifying and

discussing their respective

positions.

The selected participants may not truly represent or reflect the study population, or unwilling

to join groups

English language and level of

education were considered

barriers by some participants.

Explain rationale for focus group to participants

Encouraged use of both English

and Fanti languages and

interpretations by participants to

reflect and clarify their positions.

The focus groups method should

be combined with other qualitative

data collection techniques.

The researcher can gain access to participants who

may be difficult to reach

because of their daily schedules.

The difficulty of getting participates to participate

Focus groups are difficult to

arrange, duration of sessions and

number of participants.

Incentives are used to prolong participation

Appropriate selection of cross-

section of groups, and incentives

provided by the researcher in the

context of traditional norms.

*Source: Adapted from Patton, 1990

281

Appendix 10: Participant Observation-Strengths, Weaknesses and Solutions Strengths* Weaknesses* Solution to

Weaknesses

Provides first hand information

The researcher observes

interactions and behaviours of

participants in the social

settings.

It may be prone to researcher’s bias

The observed events and objects

are selective and interpretation

differs from the participant’s

perspectives.

The integration of other activities

The researcher should

integrate other activities

to avoid being treated

suspiciously or hostile

by participants.

It enables the researcher to become aware of how the

participants interpret and give

meanings to poverty and tourism

in the social setting.

The interaction between the researcher and participants

may create familiarity, thereby

losing objectivity of the data

obtained.

A combination with other methods enriches data

Focus group method

should be

supplemented with

other qualitative

techniques in order to

cross-check data

collected.

It enables a wide range of data to be collected

Researcher collects a range of

data on human behaviour and

events and compared with

information obtained through

other techniques.

It may not work with large groups

The researcher can only be in one

setting, focusing on the present,

whilst the past or future settings

are not observable.

The need for data which can be observed

First-hand data should

be collected and

assimilated into

unstructured, semi-

structured and focus

group interviews.

*Source: Adapted from Bowen, 2001

282

Appendix 11: Bricoleurship Strength, Weakness and Solutions Bricolage-Strengths

outlined by Kincholoe (2001) and impact on this research study

Bricolage-Weaknesses

outlined by Kincholoe (2001) and impact on this research study Weaknesses

Bricolage-Solutions proposed

by this researcher in response to weaknesses identified by Kincholoe (2001)

Methodological Rigour

A means to establishing

rigour, using diverse

theoretical and philosophical

notions of qualitative

research.

Barriers of Boundary Works

Reluctance amongst

researchers or discipline to

facilitate intersections of

traditional boundaries.

Reference to Literature Review

An inspection and analyses of

disciplines or ‘outside’ fields with

an established links with poverty

and tourism studies.

Multiple Realities and Perspectives

A combination of multiple

perspectives obtained from

different methodological and

interpretative perspectives

due to limitations of single

methods, or paradigm.

Methodologically Wider in Scope

Multiple research methods

involve learning from

differences which may be time

consuming and frustrating due

endless interactions between

researcher and diverse

stakeholders including the

marginalised and excluded.

Seeking Relationship and Familiarity

An overview of research basic

ethical, philosophical,

methodological assumptions

familiar to the researcher and

establishing diverse networks

with research students of other

disciplines or domains

examining poverty and tourism.

Synergy of Disciplines

Facilitate disciplinary

mediations across scholarly

domains by creating

conceptual links that help

researchers in different

disciplines to interact.

Time Consuming and Bias

Time is devoted to

comprehension of

epistemological, ontological

and methodologies in other

disciplines.

Transdisicplinary Approach

A focus on transdisciplinary

rather than interdisciplinary to

interact and collect ‘rich’ data in

order to produce ‘thick’

description.

Source: Adapted from Kincholoe, 2001

283

Appendix 12: Interview Guide Questions for the Stakeholders

1. General: Interviewer Profile

Thank you very much for your acceptance to participate in this research study. I would like to ask

you for some details about yourself, your household and community

i. Name …… ii. Age……… iii. Education Level obtained……iv. Gender status…………

2a. Local People: Issues of Poverty

I would like to ask some questions about your (you and your household) quality of life.

i. How would you describe your quality of life in Elmina?

ii. What are the things which you say affect your quality of life and that of your household?

iii. Taking everything into account, would you say that this area has become a better place to

live in, become worse or remained about the same? Please explain

iv. Can you tell me which social amenities affect your quality of life?

v. What do you think are the most important issues the government should be dealing with?

vi. What would you say are the most important employment opportunities in Elmina?

2b. Local People: Issues of Tourism

I would like to ask some questions about tourism development in Elmina and how it affects your

quality of life and that of your family.

i. What would say about tourism in Elmina?

ii. Who would you say are/is responsible for tourism development in Elmina?

iii. What roles do you think the local people play in tourism development?

iv. What would you say are the activities/ businesses that deal with tourists?

v. What benefits are you receiving from tourism?

vi. I would like you to tell me, in order of importance, what you expect from tourism in Elmina

vii. Please tell, how do you describe your employment situation in tourism?

viii. Can I just check, how do you think of yourself as having a job or business in tourism (or

related to tourism)?

ix. What is your income (daily, monthly,) from your business/job; that is after paying for any

materials, equipment or goods that you use in your work?

x. How much money do you earn from your work?

xi. What do you think restricts you from involving yourself in tourism (working, business etc.?)

xii. What do you think are the most issues the government should be dealing with to improve

tourism?

3. Tourists

i. Please tell, what are the major reasons for your visit to this destination?

ii. How would you describe your visit to this place?

iii. What goods and services have you bought or spent money on?

iv. What do you think are the important issues that should be addressed to encourage you to

visit here again and stay longer in the community?

284

4. Private Sector

i. With regard to your work, how would you describe your business activities?

ii. May I just ask, is that your own or a family business?

iii. Could you describe more fully what your business entails?

iv. In relation to your business, how do you perceive tourism development in Elmina?

v. How often do you organise tours in a year to this area?

vi. How long do the tourists stay, what activities do they engage in, and what things do they buy

when they visit the area?

vii. What are the things which you would say affect tourism development in the area?

viii. How would you describe the quality of life of the local people?

ix. How many persons have you employed in your business?

x. In your view, what benefits/opportunities are created for the local people from your

businesses activities?

xi. What do you think are the most important issues the private sector should be dealing with to

improve tourism in Elmina?

5. Government/Donor Agency Representatives

i. How does you organisation perceive poverty in Ghana?

ii. How does you organisation perceive tourism development in Ghana?

iii. What indicators do you use in measuring both poverty and tourism?

iv. How would you describe the role of your organisations in both poverty reduction and tourism

development?

v. Could you tell me, who do you describe as the beneficiaries of the policies, plans and

programme you produce and implement?

vi. How have the local people in Elmina benefited from your activities?

vii. How would you describe the tourism potential of Elmina?

viii. What contribution is tourism making to help reduce poverty in Elmina?

ix. And can you tell me, who are the local people benefiting from the socio-economic

opportunities created from tourism, if any?

x. Can you tell me which challenges are associated with the sustainable development of

tourism at the national and local levels?

285

Appendix 13: Demographic Profile of Pilot and Main Study Sample

Name Gender Age/Age

Range

Level of

education

Occupation

1 Abena F 45-50 Nil Fishmonger

2 Akuoko F 50-60 Nil Fishmonger

3 Adwoa** F 52 Nil Fishmonger

4 Sanyiwah F 70 Nil Fishmonger

5 Konadu F 30 Nil Petty Trader

6 Frimpomaa F 60-70 Nil Tourist

7 Joan F 50 Tertiary Tourist

8 Boatemaa F 55 Nil Fishmonger

9 Lisa F 35 Tertiary Tourist

10 Enyonam F 50-60 Tertiary Government

Representative

11 Gloria F 19 Technical Tourist

12 Ahemaa F 35 Technical Beverage seller

13 Essiam F 30 Nil Fishmonger

14 Oparebea F 45 Nil Fishmonger

15 Ama Sika F 60-60 Nil Fishmonger

16 Asantewaaa F 45 Secondary Government

Representative

17 Akosua F 48 Secondary Beer bar owner

18 Fatima F 32 Nil Fishmonger

19 Korkor F 40 Nil Hawker

20 Shola** F 42 Technical Handicraft seller

21 Nanaba F 45 Tertiary Teacher

22 Naa Dede F 53 Secondary Assembly woman

23 Korantemaa F 56 Tertiary Teacher

24 Awurafio F 42 Secondary Hotel owner

25 Judy F 33 Tertiary Tourism consultant

26 Menaba F 50-60 Nil l Unemployed

27 Kyeiwaa F 30 Secondary Seamstress

28 Akonorbea F 35 Tertiary Tour guide

29 Baaba F 45 Nil Fishmonger

30 Mary F 36 Nil Fishmonger

31 Barkey** F 30 Student Tourist

32 Ohenewaa** F 58 Secondary Handicraft seller

33 Elisabeth F 52 Tertiary Tourist

34 Takyiwaa F 46 Nil Fishmonger

35 Serwaa F 40 Nil Fishmonger

36 Naa Ode F 54 Nil Fishmonger

286

37 Naa Adako F 67 Nil Fishmonger

38 Kesiwa** F 45 Tertiary Government

representative

39 Fati F 48 Secondary Vocational teacher

40 Maureen F 40-50 Secondary Government

representative

41 Essihene F 42 Nil chop bar owner

42 Gyamfour F 24 Nil chop bar owner

43 Akwele F 45 Technical Hotel worker

44 Suzzy F 30 Tertiary Tourist

45 Hajia F 64 Technical Restaurant owner

46 Katiele F 66 Secondary Drinking bar owner

47 Haruna M 37 Secondary Handicraft seller

48 Kofi M 50 Technical Boat builder

49 Kwesi M 58 Tertiary Consultant/

Lecturer

50 Yaw M 30 Secondary Tour guide

51 Kojo M 24 Technical Former castle boy

52 Craig M 20 Tertiary Tourist

53 Bonsu M 27 Tertiary Government

representative

54 Mohammed M 66 Nil Fisherman and a

member of the

Asafo Company

55 Owusu** M 36 Nil Salt worker and a

member of the

Asafo Company

56 Boateng M 66 Nil Fisherman and

member of the

Asafo Company

57 Akwei M 52 Secondary Assembly man

58 Kwabena M 62 Nil Fisherman and a

member of the

Asafo Company

59 Aryee M 34 Tertiary Government

representative

60 Sowah M 42 Tertiary Tour guide

61 Nii Armah M 48 Tertiary Hotel worker

62 Opanyin M 57 Tertiary Government

representative

63 Quainoo M 44 Tertiary Government

representative

287

64 Akrofi M 59 Secondary Salt worker

65 Yeboah M 64 Lecturer Government

representative

66 Asantewaaa M 37 Secondary Tour guide and

Unemployed

67 Togbe M 60 Nil Fisherman and a

member of the

Asafo Company

68 Kwetia M 51 Tertiary Government

representative

69 Opoku** M 21 Secondary/Tec

hnical

Castle boy and

unemployed

70 Jimmy M 62 Secondary Fisherman and a

member of the

Asafo Company

71 Ofori Atta M 20 Secondary Castle boy and

unemployed

72 Odame M 42 Nil Fisherman and a

member of the

Asafo Company

73 Aboagye** M 47 Tertiary Tour operator

74 Terry M 50 Secondary Tourist

75 Frank M 45 Secondary Tourist

76 Osei M 62 Nil Fisherman and a

member of the

Asafo Company

77 Kwapong M 43 Tertiary Government

representative

78 Baffour M 55 Tertiary Chief

79 Agyeman M 58 Nil Fisherman and a

member of the

Asafo Company

80 Christian M 50 Tertiary Donor Agency

81 Acheampong M 61 Tertiary Tour guide and a

consultant

82 Amankwaa M 19 Secondary Castle boy

83 Kpakpo M 58 Tertiary Hotel owner

84 Frimpong M 18 Secondary Castle boy and a

student

85 Roberts M 58 Tertiary Donor agency

86 Gariba M 22 Secondary Handicraft seller

87 Ofori M 64 Secondary Tour guide

288

88 Brown M 40 Secondary Tourist

89 Onyame M 18 Primary Castle boy and a

unemployed

90 Mantey M 20 Primary Castle boy and

unemployed

Source: Author’s Fieldwork

**Respondents who participated in the pilot study

289

Appendix 14: Mailed Correspondences-Researcher Letter

University of Bedfordshire

School of Business

(Department of Tourism)

Park Square Luton

Bedfordshire, UI3JU, England

(Date)

Dear Sir/Madam,

REF: RESEARCH INTO TOURISM AND POVERTY REDUCTION IN ELMINA

I am a Ph.D. research student at the University of Bedfordshire, in the Department of Tourism.

I am investigating the role of tourism in poverty reduction amongst the people in Elmina. My

research involves conducting interviews with a number of people in Elmina; therefore, I would

be grateful if you would be willing to participate in this research.

The interview will last approximately one hour; the place, date and time will be arranged at

your convenience. The research explores social and economic variables such as livelihood

opportunities and barriers to participation in tourism. Therefore, I will need to interview you

over a period of time. In order to maintain the highest form of privacy and confidentiality your

name will remain anonymous throughout the research process and in the final publication of

this thesis. As a proof of identification, I will carry a letter from my supervisor and University of

Bedfordshire Student Card, which will be produced on all visits.

I would be grateful for your participation in this research because it will make an invaluable

contribution to sustainable development of tourism concerning poverty reduction in Elmina.

Please complete the attached form overleaf. I will call you by telephone or come personally to

ask of your acceptance. If you have any question in the meantime please do not hesitate to

contact me on 0244 234490 (Mobile).

Your time and cooperation is most appreciated.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully

Signed: Joel Sonne

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290

Appendix 15: Mailed Correspondences-Respondent’s Form

University of Bedfordshire

School of Business

(Department of Tourism)

Park Square Luton

Bedfordshire, UI3JU

(Date)

Dear Sir/Madam,

REF: RESEARCH INTO TOURISM AND POVERTY REDUCTION IN ELMINA

Researcher: Joel Sonne,

University of Bedfordshire, Tourism Department,

Park Square, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1 3JU

PART A

PLEASE TICK (√) ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

( ) I WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE RESEARCH (PLEASE FILL IN PART B)

( ) I DO NOT WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE RESEARCH

PART B

Respondent: Name:

Address:

Contact Number:

RESPONDENT AVAILABILITY:

Date:

Time:

THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING THE FORM

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291

Appendix 16: Thematic Process-Perceived Problems and Solutions Strengths identified by

Gomme (2001

Anticipated problems in

this research

Solutions proposed by the

researcher

A range of responses

obtained.

Themes impose structure

into data.

Data is subject to cross-check

and scrutiny.

A range of interesting

responses emerged and

themes and sub-themes

are decided upon after the

interviews.

The researcher imposes a

structure to ‘fit’ qualitative

findings into themes,

categories and concepts.

The interpretative triangulated

data collected should be

subjected to triangulating and

endless scrutiny by using

themes, sub-themes and sub-

sub-themes in the data analysis.

Moreover, triangulation helps to

avoid quantifying data.

Thematic analysis themes

reflect perspective of

respondents.

Thematic analysis themes

look like measurement of

variables.

Data is interpreted and analysed

to produce ‘thick’ description of

respondents' perspectives.

Thematic analysis focuses

on what is said rather than

how it was said.

The themes appear like

measurable variables that

seek to count the number

of times themes emerge in

interview responses during

the coding and data

analyses.

Transcripts for field notes,

unstructured, semi-structured,

focus groups and participant

observation should be analysed

manually, making comparisons

and contrasts between different

respondents, firstly with

interpretation notes before

themes are assigned.

Thematic analysis is a

flexible research method

Thematic analysis is not

wedded to any pre-existing

theoretical framework, and

can be used within

different theoretical

frameworks.

Themes tend to influence

choice questions

Thematic analysis has no

analytical method and not

embedded in any particular

theoretical framework.

The use of methods fits into

interpretive paradigm, ontology

and qualitative methods to

encourage interactions between

researcher and respondents and

collection of ‘rich’ data.

Source: Adapted from Gomm, 2004

292

Appendix 17: Pilot Study-Unstructured Interview An extract from transcript of unstructured interview-A thematic analysis of unstructured interview between the researcher and respondent

Respondent: Adwoa

Time: 6.00-6.30pm

Language: Fanti

Recording Device: Note pad

Date: 8 July 2007

Place of Interview: Respondent’s home, Elmina

Theme: Understanding poverty and tourism

Respondent: Adwoa Researcher: Joel

Interview Main Theme/ Sub-themes/ Sub-sub-themes

Joel

Adwoa

Could you describe more fully what you do?

I am a fishmonger…a job I have done for 35

years…’me hyei ase akye [I have been in the

business for a long time]

Main theme:

Poverty

Sub-theme:

Socio-economic

opportunity

Joel

Adwoa

May I just check, is that your own or a family

business?

Yes…I was working with my mother, and

inherited it when she died…It is now my

business but I sell the fish with my

daughter…’adwuma no asae’ [dwindling

fishing activities] because the catch and

income earned are low. We can’t buy fuel,

outboards and nets, and feed the family...My

son, life is difficult for everybody in Elmina

because fishing is our umbilical cord but they

are not helping us...our children need to work.

Sub-sub-theme:

Business

Establishment/

Ownership

Income

Employment

Joel

Adwoa

If you say ‘they’, who are you referring to?

Hmmm…’they’ are the government people,

including the officials of the Municipal

Assembly, management of the Castle,

Member of Parliament. They don’t tell us

anything. Look, we are poor in this community.

Sub-theme:

Barriers

Sub-sub-theme:

Decision-Making

Information

Joel

Adwoa

What do you mean when you say ‘people are

poor’?

Yes people are poor [laughter] hmmm…people

don’t have work to do, money to buy food, care

for the family, buy water, pay for the use of

public toilets…many people in Edina [Elmina]

can’t afford all these things…but government

Main theme:

Meaning of Poverty

Sub-theme:

Barrier

Sub-sub-theme:

Social Amenities

Food

293

does not provide it freely. We are forced to pay

for using public toilets…why? …Oye dzen

papa [it is difficult for us].

Joel

Adwoa

Tell me…where do you sell your fish?

We sell to the hotels, chop bars, restaurants

and women who come from other market

centres to buy from us… I can’t stop selling

fish because I was born into it, but want my

children to look for better job in the hotels or

travel elsewhere after schooling.

Sub-theme:

Tourism Market

Employment

Joel

Adwoa

Do you mean to work in tourism? (Researcher

has to explain) I mean…all the things and

facilities that tourists [ahoho] come here to

enjoy.

Ebaadze? [What is that?] They come here and

go to the Castle, and stay in the hotels… only

few of them come to the fish market, take

photos or buy fish from us…we don’t benefit

from them.

Main theme:

Tourism

participation

Sub-sub-theme:

Tourism Market

Joel

Adwoa

How about the fish you sell to the hotels, chop

bars and restaurants…would say they are

benefits or not?

No, we don’t get anything from tourism...you

ask everybody… I can arrange for you to meet

the members of our association [fishmongers]

and they will tell you the same things.

Main theme:

Tourism

Participation

Sub-theme:

Socio-Economic

Opportunities

Joel

Adwoa

Meda wo ase. [Thank you very much]

Me nda ase [You are welcome]


294

Appendix 18: Pilot Study-Semi-Structured Interview An extract from Semi-structured interview between the researcher and respondent

Respondent: Ohenewaa

Time: 2.00pm-3.00pm

Language: English

Recording Device: Note pad and tape recorder

Date: 28July 2007

Place of Interview: Craft Shop, Elmina


Respondent:

Ohenewaa Researcher: Joel

Interview Theme/Sub-

themes/ Sub-sub-themes

Joel

Ohenewaa

Could you describe more fully what you do?

I own this shop and sell craftworks to tourists who

visit the Castle…a few of them [tourists] come here to

buy beads, kente products, earnings and carvings.

Main theme:

Tourism

Participation

Sub-theme:

Socio-Economic

Opportunities

Joel

Ohenewaa

How do you feel about the success of your craft

business?

Well, the business is on-and-off [fluctuates]…but

most often it is not good…I sell more goods during

Panafest and Emancipation Days …let me say

between July and September when more tourists visit

the castle.

Sub-sub theme:

Tourism Market

Joel

Ohenewaa

Tell me…What would say about tourism in Elmina?

Tourism?

[Laughter]…they are not developing tourism in a

manner that can bring more tourists and let them stay

longer. Tourists who buy from me always complaint

about lack of activities they want to do, apart from

visiting the Elmina castle.

Sub-theme:

Barrier

Sub-sub theme:

Tourism product

Tourism Market.

Joel

Ohenewaa

What do they want to see and do?

They want to relax at the beach and also observe

how these crafts are produced…You see, the

Assembly has built a craft without consulting us

[handicraft sellers]…the tour operators and tourist

don’t go there because it is far from the castle…the

trained people [artisans] have left Elmina because

they are not making sales. The Museum authorities

have allowed one shop to operate from castle which

Main theme:

Tourism

Participation

Sub-theme:

Barrier

Sub-sub theme:

Tourism product

Tourism Market

295

is not fair…...They asked me to leave this place but I

refused, and now they charge me GH¢2 every

month…how do I pay when I don’t sell my things?

Joel

Ohenewaa

How do you describe business performance (e.g.

income, profits)

Hmm… Look! It is 2.30pm and I have not sold

anything today…how do I feed my family? ...I collect

the items on credit and pay the producers when they

are sold…I don’t even have to tell you or anybody

because nobody gives me loans…it is my family’s

private affairs

Main theme:

Tourism

Participation

Sub-theme:

Barrier

Sub-sub theme:

Access to Credit

Joel

Ohenewaa

What would say are the challenges [problems] you

face in your business?

I have told you so many times. I don’t get many

customers, the banks will not give me loans because

I don’t have land or house as a security [collateral],

no proper place to sell my things because any time it

rains I have to pack the things and go home.

Main theme:

Tourism

Participation

Sub-theme:

Barrier

Sub-sub theme:

Access to credit

Tourism Market

Joel

Ohenewaa

How would you describe your quality of life in

Elmina?

People are poor and can only afford one meal a day.

Look at these children…they are not schooling

because we [parents] can’t pay the fees...There are

no industries to employ the people.

Main theme:

Meaning of

poverty

Sub-theme:

Barriers

Sub-sub-theme:

Income

Education

Employment

Joel

Thank you


296

Appendix 19: Main Study-Unstructured Interview An extract from unstructured interview between the researcher and respondent (tourist)

Respondent: Lisa

Time: 12.00pm-1.30pm

Language: English

Recording Device: Note pad

Date: 23 August 2007

Place of Interview: Restaurant in Elmina


Respondent: Lisa

Researcher: Joel

Interview Main theme/

Sub-theme/ Sub-sub-theme

Joel

Lisa

Please tell me, what are the major reasons for

your visit to Elmina?

I am visiting my daughter in Ghana and decided

to visit here

Main theme:


Sub-sub-theme:

Tourist Motivation

Joel

Lisa

How would you describe your visit to this place?

Elmina castle has a different story to tell than

Cape Coast Castle and Kakum National park. I

would not have this wonderful experience of

walking through the town and seeing other

attractions if we had not met you…people only

talk about the castle and not the town.

Sub-theme:

Socio-Economic

Opportunities

Sub-sub-theme:

Tourism product

Information

Interaction with local

people

Joel

Lisa

What goods and services have you bought or

spent money on?

Paid entrance fees to the Castle, bought a

necklace from the handicraft shop, gave money

to the beggars, and now having a good lunch.

For two hours I have spent so much but it could

have been more if there are a range of

interesting places and activities to do here…the

beach should be developed for tourists whilst

creating opportunities for local people.

Sub-theme:

Socio-Economic

Opportunities

Sub-sub-theme:

Tourism product

Tourism Market

Joel

Lisa

What do you think are the important issues that

should be addressed to encourage you to visit

here again?

A lot…there are many things to talk about.

Although the local people appear friendly, you

need clean beach for tourist to relax and buy

coffee, water sports, variety of crafts and local

Sub-theme:

Socio-Economic

Opportunities

Sub-sub-theme:

Tourism product

Tourism Market

297

food. But services at the hotels and restaurants

are slow…tourists will give tips if the quality of

service is good.

Joel

Lisa

What else can be done?

I can some signs of poverty here…the children

are playing on the street and not well dressed,

begging and open drains. They can provide

information and encourage tourists to contribute

money to development projects that can benefit

the people…whoever is responsible should make

the people benefit from tourism; otherwise it

become exploitative…I gave money to the

beggars because I want to help them.

Main theme:

Meaning of Poverty

Sub-theme:

Education

Infrastructure

Sub-sub-theme:

Tourist philanthropy

Joel

Thank you


298

Appendix 20: Main Study-Semi-Structured Interview An extract from semi-structured interview between the researcher and respondent

Respondent: Essihene

Time: 4.00pm-5.00pm

Languages: Fanti/English

Recording Device: Note pad and tape recorder

Date: 30 August 2007

Places of Interview: Chop bar, Elmina


Respondent:

Essihene Researcher: Joel

Interview Main theme/

Sub-theme/ Sub-sub-theme

Joel

Essihene

May I just check, is that your own or a family

business?

Yes, I inherited it from my mother and I have

operated it for ten years now.

Main theme:

Meaning of Poverty


Sub-theme:

Socio-Economic

Opportunities

Sub-sub-theme:

Employment

Business

Establishment

Joel

Essihene

How many people have you employed and pay

each worker?

I have employed six workers and pay them every

month. I don’t pay myself…it my business and

can buy anything I want if I need money.

Sub-sub-theme

Tourism product

Employment

Joel

Essihene

With regard to your work, how do you describe

its performance (e.g. income, profits)?

At least I make a little profit from the daily sales

of food to the general public and few tourists who

visit the castle and want to eat local food come

here. The [tourists] like our food and said it is

tasty and spicy…some want to learn the way

prepare our food.

Sub-theme:

Socio-Economic Opportunities

Sub-sub-theme

Employment/Income

Tourism Market

Joel

Essihene

How do your define your business activity with

regard to tourism?

Hmmm…officers from the Tourist Board came

here and said that because I prepare food and

sell I am involved in tourism business and would

come back to give me a license…I told them to

Main theme:


Government support

299

think about the support they can give me to

make the business grow…the government is not

helping but want us to pay money…nobody has

come back to me.

Joel

Essihene

What would say are the challenges you face in

your business?

I need money to buy roofing sheets, tables and

chairs. The bank will not give me a loan…and

the interest is too high. I have to buy water

everyday to prepare the food…

Main theme:


Sub-theme:

Barriers

Sub-sub-theme

Social Amenities

Joel

Essihene

What do you think could be done to address

these challenges?

The people who bring the tourists to the castle

should also bring them here to eat our local food.

Government should promote local food, build

hotels, provide clean water, waste disposal

management and credit…they don’t ask our

views before taking decisions.

Main theme:


Sub-theme:

Barrier

Sub-sub-theme:

Tourism Market

Product Diversification

Access to Credit

Social Amenities

Decision-Making

Joel

Essihene

How would you describe the quality of life in

Elmina?

People are poor… the fishing industry has been

the main economic activity for every household

but it is no more…this is why we [Chop bar

operators] want tourism and tourists to buy the

local food we prepare and sell...we want more

tourists to come here and stay for longer periods.

Main theme:

Meaning of Poverty


Sub-theme:

Socio-Economic

Opportunities

Sub-sub-theme:

Tourism Market

Joel

Essihene

Meda wo ase [Thank you]

Me nda ase. [You are welcome]


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