Welcome
CHALLENGES IN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
AND EFFORTS TO OVERCOME THESE CHALLENGES.
POLITICAL INSTABILITY.
From the history of tourism in Ghana, we found out that the first 15 – year Tourism Development Plan (195-1990) was abolished due to political instability that went on in the country for more than a decade.
On June 4th 1979, the government followed by other hostilities that followed. Leaders of the country were slaughtered, three judges were murdered and innocent civilians were canned and maltreated. As such, tourist industries came to an upright end. Tourists were afraid of coming to the country and generally Ghanaians had lost their general hospitality as each and everyone feared for his dear life. These leaders of the country before the coup d’etats were very corrupt and as such squandered all the countries money on ostentatatious living and filling their accounts at foreign banks. No money therefore was left to develop tourism in the country and this marked the doom of tourism in the country until the current plan, also a 15 – year Tourism Development Plan from 1996 to 2010. It is with much pleasure to write that the political state of the country is now very stable with a democratic government and the current plan has really proved to be
TRANSPORTATION.
Transportation is a major problem facing many third world countries and Ghana is not an exception. We have therefore decided to list the main types of transport facilities offered in Ghana, that is air water and land transport.
Air Transport.
Ghana is faced with the problem of having only one government-owned airline company, Ghana Airways. However ,our one and only airline company filed for bankruptcy .This has left the country with no option than to rely on foreign planes and other local but private airline companies to handle the ever increasing number of tourists coming into the country.
These airline companies charge exorbitant fares and provide very expensive services, In addition ,tourists also face the problem of constant VISA refusals, article damage but to mention a few .
This is not helping tourism in the country at all because the number of tourists visiting a tourist site per a particular time may be reduced due to VISA refusals, late arrivals and a whole array of problems. As a matter of fact, no tourist would like to come to a country where leaving it would create another problem.
Luckily this problem has been solved due to the establishment of another airline company’ Ghana International Airlines.
Land Transport.
As soon as one arrives in the country one will faced by the wide expanse of Ghanaian roads. These roads although are in quite a good shape tend to deteriorate as they approach the tourist sites .Why should this be so?
In addition, drivers who ply these roads lack basic maintenance skills. There are also problems in driver training, driver licensing and the chronic problem of drunken-driving.
Water Transport.
Another transport sector facing lots of problems is water transport. This is because Ghana lies in the tropics where high tides, and problems with powerful winds. Coupled with this problem is the lack of training given to sailors, navigators and boatmen. Some of these vessels which provide transport for the tourists are also in a very bad shape due to lack of maintenance and poor attitudes towards these vessels.
An example can be given of Dodi Princess which provides transport for tourists who want to visit the Dodi Islands. This trawler is only one and works for a certain period of time. Hence tourists have to wait for a long time to access it amidst the harsh conditions of the area.
Also at Nzulezu, tourists are faced with the daunting task of taking rides in hand-woven canoes which are manned by unexposed boatmen.
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Funding:
A major problem facing many African contrives is the lack of funding from the government. This is because Ghana has very little money in its coffers and as such is left with no option than to rely on loans from other developed countries and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.). Unfortunately, they specify areas they consider as important and hardly is tourism included.
Sex Trade;
The hospitable and flourishing tourist industry in the country is being messed up and being thrown into disarray due to the ever increasing number of prostitutes that are found on the streets of the country, looking for tourists to patronize their ‘products’. This problem is especially very common in our hotels, guest houses and inns and this is not helping the country at all. In the first place, the tourists pay very little money to the prostitutes (virtually nothing) since the prostitutes would do ‘it’ for a few dollars or even a plate of food and as such is hurting the image of the country. Further more, these tourists may carry various sexually transmitted diseases such as candidacies, trichononiasis, syphilis and gonorrhea which may not detected by blood test before their entry into the country. As such, these prostitutes tend to spread these diseases leaving we Ghanaians at the receiving end of their actions.
Poor infrastructure:
Poor roads, insufficient hotels, inns, restaurants, electricity, telephone communication, internet connection and potable drinking water is drastically affecting tourism in the country. One thing is that most of these tourist sites are found in the rural areas, for example the road leading to Sirigu (center of traditional pottery, arts and architecture) is in a poor state. The absence of electricity and telephone connections tend to discourage the tourists from staying longer and investing to the development of the country. The absence of potable drinking water also leads to various sicknesses such as bilharzias, river blindness, guinea worm and glaucoma. These diseases are quite difficult to cure in the country and as such, the tourists are left with no option than to go back to their homeland to seek medical aid.
Xenophobic and inhospitable Conditions in some parts of the country:
Some of the local people have developed certain xenophobic tendencies to white tourists many because of the hardships that colonial Ghanaians went through in the hands of Europeans during almost 400 years of colonization. These local people tend to avoid the whites and fail to offer help and assistance to them. This tends to discourage the whites from coming back and from investing in the country.
In some extreme cases, instead of xenophobic tendencies by the indigenes, some have cultivated very hostile attitudes toward these tourists. They beat and severe various injuries on these tourists and this tends to affect the growth of tourism in the country since it paints a very bad picture of the country.
Another example of hostile behavior is cannibalism (though this is not a prevailing condition in the country) which is found in some tribes of Africa. Tourists are found as easy prey and as such, the local people kill innocent tourists which therefore tends to affect the economies of the countries involved.
Crime: This is another challenge which is facing tourism in the country. One cannot visit a tourist destination without one coming across theft cases of varying degrees of seriousness. This situation has aggravated to such an extent that armed robbers have come into the picture. Armed robbers lay in ambush and attack tourists who have arrived in the country and rid them of all their money and other artifact such as mobile phones, camcorders, digital cameras, etc. Imagine that in such a case the tourist has no money to go on tour, goes back to his or her country, the armed robbers pocket the money and the government fails to get anything; how then is tourism going to grow?
Language Barrier: It is not surprising that most attendants at the various tourists sites cannot communicate properly with the customers. This is as a result of the language gap. Most of these attendants do not have good educational backgrounds. Expressing themselves in English is a problem. They do not therefore know the needs of their foreign customers. This can be attributed to the government’s plan of providing job for these people.