Potentials of tourism to poverty reduction in the Upper West region of Ghana

Abstract

The study reviewed two models namely the mainstream and pro-poor tourism models including the three pathways of benefits from tourism to the poor model and some elements of these two were used to adapt the Sustainable Livelihood Framework. Eight hotels which had restaurant facilities were purposively chosen for the study whilst three communities with attractions in the study area were also selected. A sample size of 192 respondents was obtained for the communities. Other respondents surveyed were officials of the regional office of Ghana Tourist Board and Planning Officers of Wa Municipality, Wa East and Wa West Districts. Analyses of data were descriptive, using frequency tables and cross-tabulations whilst the chi-square statistic was also employed to test three hypotheses of the study. The study revealed that accommodation facilities promoted some attraction sites in the study area and mostly employed people from the locality thereby giving them a source of livelihood. Majority of the hotels also sourced a greater quantum of their food and furnishing locally. The communities earned income from visits; the local people were into handicraft work, narration of village history including cultural performance to visitors for a fee and small scale petty trading at attraction sites. In one of the communities (Wechiau), the proceeds from tourism were used to provide some basic amenities whilst. some tourists also provided a school bl()ck and gave teaching and learning materials to boost academic work. Making tourism rural-based could therefore be a way out to poverty alleviation in these areas.