Contribution of the Hospitality and Tourism Sector to the Development of Local Communities in the Hohoe Municipality, Ghana.

Abstract

Tourism is now one of the world’s largest industries and one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. Its high growth and development rates, considerable volumes of foreign currency inflows actively affect various sectors of economy, which positively contributes to the development of own tourist industry. Many researchers have asserted that, all tourism indicators show a consistent trend of growth in terms of contribution to GDP, foreign exchange earnings etc. In view of its potential, the government of Ghana over the years has instituted measures to salvage the industry from possible collapse. However, the performance of the sector is constrained by a number of factors in view of the fact harnessing potentials of the industry to become the leading foreign exchange earner in Ghana has not been fully realised.

The paper investigated the contributions of the tourism industry to the growth and development of the Hohoe Municipality which is a host to most of the vibrant tourist attractions in the Volta Region. To achieve the objectives of the study, primary data was collected from three communities with tourist attractions in the Municipality (i.e. Tafi Atome monkey sanctuary; Mt. Afadjato and Tagbo falls, Liati Wote; and Wli falls).

The study revealed that, the municipality received GH¢122,877.90 in 2008 as tourism revenue with an average annual growth rate of 162.2 % per annum. However, in 2011, the figure reduced to GH¢18,122.5 due to lack of marketing and promotion as well as institutional bottlenecks. The paper recommends capacity building for the local communities as well as including tourism marketing and promotion, private sector participation in building a vibrant and diverse tourism in the Municipality and Ghana in general.

Key words: Development, growth, Tourism Marketing, Arrivals, MDGs