Ghana’s Elmina Beach and Economic Welfare Improvement

Abstract

Beach resources have been a source of income for many economies around the world. Even though Ghanaian beaches are not well developed and sometimes suffer from abuse, they are quite well patronized by both local and non-local pleasure seekers. Currently there is generally no fee charged for recreational access to the vast expanse of Ghanaian beaches, which remain largely undeveloped open access resources. This paper sought to quantify the consumers’ surplus (CS) of pleasure seekers who visit the beach. It specifically assessed the value visitors place on the beach and subsequently determined an appropriate access fee for the Elmina beach in Ghana as a means for welfare improvement among the local people. The individual Travel Cost Model was used. The trip generation function was estimated through a Negative Binomial Count Model. The annual average number of visits made to the beach per visitor was approximately 7, with a maximum trip cost of 8 Ghana cedis (US$4.08). Travel cost, age, educational level, multi-destination and multi-purpose trips were significant determinants of recreational trips made to the beach. The consumer’s surplus per visitor per trip for local and non-local visitors was 39.43 Ghana cedis (US$20.12) and 64.47 Ghana cedis (US$32.89) respectively. Tests of hypotheses revealed a significant difference between local and non-local visitors, with multi-destination and multi-purpose trips influencing the number of trips made to the beach significantly. The maximum access fee was 74.2 Ghana cedis (US$37.88) per visitor per annum. The results also indicated that extracting some CS of pleasure seekers at the beach through access fees could provide livelihood support for the several chronically poor people in Elmina, where the beach is located. Additionally, the environmental and coastal erosion threats faced by the residents could be checked to some extent through these fees to reduce climate change vulnerability among the people.

Keywords: consumers’ surplus, economic welfare, Elmina beach, Ghana, travel cost.