Tourism and household income of Abono community members in the Ashanti Region of Ghana

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Tourism and household income of Abono community
members in the Ashanti Region of Ghana

• By
• Foster Frempong Louis Amofa Asamoah
• Dept. of Geography Rural Devt
• KNUST, Kumasi

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Presentation outline

• Introduction
• Problem statement
• Objectives
• Rationale for the study
• Tourism and income generation
• Tourism and employment
• Methodology
• Results and discussions
• The way forward

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Introduction

• Developing countries have the highest population
  numbers and growth rates in the world

Population growth Economic growth Economic growth
High Low
High Ghana
Low
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• Other economic impacts of tourism
• Contribution to sales
• Profits
• Jobs
• Tax revenue
• Income

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Introduction cont.

• Tourism activities mostly support the productive
  capacity of households by increasing skills and
  providing cash for operational capital and
  investment
• The new skills gained by household members
  involved in tourism can be transferred to other
  activities (Ashley, 2000).

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Introduction cont.

• Tourism has been identified as a potential
  contributor to economic and socio-cultural
  development of countries
• Considering the returns from tourism, it is
  imperative that it is given the attention it
  deserves
• Most developing countries, especially those in
  Africa have taken to tourism as one of the
  possible panacea to their economic challenges

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Introduction

• Development of tourism in Ghana can
• diversify the livelihoods of rural households
• minimize risks and uncertainties of other
  economic activities,
• maintain liquidity in households and
• increase employment rates
• Tourism can decrease the uncontrolled migration
  from rural to urban areas

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• Some less developed countries of sub-Sahara
  Africa have realized the potential of tourism
  development for rapid socio-economic development.
• Tourism is capable of generating foreign
  exchange reduce unemployment and improving the
  standard of the people (Ajala 2008).

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Problem

• Most tourist attraction sites are found in rural
  areas with a high number of poor people
• Local communities, are mostly not major
  participants in or beneficiaries of tourism
  activities.

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Problem contd.

• Lake Bosomtwe is the only natural lake in Ghana
  which attracts an appreciable number of tourists
  and the only internal drainage system in the
  country
• Abono community
• Community members find it difficult to meet their
  daily responsibilities of taking care of their
  family needs due to low income generation from
  their activities

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Objectives

• Examine the effects of tourism activities on
  household income of the local people.
• Examine effects of tourism on employment
  opportunities in the community.
• Assess the effects of tourism on poverty
  reduction in the community

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Rationale for the study

• Help eradicate extreme poverty in the Abono
  community
• Ensure environmental sustainability for tourism
  growth and development
• Appreciate the situation of employment
  development, income and poverty reduction through
  tourism

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Tourism and income generation

• Income from tourism is dependent on the money
  tourists spend in the community
• Tourist expenditure in most cases increases the
  income earning capability of the local people

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• Tourism generally generates three types of cash
  income for rural households and community tourism
  can generate a fourth additional type for the
  community
• Regular wages for those with jobs
• Casual earnings opportunities from selling food,
  wood, crafts, etc
• Profits from ownership of a tourism enterprise
• Collective income earned by the community
  (Ashley, 2000),

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Tourism and employment

• Tourism does create employment
• Direct Employment
• Indirect Employment
• Induced Employment

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Methods

• Study area Abono, 32km southeast of Kumasi
• Population 1154
• Education One (1) Primary and One (1) JHS
• Health One (1) Health facility not in
  operation, no Ambulance car
• Others Social facility One (1) public toilet
  facility, no telephones
• Major agriculture products - cocoa, maize,
  cassava and plantain

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Methodology

• Study population Abono community members who are
  18 years and above
• Sample size 75
• Sampling technique
• Stratified sampling
• Simple random sampling
• Data collection instrument Interview schedule

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Results and discussions
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Socio-demographic Frequency Percentage
Sex
Male 46 61.3
Female 29 38.7
Education
None 5 6.7
Elementary/JHS 47 62.7
Secondary 13 17.3
Polytechnic 10 13.3
Household size
1- 5 40 53.3
6 9 32 42.7
10 14 3 4.0
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Income range of respondents
Income range (Gh cedis) Frequency Percentage
10 30 17 22,7 31 60 20 26.7 61 90 10 13.3 100 28 37.3
Total 75 100.0
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Effects of tourism activities on household income

• Seasonality of tourism activities and household
  income

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Effects of tourism on employment in Abono

• Employment of local people

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• Tourism cannot survive without involvement of
  local people through employment (Richard and Hall
  (2000)
• local people can increase their income
• Improve living standards
• leads to a better quality of life

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• Specific tourism activities for local people

Type of tourism enterprise Number of people
Sellers 28 Accommodation 27 Tour guiding 6 Handicraft 1
Total 62
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Seasonality nature of tourism jobs at Abono

• Seasonality has obvious implications on
  employment
• Peak season December April
• Off season April - November

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Seasonality of tourism jobs
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Alternative jobs during off seasons
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Tourism and MDG 1

• Standard of living

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Patronage of products from Abono

• Fresh fish
• Carving work
• Woven clothes
• Clay works
• Beads
• Other farm products

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How can tourism help to address poverty

• Supply of goods and services to tourism
  enterprises by local people (Yunis, 2004)
• Encouragement of enterprises to identify new
  sources of supply
• Collaborating with local community for constant
  supply of goods and services

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The way forward

• Public and private investment
• Provision of facilities (seats, summer hats,
  boats, ambulance cars, banks, temporal rooms for
  visitors to keep their belongings and other
  social services
• Protection of the resource that tourism thrives.
• Monies from toll booth charges should be used for
  developmental projects in the community
• Marketing of the area

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• THANK YOU