African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure (Jan 2018)
Tourism Geographies and Spatial Distribution of Tourist Sites in Ghana.
Abstract
Appreciating and advertising the spatial distributions of tourist sites is one of the core challenges and opportunities for policy makers and development experts to promoting sustainable tourism sector development in Ghana. This article critically provides picturesque, geographical and spatial uneven distributions or patterns of tourism resources in Ghana in order to try to unpack the key potentials in the country’s tourism space. The review is based on a comprehensive analysis of tourism literature and policy documents in Ghana. The goal in this article is thus a modest attempt to provide a picturesque view of the uneven geographies of tourism in Ghana. Trends observed in the country’s tourism space in relation to disaggregating groupings destinations or tourism spaces into natural or man-made (socio-cultural heritage) and rural and urban. The analysis showed that tourism sites are distributed spatially in Ghana, and the sites can be classified in natural sites like parks and game reserves, rivers, mountains; and man-made or sociocultural resources such as castles, museums, cultural heritages, artefacts and historical experiences. These resources are however, are poorly marketed, globally and locally. Effective marketing and coordination among actors and institutions can help promote tourism and sustain it in Ghana for the benefit of the people and future generations.
