A note on tourism in Ghana
Dr Albert V. Dantzig
Future tourism could take off in Ghana and it need not "spoil" anything, culturally, mentally or economically, if only Ghanaians could drop their "sellers" market attitude. Dr Albert V. Dantzig of the Department of History, University of Ghana writes on problems in the tourist industry.There never was much tourism in Ghana, but in recent years the little tourism there still was in the early seventies has dwindled to a virtual zero.
In neighbouring countries, on the other hand, several expensive facilities for mass tourism were built which have proved to be at best a "mixed blessing"; some of the super-modern and luxurious hotel towers are hardly occupied at all.
Ghana's backwardness in this respect may, however, be turned into a virtue. "Small is beautiful" can also be applied to tourism. It is certainly preferable to grow from small beginnings rather than to be compelled to shrink after starting in too big a way.
Once a country has "tasted" mass tourism, there really is no way back: the vast private or state investments need maintenance, even if the masses from abroad no longer come. Socially and culturally, too, a kind of "dependency" develops which is not always healthy.
Not having participated in the West African tourist boom of the seventies, Ghana can now claim to offer the "real" Africa, unspoilt by the sun-seeking herds of faceless, uninteresting white sheep. It may be true that the group of intelligent, sportive, interested tourists who are willing to put up with a little discomfort is smaller and less willing to spend their foreign exchange than the "sun-seekers", but they also require far less capital investments. And, what is more, Ghana has by now remained virtually the only West African country which can truthfully say that it is un- affected by mass tourism, and use this as a major attraction.
And Ghana is not only in this negative way special to the sub-region: it does have more to offer than mere beaches; not only has it more historical monuments (forts, shrines, mosques), it has a greater variety of landscapes (especially near the capital), a more lively tradition, fresh-water lakes etc. And, above all, Ghana has remained more "African" than most neighbouring countries (without being "too" African, as some people consider Nigeria to be).
If Ghana is to develop tourism along the "small is beautiful" principle, all thoughts or desires of a "tourist boom" must be shelved, and a lot of common sense will be required. There definitely is a market for this kind of tourism, for people who in Europe too do not mind to forego some of the comforts they may have at home: the millions who spend their summer holidays out camping. They are willing to take their bath with a bucket of cold water and to sleep in a room without air conditioning, as long as they are clean. What no tourist is willing to put up with is an air-conditioned room without a working air conditioner, or a bathroom without water.
Other aspects of the tourist trade which needs revision, are currency, transport services and general information. As long as the black market value of the cedi remains several times lower than the official one, it is unreasonable to expect foreigners to change their money at the official rate...
Tourists, especially the "small is beautiful" type, also like to taste local foods, as long as they are not overly "local" and as long as there are more familiar alternatives available. All tourists certainly prefer to drink or eat fresh here what they can only get tinned at home, as long as it is served in an attractive and hygienic way, and very few are so conservative as to prefer to eat and drink in tinned form here what they can obtain fresh at home. Yet, "self respecting" restaurants in Ghana continue to offer such expensive fare as tinned fruit-salads from the USA or vegetable salad from a British There are also quite interesting things one can do with local food which are neither "local" nor "foreign", such as iced coconut water, pear and groundnut paste sandwiches and even gari-and-chocolate pudding.
What is needed most, is a friendly and helpful service. Some years back, service in Ghana to foreigners used to be much better on the whole, but often embarrassingly submissive or "colo". This submissiveness is now fortunately, a matter of the past, but too often it has made room for lazi- ness, cheekiness and outright harassment, particularly where it concerns State employees.
It would not cost much to print pamphlets informing foreign visitors about such things as visa requirements, re-entry permits, duty-free importation of goods and currencies etc, and a lot of misunderstandings which damage Ghana's image could be avoided.
Kotoka International Airport must belong among the worst in the world; not only because there is a perennial shortage of seats, but because over the years a sustained effort seems to have been made to make it as illogical, un- pleasant and uncomfortable as pos-sible. C50 is now being levied for the mere right to pass by car in front of the main entrance, but still one is not allowed to stop there to allow depart- ing or arriving passengers to get out or into cars. This arrangement must be unique in the world, and consequently no passenger escapes the eternal harassment of innumerable self- appointed "porters". The Department of Civil Aviation would probably make more money if it allowed passengers to embark and disembark into and from cars under the great canopy which no doubt was designed for that purpose against payment of C50 making the big parking below free, than it does now.
All the "crowd control" systems thought out in recent years would not be necessary if there were as there are in most other airports guarded gateways with clear signs 'Access Only With Boarding Pass", - a few and the great cavernous spaces which now serve no purpose in the terminal something more pleasant, useful and profitable.
•Ghana's long and unspoilt beaches represent untapped riches, they should be used to tempt the sun-seekers.
Similarly, tourists are unnecessarily harassed for taking photographs of certain public buildings and monuments. If state security really demands so, clear signs should be erected to indicate this (although it is unlikely that any real spy would not be able to take his shot anyway), but in the case of monuments, it is merely because the Ghana Museum does not want anyone to make commercial profit out of those monuments, reserving to itself the monopoly of production and sale of postcards, etc.
There used to be such postcards, which at one time had been donated to that Board by a Dutch organisation which had sent experts to advise on the restoration of the forts and castles, but these have now been long sold out, and nobody has been allowed, or able, to make new ones. The latest decision appears to be that people who want to make films about such monuments have to pay $1,000 per monument! This is, of course, the worst possible kind of advertisement for Ghana. It would be better to ask someone to make new postcards!
Visitors are now also asked to pay entrance fees at the forts and are being harassed about their cameras. It would be much more acceptable and possibly profitable to ask for donations for the maintenance and restoration of such monuments, as is also the practice in most cathedrals and other monuments in Europe.
The upkeep of the forts and castles, which figure on the UNESCO World Heritage list, is quite expensive, and at the moment they are virtually un-productive. They could, however, be made productive and at the same time be maintained well, without losing their historical character if they were used as "fortels"..
The forts at Senya Beraku, Apam, Elmina/St. Jago, Dixcove and Beyin have already been turned into rest- houses, but they are rarely occupied, and no attempt has been made to furnish them in style.
The forts at Anomabu, Shama, Sekondi, Princess Town and Axim are in good repair, but are used for other purposes. Cape Coast Castle houses a prison and a quickly deteriorating small museum and Elmina Castle. provides temporary shelter for a school, but otherwise they are not used and quickly decaying.
The forts at Kormantin and Butri are situated in touristically very attractive positions, but are at present in ruins. They could, however, be re- paired, as well as the ruined forts at Keta (now under heavy attack from the sea) and the little fort at Akwida, of which very little remains, but which is situated in most beautiful surroundings.
All together, these buildings could offer simple lodgings to over 100 persons. At some sites like Akwida - a few extra tourist beach huts could be constructed without affecting the historical site itself.
Once the coastal road between Accra and Abidjan has been opened, tourist traffic along the forts and castles is bound to increase dramatically. The beautiful Ahanta area is situated about half-way and there is bound to be great interest in spending the night there instead of doing the 450 mile journey in one go. For people who have Lome as their destination, Cape Coast and places further East may serve that purpose.
But the fortels could also play their role in small scale charter operations, whereby small groups of travellers per mini-bus could succeed each other, one party travelling from Accra straight to Beyin and visiting the forts from West to East, another group travelling in the opposite direction, whilst a third group first visits Kumasi, a fourth first the North and/or the Volta Lake. Much more use could be made of the latter, especially for night travel to the North, possibly with removable bedrooms (in containers), on board of large ferries.
"Fortels" should, of course, have a good supply of fresh water, for which the cisterns, especially in the dry season may not be sufficient. They also need to have simple kitchens with gas stoves (not necessarily ovens) and caretakers who can provide simple meals. Electricity is not necessary, provided good kerosine lamps are available, preferably of the old-fashioned long- chimney type; this is the kind of thing the historically interested tourist might in fact prefer!
Fortels should be furnished in (19th century) style, but toilet amenities should, of course, be more modern, without necessarily relying on piped water supply. Very much depends on the management, so that a simple half-literate caretaker might not do. Preferably, caretakers should also be able to communicate with each other and central management/tourist board by means of Motorola.
Other aspects of the tourist trade which need revision are currency, transport services and general information. As long as the black market value of the Cedi remains several times lower than the official one, it is unreasonable to expect foreigners to change their money at the official rate, especially as prices more closely follow the black than the official rates. It is therefore much better to offer tourists a special bank- rate, close to that of the "IBM", to a limited amount. The present system whereby foreigners are required to pay their hotel bills in foreign exchange is fraught with abuse and degrading.
Currently, the public transport system is not yet very good, but totally understandable to foreigners; buses have no numbers, and often their destination is not indicated. Typical is the Tata bus with indication "Acht. Village": only insiders understand that "Acht" stands for Achimota; a matter of wrong priorities which one meets so often in Ghana these days. Diagrammatic maps of Accra (and other cities) showing public transport routes, area names (rather than street names which nobody remembers because they are changed so often), lorry parks and their destinations- they seem to proliferate these days taxi ranks and mileage indication along main-roads since fares are based on mileage; hotels, cinemas etc.
In the cities and along the main roads signs of all kinds - warning as well as informative - have virtually disappeared. Perhaps a committee could be set up by the ministries of transport, tourism, highways etc. (AA, PWD, Police) to deal with this problem. The signs themselves need not cost much and may in first instance at least, be made of wood, as long as they are put on metal or plastic poles which cannot be attacked by termites. In Accra signs indicating sub-areas (like London boroughs) and distance to the next one would be most useful (e.g. "Kpehe" "Alajo 2 km" etc.).
Young tourists generally can't afford to pay for car rentals and there- fore have to rely on public transport. They need not only be able to read from the front of a bus where it is supposed to go, if it had a route- number, and there were diagrams, he or she could also map out the best way to reach his/her destination. All that is needed is a little organisation. It certainly would not cost much to paint a bus-route number of a piece of wood and to display it in a corner of the windshield.
If there were an agreed standard format and lettering for such signs, the psychological/political effect could also be important: it would show that Sahara. the "authorities" are beginning to care, it would also give people literally "a sense of direction".
The most comfortable way to see a country is, of course, by car, and if in- dividual tourism is to be encouraged and developed, a good car rental system is a necessity. A type of car which can easily be repaired by ordinary road-side fitters would be prefer. able. The Lada, the USSR-made Fiar 124 is nowadays by far the cheapest car on the international market and seems to have been specially designed for (Russian) rough roads.
Various organisations in this country have set up, in colonial and later days, a vast network of resthouses, many of which have been well maintained, but where most of the time nobody stays. If they were controlled by one central organisation, they could, like the earlier mentioned "fortels" form an excellent basic infrastructure for individual and small group tourism.
Even charter-flights could be organised on small scale, e.g. with Fokker F28 aeroplanes with a maximum seating capacity of 65. In fact, such charter-flights were operated between Frankfurt and Lome in the '70s and a fascinating stop was made at Tamanrasset in the very heart of the Sahara
In short, I believe that in the near future tourism could take off in Ghana and that it need not "spoil" anything, culturally, mentally or economically, if only Ghanaians could drop their "sellers' market attitude" which can be summarised in the words "we know that you need us, but we don't need you"...
