Foreign visitors' perceptions of panafest' 97: A study in tourism special events

Abstract

PANAFEST is an emerging special event of international repute in Ghana. The festival which was first held in 1992, seeks to among others, unite peoples of African descent across the world to enhance the development of the continent by establishing the truth of the history of the African. It can also be seen as a tool for accelerating tourism development in Ghana as it exposes participants to the various tourist attractions and sites in the country. The study sought to find out international participants’ perceptions about PANAFEST’97 and some selected tourist attractions and services in and around Cape Coast and Elmina, the host towns of the festival. In addition, it aimed to determine if the festival could be used as a tool to promote cultural tourism in Ghana. Data were collected during the PANAFEST of 1997 through the administration of a questionnaire to a total of 188 international participants. Descriptive analysis was mostly used for the study. However, this was supplemented by application of the Chi square and Analysis of variance tests. Activities that had their sub-means differing at a level of 0.05 significance were included in the discussion. From the analysis, it was observed that international participants generally perceived the festival to be interesting. The cultural experience and the hospitality of Ghanaians were two strong points of the festival. Poor planning and organization of the festival were the major weaknesses of the festival. Despite this, most participants were willing to recommend Ghana to friends and relatives back home as a tourism destination and indicated their willingness to return at another opportune time. PANAFEST’97 can be said to have been successful and has the potential to become a tool for tourism promotion. However, the success of PANAFEST in promoting tourism in Ghana would to a large extent be determined by the ability of the organizers to address the poor perceptions and misgivings raised by participants to PANAFEST’97 which are contained in the present study.