Residents’ experiences with tourism as a livelihood strategy in Wli, Ghana

Abstract

The role of tourism in rural livelihood enhancement continues to be a subject of debate among academia and practitioners. This study delves into this debate by assessing the experiences of residents who have adopted tourism as livelihood strategy in Wli, Ghana within the context of the sustainable livelihood approach. A case study design with a qualitative approach was adopted for the study. Data was obtained from 38 study participants between November and December 2016. Twenty-seven (27) of them were engaged in tourism-related livelihood activities in the community and the remaining eleven (11) were representatives of institutions/organisations involved in tourism governance in Wli. Findings from the study showed that tourism has provided livelihood diversification opportunities for residents in the community especially in the areas of accommodation and food and beverage operations, guiding services and souvenir trade. The nature of the tourism-related livelihood activities enabled the residents to transfer their existing skills and knowledge. Furthermore, it emerged that these opportunities have positively contributed towards the achievement of residents’ livelihood objectives. Nevertheless, there was weak institutional support for tourism-related livelihood activities in the community. In addition, there were challenges with access to credit and unhealthy competition and mistrust among tourism enterprises. The study therefore recommends that the Hohoe Municipal Assembly, the Ghana Tourism Authority, community level institutions and other relevant stakeholders provide more support for tourism-related livelihood activities in Wli in order to strengthen tourism’s effectiveness as a livelihood strategy in the community