Political instability and tourism in Ghana (1966-1981)

Abstract

In the 1960s most governments in West Africa, including Ghana which was under the leadership of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana began to incorporate tourism into their economic development plans. The idea was to diversify the economy in order to provide infrastructural development, economic and social prosperity for populace. Unfortunately, Nkrumah’s government was toppled in 1966. In the subsequent years, Ghana experienced a period of political instability. This paper takes a critical look at the efforts of the various governments in Ghana (from 1957 to 1981) to develop tourism in terms of their policies and their roles as agents of tourism development; the creation of a conducive environment for tourism to flourish, the involvement of the private sector both foreign and local, the provision of tourism infrastructure and how political instability impacted negatively on tourism development in terms of the flow of international tourist arrivals, potential investors, tourism product development and delivery, and tourism receptive facilities.