Analyzing Ghana’s Tourism Operating Environment

A Political Economy Perspective

Abstract

Notwithstanding its importance to the success of businesses and industries, the external operating environment is hardly a subject of interest in the tourism literature. But understanding the operating environment is of major value when assessing the efficacy of tourism and its role as a vehicle for socioeconomic transformation in any country. The present study therefore employs a qualitative design within a political economy framework to assess the current environment within which Ghana‟s tourism operates. Using unstructured in- depth interviews the study collates views from 10 senior tourism sector operatives representing both public and private sectors chosen through the purposive sampling technique. The findings suggest that the political and economic factors of the present operating environment combine to create a difficult operational theatre for both the public and private sector actors in tourism. By implication therefore, the environment disables rather than enables the tourism trade and circumscribes its potential for expansion. To reverse the situation it is recommended that the existing organizational structures must be repositioned and also there must be reorientation of the existing ideological and fiscal policies.