Building Capacities for Tourism Development and Poverty Reduction1

This paper advocates the application of building capacities for tourism development and poverty reduction in the locales of Elmina and Cape Coast in the Sub-Saharan country of Ghana in Africa. The two towns are home to three World Heritage Sites: the Elmina Castle or St George’s Castle and Fort St Jago (Elmina), and Cape Coast Castle (Cape Coast). Tourism was introduced in 1989 by the Ghanaian government with the assistance of donor agencies in an effort to bring economic and cultural sustainability to the area. Research up to now has indicated that tourism can be used as a tool of development, and poverty reduction, in developing countries, however, the social and economic benefits in the towns of Elmina and Cape Coast, are distributed unequally. It could be argued that one of the reasons is the emphasis placed on higher gross returns in foreign exchange earnings, or greater visitor numbers with little attention to maximizing net benefits to the poor communities, and without a clear strategy of how tourism growth, will contribute to poverty reduction