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Visitor satisfaction with Ghana's tourist attractions

Article · December 2015

DOI: 10.47963/joss.v7i3.303

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Visitor satisfaction with Ghana’s tourist attractions

Foster Frempong1
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Fredrick Dayour2
University of Development Studies, Wa

Alberta Bondzi- Simpson3

University of Cape Coast

Abstract
Attractions play an important role in determining a destination’s allure, and for this reason
many destinations seek to boost patronage of their products by marketing their attractions.
Thus, tourist satisfaction with attractions is intrinsically linked to a destination’s fortunes.
Yet, not many studies have focused on attraction satisfaction, much so within the Sub Sa-
haran African milieu which presents a context that is rather different from the conventional
settings within which tourism has been studied. This paper therefore set out to explore
visitor satisfaction with Ghana’s attractions.
It employed a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods and interviewed 412 visitors
to Ghana over a 3 month period. While the overall satisfaction was fairly high, attribute-spe-

intentions. More importantly, it was observed that their intrinsic qualities notwithstanding,
Ghanaian attractions generally lack the other elements of the ‘servicescape’, i.e. supporting

are discussed and suggestions for enhancing satisfaction at the attractions are proffered.

Introduction strong promotional images of their respec-

tive countries. Attractions are the raison
Tourism destinations are mainly known or
remembered for their iconic attractions. The d’etre of tourism for three reasons.
Pyramids of Egypt, Safaris of Eastern Africa, First, attractions constitute the initial im-
France’s Eiffel Tower and Disneyland in the petus for tourism development in any destina-
United States of America have been used as tion (Gunn, 1972; Getz, 1994; Akyeampong,
2008; Jurowski, 2009, Butler, 2011). Sec- Romanova, Matuschenko and Kvetenadze,
ond, they power the tourism industry by 2013 Eusébio and Vieira, 2013; Coban,
setting the agenda for tourist activities at a 2012; Tang, 2013) have found a strong link
destination (Travis, 1989; Fridgen, 1991). between tourist satisfaction and destination
Thirdly, it may be argued that the best competitiveness.
memories of a destination are largely gener- It is widely agreed by commentators (e.g.
ated from attraction experiences hence they Akama and Kieti, 2007; Hsu, 2008; Okello
play a dominant role in creating pre-trip ex- and Yerian, 2009) that satisfaction with at-
pectations, actual trip experiences and post-
trip memories. The following words from of repeat visitation to a destination. Destina-
Sharpley (2009: 145) captures the point tions have many attributes (e.g attractions,
clearly: service, infrastructure) but among the lot,
“as an integral element of the tourism prod- attractions (and the experience they provide)
uct and experience, visitor attractions are are major contributors to overall satisfaction
the focus of tourism activity, not only as rea- (Boakye and Boohene, 2010; Leask, 2010).
sons for tourists to travel and stay in des- Consequently, tourism development in-
tinations but also as generators of income, herently involves the creation of attractions
employment and wider destinational or re- and enhancing the visitor experience. At-
gional development” tractions are thus the core of tourism (Gunn,
The growing dependence on tourism by 1988) not only in terms of formulating the
almost all countries (Mitchell and Ashley, tourism product but, more importantly, as a
2007; Pleumarom, 2012; UNWTO, 2013) gauge of the performance of the entire des-
implies keener competition for the tourist tination.
dollar. Competitiveness is therefore a must- However, in spite of their pivotal role in
determining the incidence, shape and scale
tourist trade (Kozak and Rimmington 2000). of tourism in a particular destination, at-
For countries to be competitive, destina- tractions have tended to receive less than
tions must provide satisfaction.Various stud-
ies (Opperman, 2000; Korzay and Alvarez, (Richards, 2002; Xiao and Smith, 2006)
2005; Campo and Garau, 2008; Vetitnez, and even fewer studies focus on satisfaction
gained at attraction sites.
This is particularly true of Ghana where
Corresponding authors: tourism related studies have rarely focused
Foster Frempong. Department of Geography, on attractions, much less an evaluation of
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and satisfaction from them. Although there are
Technology
some few studies on tourism attractions in
Fredrick Dayour, Department of Community
Development, University of Development Ghana (Asiedu, 1997, Boamah and Koeberl,
Studies, Wa 2007, Waleka, 2012), their focus were not on
Alberta Bondzi- Simpson, Department of Hospitality the satisfaction of the attraction sites. Even
and Tourism Management, University of Cape Coast on a broader, thematic level, satisfaction
studies have been undertaken in a wide vari- seeks to explore the satisfaction (and by
ety of settings but have found relatively lim- extension) the competitive edge of a desti-
ited application within the context of tour- nation is therefore welcome. Destinations
ism attractions. which seek to remain competitive and sus-
This paper, therefore, sets out as an ex- tainable must therefore pay attention to the
ploratory study to understand patrons’ sat- quality of their attractions and the satisfac-
- tion they offer.

following questions: are tourists generally

Literature review
The importance and nature of attractions
attractions? And, what aspects of the attrac-
as
The study has both theoretical and prac- -
tical relevance. From the theoretical per- ral feature which is the focus of visitor and
management attention. For Lew (1987), the
addressing the knowledge void created by -
the underrepresentation of the enjoyment ed to include all those elements of a “non
dimension of attraction studies. Within the home” place that draw discretionary travel-
practical domain, information gathered from ers away from their homes.
the study will be useful for destination man- Leask (2010) proposes the use of the phrase
agement as Ghana seeks to position itself as ‘Visitor Attractions’ (p 155) to cater for the
the leading West African destination (Re- non-overnight tourist market. However, re-
public of Ghana, 2009). gardless of the terminology, the presence of
a drawing factor is undeniable. Beyond the
to be loyal but, also, to recommend the des- -
tination to others (Hsu, 2008). Destinations tractions is well-recognized in the literature.
which ignore the importance of understand- Attractions play a major role not only in
ing the role of attractions in the tourist ex- attracting visitors to a space (Swarbrooke,
perience therefore stand a grave risk of be- 1995, Weaver, 2006) but, more important-
coming uncompetitive. The threat of loss is ly, for the destination, their patronage pro-
even more palpable when considering the vides the framework for encouraging visitor
fact that in spite of continuous increases spending (Mathieson and Wall, 2006; Gee,
in global tourist arrivals, (1 billion mark in Mackens and Choy, 1997).
2012), the percentage share accruing to Sub
Saharan African countries remains relatively (or the interest in them) have been found to
rekindle interest by indigenes in their culture
Emerging destinations like Ghana there- and create awareness about the need to protect
fore face keen competition and must make it the environment (Gee, Mackens and Choy,
an imperative to be competitive (Ritchie and 1989; Fridgen 1991). Attractions are, by na-
Crouch, 2003). A study of this nature which
 (1995) this service environment consists of
2010). four elements: the physical facility, the loca-
tion, ambience and interpersonal conditions.
designation can be ephemeral, sometimes Support services and the environment at
lasting for only a period that some phenom- attraction sites are, therefore, equally impor-
enon is in vogue or that external conditions tant contributors to the tourist experience
such as security would permit (Akyeam- and this is why Pearce (2005) suggests that
pong, 2008). At the extreme, McCannel it is important to assess and measure the sat-
(1976), for example, suggests that tourists isfaction from each attribute separately to
can themselves be sometimes considered as provide useful information for managerial
attractions. analysis and action.
Attractions are also complex and multi- To all extents and purposes, an attrac-
layered phenomena (Lew, 1987) and often tion can be conceptualized as a microcosm
times; the distinguishing line becomes fuzzy of the wider destination Therefore, a study
and blurred. Perhaps this accounts for the which seeks to understand satisfaction
many useful attempts (e.g Peters, 1969; Lew -
1987; Gunn,1988; Inskeep, 1991; Prentice, ognize the various constituent elements and
1993; and Swarbrooke, 1995) at classify- seek to understand how they provide satis-
ing them. However, at the centre of all these faction, both individually and collectively
- to create to overall satisfaction.
tions that are naturally occurring and those However, while many of the available
that are outcomes of cultural manipulations studies have successfully disaggregated des-
(Pearce, 1991). tinations along their constituent attributes
and subsequently studied satisfaction from
by its quality, authenticity and uniqueness the perspective of these individual elements,
(Fridgen, 1991). But it is also unanimously the same cannot be found for attractions, par-
agreed (eg. Lew, 1987; Gunn, 1988; Buha- ticularly from the African continent. Except
lis, 2000) that attractions are composite in for work by Akama and Kieti (2003) and
nature and consist of more than what may Okello and Jeiran (2009) scholarly attention
be thought of as the ‘pull’ or draw element. on assessing the disaggregated tourist satis-
Consequently, in addition to itself, the at- faction experience, particularly at attraction
traction is theoretically expected to have all sites in developing countries is limited.
- Conceptualizing the tourist satisfaction ex-
lis (2000) six A’s typology, namely, amen- perience
ities, available packages, activities, access,
and ancillary services. felt emotion of contentment with a phenom-
To that end, Bitner (1992) conceptualizes enon. One salient feature emerging from all
the ‘service scape’ environment as compris- -
ing both the physical and social element of mensional and emanates from various as-
the attraction site. For Clarke and Schmidt pects of a phenomenon. Hence, there could
be satisfaction with price, environment, per- satisfaction. The expectation of a pleasurable
formance of staff, quality of product, and the and memorable experience is what motivates
absence of either of these may not necessar- consumers to purchase products and servic-
ily imply dissatisfaction. es (Tsaur, Chiu, and Wang, 2006). Tourist
Likewise, the tourist satisfaction experi- satisfaction at attractions has been found to
ence can be deconstructed into two parts. It is be shaped by three main attributes, socio de-
generally agreed (Urry, 2002; McCabe, 2002; mographic characteristics of tourists; phys-
Quan and Wang, 2004) that the tourist experi- ical and service-related attributes of the at-
ence emanates from two intersecting dimen-
sions: an encounter with the core attraction in the succeeding paragraphs.
itself; and, the services whose consump- As regards the socio-demographic pat-
tion arises from patronage of the attraction. terns, the literature highlights some inter-

categorization of “landscapes” (the physical to vary by sex, age (Sparks, 2000) as well
attractions themselves) and “sensescapes” by nationality. Campo and Garau (2008) ob-
which involves various senses as an impor-
tant component of the tourist experience. across the different nationalities of visitors
Gilmore and Pine (2002) have expanded to the Balearic Islands in Spain.
these perspectives to capture four realms, Residential status is also instrumental in
namely education, esthetics, escapism and determining satisfaction levels. In that re-
entertainment. gard, the traditional view (Pearce and Mos-
Thus, though overall satisfaction may be cardo, 1998; Ozturk and Hancer, 2009) has
described as a unitary whole, it may also be been that locals have tended to be more ap-
disaggregated along these two lines. The
contribution of these individual attributes to
overall destination satisfaction is also shaped from Russia in which Vetitnev et al. (2013)
by different market segments and customer found greater discontent among domestic
groups (Kozak, 2003). Thus, a breathtaking patrons.
attraction may be paired with a not-so- com-
mensurate quality of service and vice-versa. effect on overall satisfaction (Huh and Usy-
It therefore becomes imperative to meas- al, 2003; MacKay and Fesenmaier, 1997)
ure each construct separately (Pearce, 2005). with males tending to be the likelier of the
Stated differently, both the physical attrac- -
tion and the setting in which it is delivered/ turk and Hancer, 2009). Consumer behavior
consumed are critical to the satisfaction of (as represented in the propensity for a repeat
the consumer (Baker et al. 1992; Clarke and visit) has also been found to have some bear-
Schmidt 1995). ing on satisfaction.
Accordingly, Kozak and Rimmington Generally, repeat visitors are more likely
(2000) ,highlight the importance of includ-
ing all elements when assessing attraction and Moscardo, 1998). More recent studies
(e.g. Correia, Kozak and Ferradeira, 2013; Gonzalez, Lopez, Kirkby, 2012) has found
otherwise.
as major determinants of visitor satisfaction. The outcomes of customer satisfaction are
-
ed by the literature as shaping overall satis-
faction among tourists. To that end, it has Hinterhuber, Daxer and Huber, 2005) and
been suggested (e.g. Baker and Crompton, has long term implications for shareholder
2000; Neal and Gursoy (2008) Fuller and value (Martinez-tur et al, 2011). Customer
Matzler, 2008 Hasegawa (2010) that some
attributes of a place tend to affect the entire one of these being loyalty.
satisfaction. Heung and Cheng (2000) found In the view of Hallowell (1996), custom-
Japanese tourists’ satisfaction with Hong er loyalty is a predisposition to purchase a
- product or service offered by a company a
ure with accommodation, food, people, price second time. The direct causal link between
and culture. satisfaction and loyalty has been variously
To this end, satisfaction has often been demonstrated (Pritchard and Howard, 1997;
conceptualized through certain key attrib- Cronin and Taylor (1992) Oliver, 1997) in
utes of a place or attraction. Regardless of diverse situations.
the theoretical orientation , the traditional Two common measures of loyalty are the
set of attributes which measure destination tendency of patrons to say positive things
satisfaction have included the accommo- about the product and encouraging people
dation experience, services, customer care, to patronize them (Johnson et al, 2001; Kan-
hygiene, cleanliness, safety, events, accessi- dampully and Suhartunto (2003), Chen and
bility and food and beverage (Kozak ,2001, Tsai, 2007; Hsu, 2008). Within the construct,
2003; Wang and Qu , 2006; Chi and Qu loyalty is measured from two dimensions:
2008; Vetinev et al (2013).service relat- willingness to return to Ghana as a desti-
ed attributes, frontline staff have also been nation and willingness to recommend the
patronized attractions (Hsu 2008) to others.
Boohene, 2010; Eusebio and Vieira (2011), In summary, the literature points to the
Coban (2012) as playing a major role towards composite nature of attractions, the impor-
visitor satisfaction at the attraction sites. tance of measuring satisfaction both at the
While there is an undisputed link between overall level and from the perspective of in-
service quality and satisfaction (Grzinic, dividual constituent attributes, and the role of
2007, Siddiqui, 2011), the direction of the certain factors in shaping tourist satisfaction.
link is the subject of an interminable de- Measuring tourist satisfaction: theoretical
bate in the literature. While some authors see and operational issues
quality as an antecedent of satisfaction (eg. Satisfaction arises out of a post-consump-
Parasuraman et al, 1988; Cronin and Taylor, tion experience (Westbrook and Oliver,
1992, Saravanana and Rao, 2007) the other 1991). But such an otherwise simple concept
school of thought (e.g. Bitner, 1992, Sovero,
 - and cannot be accessed/tasted or tried be-
tention for many decades without a clear fore purchase. According to the theory, the
standardized method of measurement (Yi, second stage occurs with purchase (or in the
1990; Guiese and Cote, 2000). case of attractions, patronage) which forms
The most contentious issue relates to how the basis for consumer beliefs about the ac-
to measure the construct. Though there is tual or perceived performance of the product
or service.
of satisfaction, the literature is replete with The consumer then compares the per-
various attempts to capture the phenome- ceived performance to prior expectations.
non especially in the tourism/ hospitality Consumer satisfaction is seen as the outcome
domain. The common approach in tourism/ of this comparison (Clemons and Woodruff,
hospitality studies has been to develop an at- -
tribute-based construct and measure it using
one sector of the industry. when the reverse happens (Oliver and Bear-
To that end, Chi and Qu (2008) as well don, 1985; Patterson, 1993).
as Master and Prideaux (2000) have focused The cognitive-affective model developed
their study on the entire destination while by Bosque and Martin (2008) is a popular
Mazanec (1995) Vetitnev et al (2013) and
Yuksel and Yuksel (2002) have studied spe- thinking incorporates expectation-related
- affective dimensions (such as promotional
spectively. information, word of mouth from family and
Two popular satisfaction theories that friends) into measuring satisfaction. Perfor-
have often been employed are the expectan- mance only models on the other hand ques-
- tion the relevance of measuring expectation
and juxtaposing them against performance.
- The key argument here is that prior expec-
pectations of products’ or services’ (the cul- tations play no meaningful role in satisfac-
tural/heritage destination attributes in this tion (Tse and Wilton, 1988; Cronin and Tay-
study) performance prior to purchase or use. lor, 1992; Crompton and Love, 1995; Kozak,
Its main proponent, (Oliver, 1980), argues 2001; Yuksel and Yuksel, 2001b). There is a
that satisfaction is the outcome of the com- huge debate as to which of the two approach-
parison of two independent sub-processes, es better allows for adequately capturing sat-
namely, the formation of expectations and isfaction. Each method has its strengths and
weaknesses. While the cognitive-affective
through performance comparisons. The the- measures are challenged with validating the
authenticity of prior expectations, the per-
which potential customers form their expec- formance only models are also limited be-
tations of products. cause they do not provide a comprehensive
This is particularly typical of attractions context for comparison and analysis.
which by nature can only be consumed insitu This study employs the cognitive-affect
philosophy because of the uniqueness of the
study area and the space it allows for jux- some 10-15%.
taposing experiences against expectations It is worth mentioning however, that since
in the search for understanding satisfaction. 2014; arrivals have increased again, current-
Ghana is an emerging destination from a con- ly reaching 1093000 according to the Ghana
tinent which faces daunting image problems Tourism Authority. Ghana has a wide array
in its bid to present itself as a choice destina- of attractions- many of them yet to be devel-
tion (Ankomah and Crompton, 1990). More- oped- with the few existing ones still in their
over, its core market comes from the same raw state (National Tourism Development
advanced countries to whom negative imag- Plan- 2013-2027).
es are often projected (ROG, 2009). Hence,
it is imperative to understand the tourist’s main genres warm tropical climate, pristine
(particularly inbound) experiential views of beaches, ecological heritage, cultural herit-
satisfaction from the perspective of their al- age and historical heritage. The few estab-
ready existing knowledge and how such in- lished ones which have become iconic of the
formation shapes their expectations and by country are the Kakum National Park, and
extension their satisfaction levels. Besides, the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles which
cognitions are key contributors to the for- are World Heritage Sites. Ghana’s attrac-
tions are patronized by four broad categories
tourism satisfaction during the stay (Bosque of visitors (Boakye and Mintah, 2008) as
and Martin, 2008). follows:
In summary, the literature highlights three - Institutionalized domestic visitors
key propositions that are useful for shaping (group-organized locally resident patrons
the thought in this paper. First satisfaction is such as school, church and work-based or-
shaped by various socio-demographic char- ganizations)
acteristics; second, that loyalty is an out- - Institutionalized (group organized)interna-
come of satisfaction and, thirdly, that there tional visitors (packed group tours largely
is a difference between overall satisfaction from Europe and America )
- Non-institutionalized international visitors
Tourism in Ghana (volunteers, backpackers who arrive at the
Ghana’s tourism has experienced im- attraction in small groups and are not perma-
pressive growth over the past three decades nently resident in Ghana.
(Ghana Tourism Authority, 2012). This is - Non- institutionalized domestic visitors
shown in the number of visitors, receipts and (this group consists of Ghanaians and resi-
contribution to GDP. According to the Ghana dent expatriates who visit the attractions ei-
Tourism Authority, the country earned US ther as individuals or family units and usual-
$2.1 billion and employed almost 350000 ly do not use tour buses).
persons in 2014. Since 2012, inbound ar- Among these is a mixture of motives for
rivals have averaged one million per an- visiting these attractions. The temporal di-
num. The Ebola scare of 2013 took a toll mensions are striking. It is mostly the case
that the visits by domestic patrons are largely Bosomtwe-an inland water lake whose or-
associated with the presence of public holi- igins are subject to varied interpretations.
days and weekends (Boakye and Mintah, Over the last two years, the beaches have
2008). The international/inbound tourists, become popular for holiday makers and
however, outline a more evenly-distributed a strong demand for leisure is emerging
temporal curve. Of the four it is the insti- among the middle class.
tutionalized domestic visitors who are the Perhaps, owing to their general state of
most dominant at attraction sites (Boakye, underdevelopment and disrepair, Ghana’s
Annim and Dasmani, 2013). attractions are generally under researched,
The temporal dimensions are also strik- much less within the framework of satis-
ing. It is mostly the case that the visits by faction. Save work by Akyeampong (2008)
domestic patronsare largely associated with and Bank of Ghana (2007) attractions hardly
the presence of public holidays and week- gain any attention. Even when they do, the
ends (Boakye and Mintah, 2008). The inter- focus is not on the satisfaction they generate.
national/inbound tourists however outline a
more evenly-distributed temporal curve.
Methods
-
Design
ed in what may be described as the coun-
try’s ‘tourism triangle (Boakye, 2012: 330), The study adopted the exploratory design
located in the southern half of the country and relied on a mixture of quantitative and
especially between towns such as Accra, qualitative approaches. Nineteen (19) tour-
Cape Coast-Elmina Area; Western Region, ist attraction sites were purposively selected
- from all the ten (10) regions in the country.
ures from the Ghana Living Standards Sur- These attraction sites were chosen based
vey (GLSS) released in 2005, the three most mainly on their popularity in terms of patron-
visited attractions by tourists are the Kakum age (Ghana Tourism Authority, 2012) and, to
National Park, Kumasi Zoo and the Cape a lesser extent, the degree of accessibility.
Coast Castle, all located in this zone. The accidental sampling method was
Other well-visited tourist attractions in used to choose the study’s respondents. This
the country include the Kwame Nkrumah is mainly because the target population is not
Mausoleum, the Aburi Botanical gardens, covered by a sampling frame (Sarantakos,
The Shai Hills forest reserve, and on a lesser -
frequency the Dubois Memorial Centre and tion sites varies based on time, season and
the recently-constructed shopping malls, the state of the tourist attraction.
Cape Coast and Elmina Castles, the Manhy-
ia Palace Museum, the British Fort, and the a particular attraction site and for that mat-
Kumasi Cultural Centre. ter, visits to attraction sites are not covered
Other popular attractions in its outskirts by a sampling frame. The data was collect-
include the Yaa Asantewaa Shrine the ev- ed through the use of questionnaires and an
er-popular Bonwire craft village and Lake arbitrary daily quota of 20 instruments was
established. The instrument contained both the analysis of this paper. Completed ques-
closed-ended and open-ended questions. tionnaires were cleaned, coded and entered
The open ended questions allowed re- into IBM SPSS Statistics software version
spondents to express their view on ethical 19 for analysis.
issues in the hotels and how ethical deci- Some of the variables analyzed included
sions are taken in the industry. Most of the respondents socio-demographic characteris-
closed-ended questions employed the se- tics such as sex, educational level, age and
mantic differential technique in which re- marital status. Other variables examined in-
spondents were required to indicate their cluded overall satisfaction and satisfaction
satisfaction or otherwise with an attribute. -
The data collection period covered three tractiveness and staff performance.
months- December, 2012 through to Febru- Descriptive statistical analyses such as
percentage and frequency distribution and
was sought from the managers of the select- standard deviation were performed to de-
ed attractions sites. This helped ensured a scribe the basic features of the data in the
good rapport with the workers at the attrac- study. The Chi-Square Test of Independence
tion sites for easy accessibility to the site as was performed to investigate the association
well as the tourists. between certain key variables and satisfac-
Field assistants were trained on the ques- tion with various aspects of the attraction sites
tionnaire administration and they were edu-
cated on the ethical issues surrounding the
study. Tourists’ satisfaction was disaggre-
Sample Characteristics
gated in terms of their contentment with the
environment, culture, quality of supporting Though the sample was acquired using the
infrastructure, accessibility and availability
of complementary services. is consistent with the dynamics of the data
Pre-test of the instrument was carried out provided yearly by the Ghana Tourism Au-
in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. Three dif- thority. Ghana is generally regarded as a
ferent attractions that were of similar type low-income destination and this is shown by
and qualities as the major attractions in the the dominance of young low-budget tourists
country were used for the pre-test. The pre- -
test helped the researchers to restructure the gy. Other studies (e.g Boakye and Boohene,
instrument for easy understanding and inter- 2010; Dayour, 2013; Agyeiwaah, 2013) have
pretation of the questions.
The Cronbach’s Alpha of the question- There was little differentiation by sex
naire yielded a value of 0.737 and 0.942. but there were marked differences in cat-
Questionnaires were then administered at all egories age, occupation and place of per-
the 19 attractions in the country. A total of manent stay (Table 1). The age dynamics
434 questionnaires were collected from the
market. The youth (aged19-35) constituted
Table 1: Background characteristics of respondents
in excess of 70% of the sample. Most (about two-thirds) respondents visited Ghana in small
groups (numbering less than 20).

space. More than 70% of the patrons were visiting from within Ghana. Word of mouth (60%)
was generally the most dominant source of information about attractions and the country. The
Ashanti, Central and Greater AccraRegions were the most visited, collectively accounting
for half (51%) of all visitations. At the other end, the Western, Northern and Volta Regions
were the least visited in the country. Leisure and recreation (37.6%) education’ (27.6%) and
‘nature’ (25.6%) were the three most mentioned motivations for visiting Ghana. Educational

-
cational background tended more to be motivated by nature while for those with pre-tertiary
education, the greater preference was for leisure and recreation.
Results
Overall satisfaction
On the whole, a high proportion of respond

experience in Ghana as well as their experience at the various attractions. A large majority
80% said their expectations of the attractions had been met on the trip and an even larger
percentage (82%) indicated that they would
Table 2: Satisfaction with services and products on site
recommend the attractions to their friends. Staff performance was averagely satisfac-
Attribute-related satisfaction tory. Staff friendliness and communication
An assessment of satisfaction with the skills scored 64% and 60% satisfaction re-
individual attributes painted a less compli- spectively but their technical abilities (staff
mentary picture. It is noted that attribute knowledge and performance of tour guide)
satisfaction was generally lower than overall scored even lower.
satisfaction (Table 2). On the whole, the great- In fact, staff knowledge about the product
est levels of dissatisfaction were found in the returned the highest level of performance-re-
attribute-related areas of staff performance, lated dissatisfaction (47%). The sanitation
sanitation, and supporting infrastructure. conditions at these attractions were found to be
All the attributes under these variables re- unsatisfactory by the majority of the respond-
corded the highest forms of dissatisfaction. ents. Another majority of respondents were
 - satisfaction with communication skills
rooms and washroom facilities (65.4%); -
cleanliness of the few ones available (64.7%) tribute were those in the young adult catego-
and the cleanliness of the environment sur-
rounding the attraction (50%). the elderly (aged 50 years and above).
Of the three attribute genres, it was in the
area of supporting services that respondents association with both ease of access to attrac-
- tion sites (p= 0.016) and safety (p=0.007). In
mal performance can be found from Table 2 all these instances, younger patrons tended to
where the dissatisfaction outweighed the sat-
isfaction scores on all indicators in the cate- -
gory. The biggest level of dissatisfaction was traction attributes. For example, satisfaction
in the area of provision of disability-friend- with staff communication skills (p=0.014);
ly infrastructure (77%). Also ranked low in ease of access to attractions (p= 0.000);
terms of satisfaction were the availability of safety (p=0.018); availability of food and
food/beverage, variety of food and price of beverage outlets (p=. 004) and food quality
food (Table 3). (p=0.022). In most instances, students were
A probe for patterns using the Chi-Square found to be the occupational group with the
Test of Independence showed some note- highest satisfaction.
worthy statistical associations between some Comments from attractions
socio-demographic variables and satisfac- A mixture of comments were gleaned
tion with certain attributes. Three variables from the open-ended section of the instru-
that stand out in this regard are residential ment in relation to respondents’ comments
status, age and occupation. on their experiences at the attraction sites.
Residential status was found to be statis- Some positive comments included “unique
tically associated with both overall satisfac- adventure attractions” and “nice friendly
tion and satisfaction with various attributes staff”. On the negative side, comments in-
such as beauty of scenery (p=0.001); clean- cluded “ high cost of entry fees”, “too much
liness of bathrooms (p=0.002); staff friend- heat”, “poor crowd control measures” “
liness (p=.033); ease of access to attraction poor supporting facilities” “dirty and unsan-
(p=0.000); safety at attractions (p=.017); itary conditions “poor access to attractions”.
availability of food and beverage outlets
(p=0.04); quality of food at the attraction
Discussion
(p=0.017); price of food (p=0.002); and qual-
ity of service provided by staff (p=0.000). the
It is worth noting that in all these instances propositions posited by the literature. The
the local residents (domestic tourists) tended
- various socio-demographic characteristics
terparts.Age was found to have a statistical- -
ent study. The assertion was particularly true
of the variables residential status, occupa- Elmina Castles, and the Manhyia Palace
tion and age. Museum in Kumasi. A visit to these four
would show that they are relatively more de-
- veloped (in terms of creating a visitor prod-
faction is consistent with those from earlier uct and having well-structured patronage
studies (e.g Pearce and Moscardo, 1998; guidelines) than the others in the country.
In Ghana, attractions are commonly in a
emerged that domestic patrons were more raw state and these four mentioned appear
to be atypical of the general situation. The
their related services. -
When combined with the other two var- tle and Kakum National Park) are the coun-
- try’s iconic attractions which were created in
the early 1990s as part of a major drive to
- enhance the country’s tourism appeal.
tween 19 and 35) local students. These per- The Kakum National Park, in particular,
sons are typically school or church-based has been the recipient of many international
groups who hardly ever travel for touristic tourism awards, particularly the British Air-
purposes (Boakye, Annim and Dasmani, ways Tourism for Tomorrow Award received
2013; Sebu, 2012). in the year 2000. Since then, however, no
new attractions of a similar scale have been
the fact that such persons are known (e.g developed anywhere else.
Dayour, 2013) to be more accepting of lo- The results also suggest that the link es-
cal standards and thus more tolerant of poor tablished in the literature between satisfac-
standards. . As per the tenets of the dis- tion and loyalty may be upheld. The strong
(82%) willingness to recommend (which is
translates into low standards of compari- itself a variant of loyalty), may be linked to
son and (by extension) expectations. Thus, the generally high overall satisfaction high
because their expectations are hardly unin- satisfaction (75%) found of the destination.
formed (hence low) it takes very little effort
to surpass them to yield satisfaction.
The converse may be true of the most dis- loyalty was expressed not in revisit inten-
tions but in a strong willingness to recom-
(aged 50 years and above). Such persons are mend the destination to others.
likely to have had a much wider travelling
experience and would have been exposed to the literature (e.g Pearce, 2005) that a dif-
many experiences (even within other African ference exists between overall satisfaction
destinations) to help them form expectations.
It is not surprising that attractions with in Table 2, the percentage of respondents
the highest satisfaction scores included the
Kakum National Park, the Cape Coast and thanthat for any of the individual attributes.
 The results also give expression to Bitner’s to face major sanitation challenges.
(1992) distinction between the two elements The dominance of patronage by young
of the servicescape- the actual product and domestic tourists is consistent with known
the support services and corroborate the gen- patterns (e.g GTA, 2012, Dayour, 2013,
erally known truism that Ghana’s attractions Otoo and Amuquandoh, 2014 etc) on Ghana
exist in their raw state. Many of these attrac- and has demand, supply and policy implica-
tions lack the supporting facilities needed to tions. From the demand side, it signals the
complement the tourist experience. presence of a clear market segment that must
Even when these are present, they fall far be understood and nurtured.
below acceptable standards. As is noted from Other studies (e.g Sebu, 2012; Boakye et
Table 2, beyond their intrinsic and naturally al, 2013) have commented on the growing
occurring inherent qualities, the attractions travel culture among the youth and the pres-
do not offer much satisfaction. Interesting- ence of a vibrant market segment which pre-
ly, the variables under the construct titled sents business opportunities for tour opera-
product attractiveness (attractiveness of the tors. The focus of these entrepreneurs is often
product-70.1%; beautyof scenery-63.5%; the inbound market but the domestic tour-
quality of the attraction (72%); and unique- ism market in Ghana is virtually untapped
ness-74.2%) recorded higher percentages of and offers better opportunities, at least, for
guaranteeing a more consistent market.
Indeed, the lowest satisfaction results The inbound market, though relatively
were witnessed in the area of supporting ser-
vices such as availability of food and bev- number to be volatile and unreliable. The
erage (36%); and cleanliness of bathrooms most recent instance was witnessed with the
(35%) only go to strengthen the point that Ebola crisis of 2013-14 where the Tour Oper-
there is not much by way of support services ation business suffered greatly with cancelled
to attraction patronage. Of particular men- booking and the attendant loss of revenue.
tion in this regard is the very low (23%) score From the supply perspective, the dom-
for disability friendliness of the attractions. inance also signals the need for greater in-
Save for some limited provision at the vestments in the development of support
Kakum National Park almost all the exist- facilities which meet such market segments.
ing attractions do not have facilities for the Presently, Ghana’s accommodation stock is
physically challenged. Besides not having mainly dominated by hotels whose prices
the commensurate support facilities, most of fall out of the range of the low income trav-
the attractions are largely unkempt and face eler (Akyeampong, 2007; Agyeiwaah, 2013;
major sanitation challenges. Dayour, 2013).
It is not surprising, therefore, that almost From the policy perspective, the higher sat-
half the respondents (49.6%) were dissatis- isfaction that was found among this group is
- also a positive sign for the country’s tourism
ble 2). Ghana as a destination has been not- effort given the traditionally held view (e.g.
ed (e.g Teye et al. 2002; Akyeampong, 2008) Archer, 1978) that domestic tourism is more
 their tourism potential. The private sector
Ghana. The key argument here is that domes- must be induced to invest in tourism. In ad-
tic tourists are more accepting of local goods dition to the opportunities mentioned earlier,
and standards and this places less anxiety on the provision of superstructure and services
service providers to incur unnecessary costs as well as the management of the attractions
to standardize their products. In the process, on a contract basis can provide lucrative
business opportunities for the private sector.
from tourism demand and generate other im- In conclusion, it may be said that Ghana’s
portant spin-offs such as the creation of of attractions have drawing power but lack the
employment and the accrual of higher tax retention abilities. Though their unique ap-
revenue to government. peal makes them attractive, the attractions
The issues raised point to the strong need need to be upgraded through enhancing the
for planning. It has been found (e.g Benck- product and creating strong support services.
endorff and Pearce , 2003) that well-planned For further research, it would be instructive
and structured attractions have higher levels to explore the degree to which tourist type
of perceived performance and face the future shapes satisfaction. This is an area that is
with better growth prospects and business rarely discussed but highly important given

Attractions should be developed with both that exist.

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