COMMUNITY AWARENESS AND WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE IN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN THE AKATSI DISTRICT OF THE VOLTA REGION.

ABSTRACT Tourism development in Ghana has undoubtedly moved to a key point in government policy. The district assemblies have equally been allocating resources to develop such potentials in their areas. However there seems to be no direction from most of the Regional Co-ordination Councils and hence the various assemblies are implementing programmes they think are right in their own estimations with no regional outlook. This study focuses on the Akatsi district which was the first to launch a tourism fair in the Volta Region. Primary data obtained through structured interviews with assembly and community members have been supplemented with materials from the district assembly and the dailies. Although in the Akatsi district there is some awareness of what tourism is all about there is very minimal involvement of the people by the Assembly in tourism development. The study therefore draws attention to the need for greater participation of the people since the local people and for that matter the community will have to live with the consequences ofthat development. The Akatsi district study also shows that the strategic location of the area on the ECOWAS Highways and very close to the Ghana-Togo border on the eastern side offers great potentials in tourism development. However the expected private sector participation in the industry is yet to catch up with the people. The constraints seem to be the poor infrastructure in the district and inadequate marketing of the district potentials