Governing tourism-led local economic development planning: An interactive tourism governance perspective on the Elmina 2015 Strategy in Ghana

Tourism is expanding in many developing countries, in contexts where states struggle to effectively manage local economic development processes. This thesis aims to bridge a gap between the literature on the tourism-poverty nexus and scholarship pertaining to the politics and governance of local development planning, by examining how governing interactions shape the planning and use of tourism for local economic development and poverty reduction. A key contribution of this thesis is the development of an interactive tourism governance framework built on the three key concepts of stakeholder governance capacity, institutional thickness and political cycles. The research is framed as an embedded case study of the Elmina 2015 Strategy in Ghana. A mainly qualitative research approach was adopted involving interviews, observations and documentary analysis.

The Elmina 2015 Strategy sought to leverage tourism as a catalyst for local economic development and poverty reduction through an integrated planning approach led by the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem Municipal Assembly (KEEA). The thesis identified that the Elmina 2015 Strategy was insufficiently embedded within existing institutional structures. Through a process-tracing analysis, it was found that cycles of national elections and local government politics resulted in the loss of institutional memory and knowledge at the KEEA. This constrained the governing capacity of the KEEA in steering project implementation. This thesis shows that the state and the internal power dynamics between key players within it remain crucial in setting and implementing policy agendas. The thesis therefore seeks to make a contribution towards debates on the significance of the state in tourism governance and argues that the state ought to be brought back into any conceptualisation of tourism governance, especially as it relates to the governing of tourism-led local economic development. As local governments take a more active role in tourism development planning, the issue of their capacity needs to be addressed.