Diaspora tourism and homeland development: exploring the impacts of African American tourists on the livelihoods of local traders in Southern Ghana

ABSTRACT

While a bourgeoning literature exists on how African Americans are using tourism to connect with Africa, only a handful of studies have examined the nature of African American tourists’ spending on the continent. This study identifies popular Ghanaian handicrafts that are produced for African American tourists; examines the spending patterns of these tourists; and analyses how handicraft traders use the incomes derived from their craft sales. We found that while African Americans constitute the bulk of craft purchasers in Ghana, their numbers have dwindled lately, so are their expenditures on crafts and other souvenirs.

KEYWORDS:

• African American
• Craft traders
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Kente is a traditional multicolored fabric common among the people of the Akans ethnic group in Ghana.

2. At the time of our interviews in 2014, US$1 was equivalent to GHC3.85.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle Afrifah

Dr Michelle Afrifah is a Lecturer at the Faculty of IT Business at the Ghana Communication Technology University in Accra. She obtained her PhD from the King’s College in London.

Joseph Mensah

Professor Joseph Mensah teaches Geography at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University in Toronto, Canada. His PhD is from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.