Ada Allotey
The research report, ‘Diaspora and Destination image’ was initiated to look at the role Ghanaian community in the Netherlands can play in creating a destination image for Ghana as a leading tourist destination to their Dutch host.
The first chapter is a brief introduction to the tourism industry in Ghana which leads to the reason why the research is focused on creating a destination image for Ghana. The challenge that the country faces is not being recognised as tourist destination worth visiting. Background is given about the Ghanaians’ stay in the Netherlands which narrows down to the problem analysis of how organic image can be created using the Ghanaian community as a non-specific tourism information source. The research goal formulated is to evaluate and analyse how Ghanaians in the Netherlands are maintaining ties to their homeland, preserving their Ghanaian culture and identity, and how these translate into the creation of a destination image to the Dutch community. This was instrumental in formulating questions for the research to find answers to. Some of the questions have to do with motivations that Ghanaians have for migrating to the Netherlands, acculturation and cultural events can be used to in creating awareness about Ghana.
Chapter two is a review on migration as a global phenomenon with the connection it has with tourism, what the concept of trans-nationalism means and the activities that are associated with this concept plus worldwide examples were discussed. Ghana as a nation have gone through four phases of international migration with the period of the 1980 to 1990 as the time of the Ghanaian history when there was large scale emigration of Ghanaians. Five motivations were identified why Ghanaians migrate from their country, as refugee/asylum, economic and education being some of them. At the end of the chapter, the Grid/Group theory was chosen as the main theoretical approach of the research. The theory looks into the scope of tourism and migration and the social relationships that exist between the two concepts.
Chapter three is to complement chapter two by discussing how Ghanaians are maintaining ties to Ghana would be further use to create a destination image. First point of discussion for the chapter was what a destination needs to be competitive in the global setting. A destination competitiveness model by Ritchie and Crouch (see Figure 3.1) is made of the global and domestic environments, comparative and competitive advantages that a destination have plus tourism management. Analysis is done on the competiveness of Ghana as a destination in respect to this model. The last section of the chapter revealed what destination image is and the different images that are formed of a destination: organic, induced and complex images. Ghanaians were identified as a non-tourism specific information source of creating an organic image. Constant talking about Ghana, cultural identity and ties that are maintained to Ghana are how organic image could be created for Ghana to the Dutch community. The AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) theory was chosen to evaluate the creation of the organic image about Ghana to the Dutch community by commencing the analysis through the four stages of the theory.
The report made use of diverse methods of research (interviews, survey etc.) to achieve the goal of the research. Three perspectives were identified: Ghanaian community, the Dutch community and literature. Multi Mixed Method Approach was used because of the better opportunities it offers the research in answering the research questions set out for the study. Snowball was the sampling technique selected for the research with sample size of 150 for Ghanaians and 100 for the Dutch. The SPSS was used to analyse and retrieve vital information from the data gathered for the research report.
Results of the data analysed brought forth interesting findings. Majority of Ghanaians migrated to the Netherlands at fourth phase of international migration in Ghana. Contrary to the opinion that third phase was the period that a lot of Ghanaians migrated from the country. Education, family reunification and economic were found to be the top three motivations that drove Ghanaians to migrate to the Netherlands. Myth of return, bilingual and also being able to maintain ties to one’s homeland through economic, socio-cultural and political activities is the core of trans-nationalism behaviour for Ghanaians. A slight majority of the Dutch community had no opinion about the openness and acceptability of their society in their interactions with other cultures. The social interaction between Ghanaians and the Dutch is very low to create awareness about Ghana. And another important finding was the willingness of Ghanaians to invest in the tourism industry when given the opportunity despite their perceptions that conditions in Ghana are not conducive.
Conclusion that was drawn from the research revealed that Ghanaians in their quest to fulfil their life aspirations embark on migration to find improvement in their education and economic status. Ghanaians keep ties through remittances, socio- cultural and political activities. These ties have helped in translating to them having ambitions of investing in the tourism industry with accommodation, human resources and provision of tourism services being the areas of most interest. Lastly, Ghanaians can be used as non-specific tourism information source in creating an organic image about the country as a destination worth visiting. However, extra efforts are needed to create more avenues for awareness to the Dutch community. Furthermore, for an interest, desire and action to be developed on the part of the Dutch to finally make a decision of selecting Ghana as destination to travel to.
The report provided recommendations for the four main themes that were developed from the research results, which include:
- The Ghanaian Government through the help of the consulate in the Netherlands should hold consultation meetings with Ghanaians to encourage and solicit their support in developing the country with monetary or with skills development.
- Monthly radio programmes to deliberate on issues that affecting Ghanaians here and at home with the resources persons coming from the Ghana Embassy.
- Commendation is extended to the Dutch society for having integration acculturation towards migrant communities in the Netherlands.
- Exchange programmes for cultural or educational can be instituted for the Dutch students take advantage of by having first-hand experience of the Ghanaian culture and its people thereby creating awareness about Ghana.
- Attractive investment packages with incentives such as tax holidays and starting capital should be offered to Ghanaians to interest them in investing in the tourism industry.
The research report had its share of constraints which one way or the other impacted on the findings made. Some of the limitations included:
- Not enough time available to interview the Ghanaian Embassy and other relevant institutions to bring a different perspective to the research.
- Ghanaians were reluctant to participate in the research for the fear of the information being gathered from them would be used against them by the Governments of Ghana and the Netherlands.
Last but not least, further research topics was suggested after the conduct of this research report with the principal one being a study to be instituted to investigate why the Dutch community do not have a firm decision on home identity despite their endorsement of integration as a prefer acculturation as a host country and towards migrant communities in the Netherlands too.
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