A number of hotels and tourist attractions along the coast of Ghana may be forced to shut down in the coming months as the land on which they have built are being washed away by the sea.
The development Citi Business News has gathered is due to climate change.
The hospitality industry joins a growing list of sectors which have been negatively impacted by climate change in Ghana.
Already climate change is having a significant toll on the fishing industry, leading to significant depletion of Ghana’s fish stock.
While the agric sector and water and resources have also been hit by the change.
Professor John Blay of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at the University of Cape Coast contends that hotel facilities that are not able to withstand the effects of climate change will eventually have to be abandoned.
“Tourist facilities in the coastal areas definitely will be exposed to erosion and eventually they will have to abandon such areas unless of course the area that the facility is lends itself to protection by building defense walls but even that if the sea level continues to rise , it may take many years but eventually the coastal area is going to be flooded but that will be in the long run.”
Edward Acka Nyameke is the Greater Accra Regional Chairman for Ghana Hotels Association and he suggests that hotels along the coast should mount sea defenses to protect their hotels.
“For the resources that have been created or constructed along the sea continues to eat into the land the only option is to mount a sea defense.”
He however admits that it will impact the patronage of tourists to such hotels since they will be cut away from the beach.
“……of course the disadvantage is that you lose direct access to the beach and I want to believe that it will affect business in a way because people usually go to such places because of their access to the beach. With the huge investments in these resources you cannot run away from mounting a defense so that may be the only option for now”.
Ghana’s tourism industry has huge potential but lack of investment and infrastructure has let to poor growth of the sector.
Statistics show that in 2015 Ghana’s tourist industry raked in 10. 5 billion dollars.
The effects of climate change continue to play out around the world every day, just this month – September, 2017, there have been three devastating hurricanes hitting the coast of the United States.
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By: Anita Arthur/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana