Country: Ghana

Organization: Adanwomase Tourism Management Team

Year the initiative began: 2005

Project Website: N/A

Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions:

• Main barrier addressed: Cross-cultural myopia
• Main insight addressed: Establish community incentives

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What is the goal of your innovation?
Create a viable tourist destination by showcasing the historical crafts and traditions of a community.

How does your approach support or embody geotourism?
Tourism in Adanwomase does not just benefit certain individuals or business owners in the community, it benefits everyone in the community. The community of Adanwomase has a population of about 6000 in which every family in the town is involved with Kente in one way or the other. With Kente being the main source of income for most families, it is a vital part of the local economy. In the past, the community would get very few visitors and most of the income earned from Kente cloth would come from selling it in the major cities of Ghana. With the help of tourism, the reputation of the Kente cloth from Adanwomase has spread and many buyers from all over Ghana and abroad come here to buy cloth. In addition, with many of the visitors coming from abroad, it has created another market for the people of Adanwomase. Tours and other tourism products are now offered to visitors to the community. The chief and elders of the community have made it obligatory on the part of the every citizen in the community to help make sure that tourism in the town succeeds. This was included in the town’s bylaws and regulations.

Describe your approach in detial. How is it innovative?
With tourism impacting and benefiting the whole community of Adanwomase, it was made obligatory of everyone in the community to help make tourism succeed in Adanwomase. In addition to this being included in the constitution of the community, it was made against the rules to follow and harass any visitors during their stay in the community. This issue is a big problem in many tourist destinations here in Ghana as well as all over the world. The working relationship between the community and visitors in Adanwomase has shown that more people can benefit as whole if proper behavioral measures are taken by the communities.

What types of partnerships or professional developement would be most beneficial in spearding your innovation?
Partnerships with other nearby tourist destinations would be beneficial in spreading the innovation. By doing so, communities in the area can realize how tourism can benefit their towns by seeing that it work in other nearby towns. With the help of the Ministry of Tourism, The Ghana Tourist Board and other organizations concerned or involved with tourism, the ideas formed from Adanwomase can be shared with other communities throughout Ghana.

In one sentence describe what kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
Create an appreciation of traditional Ghanaian textiles for the visitor and show the Ghanaians the importance and significance of Kente.

Describe the degree of success of your approach to date. Clearly define how you measure quantitative and qualitative impact in terms of how your approach contributes to the sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
From receiving less than a hundred visitors a year to now attracting nearly a thousand visitors in a short period of time, the community of Adanwomase has made a name for itself. It has not only created a positive reputation for itself among tourists visiting Ghana, but also to Ghanaians looking to buy high quality traditional Kente cloth. With the number of visitors and buyers to the community steadily increasing every year, the members of the community have realized the importance of Kente to the town. People have begun taking better care of and preserving the antique cloths produced in the town. The selling of antique cloths to outside buyers has drastically reduced after people realized the value of these cloths. With the assistance of Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC), an NGO based here in Ghana, the members or the tourism management team and community are working to preserve and catalogue antique cloths and traditional Kente patterns for later generations of weavers and visitors. Weavers in the community have seen what tourism can do for their product and have started to remain in the community and continue weaving using traditional methods instead of searching for employment elsewhere. Even with the threat of printed Kente designs, traditional Kente weaving is still doing well due to the positive influence tourism has had for demand.

How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
Our program promotes traveler enthusiasm by taking the visitor through the whole process of Kente cloth production as well as explaining the history and meanings of Kente cloth as it is known in the Ashanti region. Visitors not only get the opportunity to see how Kente is woven by master weavers, but they are allowed to try their hand at weaving during the duration of the tour. The stress and hassle free environment in the community assures that the visitor will have a satisfying experience during their stay.

In what ways are local residents actively involved in your innovation, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
Local residents of the community are the primary members of the tourism management team, from the executive members down to the tour guides. The members encompass all groups of the town whether it be religious, gender based or traditional leadership. Every year 40% of the profits from tourism are donated to the town Unit Committee to further develop the community. The proceeds from tourism in the past years have been used to establish a community library, purchase waste bins to keep the town clean, to mechanize the main borehole in town for easier access to clean water and to loan the community money to repair the street lights.

Describe how your innovation helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues. How do you motivate them to act responsibly in their future travel decisions?
Through the formal and informal sensitization programs given by the tourism management team to the community, travelers see the difference it can make on their overall tourism experience in the town compared to other tourist destinations in Ghana. This helps visitors to appreciate what they are seeing and experiencing to a great extent in a more relaxed atmosphere. Local residents in turn see how this behavior towards foreigners is appreciated and learn how to deal with other foreigners in the future whether it is within or outside the community.

Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? What is the potential demand for your innovation?
The tourism project has been going on since 2005 and has been self-sustaining since then. There are approximately 25 actives members of the tourism management team that meet around once a month, while the executive members meet more frequently. Kwabre district, the district this town is located in, is well known in the Ashanti region and throughout Ghana for their textiles and crafts. Other towns in the area are beginning to see the advantages of tourism and how it is benefiting this community. The nearby town of Ntonso has adopted the innovation and is currently developing their tourism product with the assistance of PCV Marisa Kelly.

How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
The tourism project is financed from the revenues generated from the tours given to visitors and the other tourism products offered in this community. Sixty (60%) percent of the profits generated go towards maintaining and further developing the tourism project, while forty (40%) percent goes towards the development of the community. The annual budget varies and depends on the revenue for the year. The revenue for 2007 was approximately US$1400. Profits after all expenses were $375 of which $150 went to the Unit Committee for community development. Membership of the Adanwomase Tourism Management Team is voluntary. There are approximately 25 members. The main 4~5 tour guides are all volunteers that benefit/profit from the sale of Kente cloth from different stores in town. There is one part-time employee that maintains the visitor centre and gives tours when guides are not available. He is paid $40 per month.

What is your plan to expand your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
The plan to expand this approach is to demonstrate to nearby craft villages/towns the benefits and advantage of tourism for the community. We would like to help develop the nearby communities of Pankrono (pottery) and Ahwiaa (wood carvings). The community of Ntonso, which is known for their adinkra stamping is currently developing their project, with the initial assistance of the Adanwomase Tourism Management Team. The ultimate goal is to develop the towns for a craft circuit for tourists and to hold an annual craft festival encompassing all craft villages/towns in the district.

What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
The main barriers are that some people in the communities are unwilling to adapt so that tourism benefits the community as a whole and not on the individual level. Many of these communities have been receiving visitors for years and are far better known than our community, but the people in these towns are reluctant to work as a group and/or try something new because they think it may hurt their businesses while benefiting others.

What is the origin of your innovation? Tell your story.
Before the year 2005, although there was no previous effort to attract tourists, individual tourists and groups from abroad have been visiting Adanwomase for decades. There were a few groups that came to Adanwomase every few months from Holland and Canada through organized tours with the help of the Africa Network Travel and Tour Agency. When they came, the community members organized through the Adanwomase Kente Weavers Association, spent time with the tourists, showed them how palm wine is tapped, entertained them with cultural dancing and showed them how Kente cloth was woven. During their times in Adanwomase, both the tourists and community members agreed that it was a very successful organized tourism experience. The majority of tourism in Adanwomase was disorganized. Individual tourists made their way to the town, usually by taxi from Kumasi, walked around briefly to see some weavers at work and then from store to store to buy Kente Cloth. Once they bought the Kente cloth they left the town, usually after having spent no more than one hour in Adanwomase. Also, these tourists did not receive any information about the history of Kente cloth, the names and meanings of various designs, or the culture of the town. The members of the community saw a great opportunity for great improvements in tourist arrival numbers as well as the tourist experience in Adanwomase. The nearby weaving town of Bonwire apparently received an estimated 1000 visitors per year and it demonstrated that there existed a strong interest in Kente cloth among foreign and domestic tourists. Bonwire served as a model of what Adanwomase wanted to become in terms of notoriety and arrival numbers. The town of Bonwire also served as a reminder of problems that Adanwomase wanted to avoid in the ways in which visitors were treated. At the end of 2005, the Adanwomase Tourism Management Team (ATMT) was formed. Members of the committee were selected based on their leadership skills, community reputation and willingness to commit to the project. The members of the ATMT included the Kente Chief of Adanwomase (Mfufutomahene), a representative from the Adanwomase Traditional Council, the community assemblyman, the chairman of the weavers association, and representatives from each of Adanwomase’s four communities. The ATMT also had the assistance of a Peace Corps Volunteer and worked closely with the Ghana Tourist Board.

Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
My name is (John) Chong Hun Park, and I am currently a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer(PCV) in his 2nd year of service here in Ghana. With no prior working experience in the tourism industry, it has been a rewarding challenge working with the wonderful community of Adanwomase. The first PCV in Adanwomase was Anthony Cotton. He served in Ghana from Sept 2004 until Nov 2006. He did a great deal in helping to establish the tourism management team and develop the tourism product of Adanwomase with the assistance of the Ghana Tourist Board.

Please write an overview of your project. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the Google map located on teh competition homepage.
The project in Adanwomase is a community based eco-tourism project that is helping to preserve the history and culture of Kente cloth in Ghana, while at the same time benefiting the people of the community as a whole. Every family in the community of Adanwomase benefits from tourism whether it be through the sale of Kente cloth or from development projects that are helped funded by proceeds from tourism.

Contact Information
Mr. Chong Park
U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer
Adanwomase Tourism Management Team
P.O. Box KS 8309, Kumasi, A/R
adanwomasetmt@yahoo.com