In recent times there has been an increasing interest by countries in the West African sub-region, including Ghana, in the promotion of tourism as one of the key ways to promote the development of their economies. Many of these economies have suffered a decline due to a number of factors including, wars; coups d'état; falling world prices of key exports such as gold and cocoa; and natural factors such as droughts and diseases. The dissertation seeks to provide a critical assessment of the roles and possibilities of using tourism, specifically cultural tourism and ecotourism, as a development strategy in Ghana in terms of its economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts. This is achieved using a research framework comprised of three conceptual models, the Dependency School, Collaboration theory, and Chaos theory.

The study found that the development of tourism in Ghana has had several positive impacts. When key economic indicators were looked at, namely, international tourist arrivals, international tourist receipts, contribution to the Gross Domestic Product, and employment, for the period between 1990 and 2005, it was found that the development of tourism in Ghana had led to a consistent increase over the period. In addition, tourism development has led to the expansion of opportunities for women to own their own businesses; the development of human resources in tourism-related services; the development of infrastructure; and the conservation of ecological resources. On the other hand, Ghana's tourism development faces a number of challenges such as, the issue of the authenticity of the "packaged" cultural resources, the conflict of interpretations; the alienation of local residents from tourist sites; problems resulting from congestion; and the concentration of tourist sites and activities in only a few locations.

No doubt, there is a lot of work to be done to ensure that the development of tourism in Ghana achieves its desired goals, while minimizing the negative impacts. The initial assessment shows, that Ghana is moving in the right direction. Important to the success of the industry is the commitment of the Ministry of Tourism to provide cutting edge research and planning that accounts for 'chaotic' events.