OTT Adventures

Traveller’s guide to Ghana

From the sky, Ghana is a bundle of green on the west coast of Africa, bordered by golden beaches and the warm blue of the Atlantic. Once you’re on the ground, its variety hits you like a rush of sweet, humid air. Ghana, around the same size as the UK, may be dubbed “Africa for beginners”, but its richness is apparent in everything from the cuisine to its soft mountain peaks, its increasingly hip capital city and the wealth of local languages. Want to don flippers and a snorkel and float through gentle waters? You’ve got it. Want to walk with herds of elephants? Learn the Twi language? Barbecue plump shrimp, shovel warm handfuls of fufu into your belly or take African dance lessons on a palm-fringed beach? Go to Ghana. The frills of the 540km coastline are lined with pockets of rainforest, rocky headlands and sugar-sand beaches. The interior of the country is a patchwork of tropical green farmland, dry savannah and hilly urban areas, such as Kumasi, Ghana’s second city. The capital, Accra, is built on low-lying land that dips towards the ocean, while in the north, the dry city of Tamale has a mystical, Sahelian feel, heated by hot desert winds. Go east and you’ll hit low mountains, waterfalls and national parks that beg for hiking boots. The country has a darker history too: once the bastion of West Africa’s slave trade, Ghana’s historic coast offers plenty of moments for reflection. Ghana has been through a lot in the past few centuries, from Ashanti rule (1670 to 1902), through Portuguese, Dutch and British control and finally independence from Britain in 1957. Slave ships once departed its turquoise waters for America, carrying thousands of West Africans who had been locked in the bowels of the haunting 17th-century castle in the central city of Cape Coast. Although Ghana’s ride to the present has been fraught with post-independence struggles and development hurdles, last year its economy was the fastest-growing in the world, thanks to recently discovered offshore oil (found in 2010), gold mining and a growing fair trade cocoa industry. Accra, one of the fastest-growing cities in Africa, is starting to rival the Nigerian city of Lagos for entertainment, dining and art. In the district of Osu, sushi bars and sultry clubs pipe out West African hip-hop; construction is under way all over the city and shiny new apartment blocks go up next to traditional “chop bars” serving spicy Ghanaian dishes such as red-red and fufu. You are likely to get stuck in at least one or two “go-slows”, or traffic jams, as the capital’s increasingly clogged roads struggle to cope with the surge in business interest now that Ghana has emerged as an exciting African player. Although Accra is a seaside capital, nothing beats the spectacular beaches further west. To feel soft white sand between your toes, jump in a minibus and chase the coastal road, stopping off at sleepy fishing villages and laid-back beach spots. Some of the best coastal resorts lie beyond Axim and before the Ivorian border, where beaches are buttered with thick sand and peppered with skinny coconut palms. You can party at key spots along the coast such as Kokrobite and Busua, or hire a board and ride the country’s renowned waves – the 1966 surf film The Endless Summer was partly shot in Ghana. Ghana can’t compete with major safari destinations such as Kenya or South Africa, but it has spectacular bird life, snorkelling and opportunities to spot turtles and humpback whales.

Minimise the risk when driving abroad

A spate of recent fatal accidents abroad has put driving safety under the spotlight. This summer about seven million British drivers are expected use vehicles outside of Britain. So what can you do to reduce the risk? Here are ten key points to consider. Driving slightly more slowly than you do at home will give you more time to react to the unfamiliar. Be very wary of speed limits. In built-up areas on the Continent, the limit is normally 40kph (25mph), even if there are no speed restriction signs, and speed traps are common. It’s important to keep up to date with changes in the law. Some countries, such as Germany are less rigid and allow speeding on certain sections of the highway (autobahn), but this is an exception. If you are caught speeding, expect a fine, which can range from € 150 in Italy to over thousands of euros in France. Make sure you have the correct safety kit for the countries you are driving in: in most countries on the continent you must carry a reflective warning triangle and spare bulbs. In France motorists will also soon be obiliged to carry a portable breathalyser. For a guide to each country’s requirements, see either the AA or the RAC websites. Note that in most countries, phoning while you drive is illegal and is only allowed if you use an earpiece or a hands free kit. In Spain even the use of an earpiece is forbidden and in Ireland your phone must be switched off completely. Be aware that in countries such as Belgium and Norway it is illegal to smoke behind the wheel and in the USA; you cannot smoke in the car whilst accompanied by children or teenagers.

Safe destinations thrive during Arab Spring

The Arab Spring has resulted in a sharp drop in tourism in countries at the centre of the turmoil, to the benefit of safe destinations in the region, experts say. Major tourist destinations such as Tunisia and Egypt saw the numbers of visitors plummet because of uprisings last year that spread to other nations where confrontations with autocratic regimes turned deadly. The Gulf city state of Dubai, as well as popular destinations outside the Middle East, became the focus of diverted tourism. “The Middle East and North Africa saw a drop as a whole in international arrivals, mainly in Egypt and Tunisia,” said Ahmed Youssef, MENA director of marketing and operations at Amadeus. “Tourist flows from Egypt to Turkey increased by 400 percent in 2011,” said Youssef, speaking at the Arabian Travel Market last week in Dubai. His company provides IT solutions for the travel industry. According to the World Tourism Organisation UNWTO, international tourist arrivals in the Middle East declined 8.4 percent to 54.8 million in 2011, after growing 14.9 percent the year before. UNWTO statistics also showed that tourist inflows to North Africa slipped 9.9 percent to 16.9 million after increasing by 6.5 percent in 2010. “Due to the social and political developments,” Syria saw a drop of 41 percent, Egypt by 32 percent, Tunisia 31 percent and Lebanon 24 percent,” UNWTO statistics showed in March. In autumn last year Jordan reported a 16-percent drop in its tourism revenues in the first seven months of 2011. The sector contributes 14 percent to the kingdom’s gross domestic product. In Tunisia, where tourism accounted for seven percent of economic output in 2010, the sector’s receipts plunged by a third in 2011. Syrian state newspaper Al-Baath reported last week that four million tourists visited Syria in 2011, despite insecurity in the country where thousands have been killed since anti-regime protests erupted in March 2011. But the number reveals a drop of more than 40 percent from the seven million tourists registered in 2010. On the other hand, Turkey received 1.4 million Arab tourists in the first eight months of 2011: up from 1.2 million in 2010. And Dubai last year posted a 10-percent rise in guests at hotels and hotel apartments, reaching 9.09 million, with revenues hitting 15.97 billion dirhams ($4.4 billion), 20 percent up from 2010. In the first quarter of 2012, the number of guests increased nine percent to 2.6 million guests, according to Dubai authorities. They hope the number of tourists will hit 10 million this year. “The Arab Spring has left an impact,” said Khaled al-Mazroui, general manager of Fujairah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates. “Tourists look for safe destinations, in addition of course to quality services,” he told AFP, adding that the UAE had “benefited from this diversion of tourism, especially from neighbouring Gulf countries.” Paul Griffiths, chief executive officer of Dubai Airports, acknowledged an increase in tourists from neighbouring Gulf states who would usually travel to Egypt or other Arab countries on the Mediterranean. “There has been a redistribution (of tourists) over the past few months,” he told reporters, pointing to a “significant surge in tourists (in Dubai) from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait” and other Gulf nations. Dubai’s malls and restaurants have been heaving with Gulf visitors during school holidays over past months. The head of UNWTO, Taleb Rifai, gave an upbeat assessment at the Arabian Travel Market, saying some of the destinations hit by last year’s uprisings were already making a comeback. “Countries directly affected like Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Yemen saw a downturn of 80 to 85 percent as political events unfolded but minimised losses considerably in 2011, closing the year down by 25 to 30 percent,” he said.

Travel guidebooks – what is the future?

From 1960 to 1990, eight committed travel publishers changed the landscape of travel guide publishing, from a business still rooted in the Victorian era of Karl Baedeker into what we know today. Some of them followed the hippy trail and wrote about it. Two Americans wrote for a growing US market. Two were publishers wanting to bring new standards of design to travel guides. Mark Ellingham brought us Rough Guides. Tony and Maureen Wheeler created Lonely Planet. The German photographer Hans Hoefer brought us colour with the Insight Guides. In the US, Arthur Frommer and Eugene Fodor were publishing their guides. And, in the 1990s, Peter Kindersley and Pierre Marchand brought us the highly visual DK Eyewitness Guides. The world was travelling more. Our eight travel publishing entrepreneurs were all taken over by multinational publishers (Lonely Planet is now owned by the BBC; DK and Rough Guides by Pearson). Travel publishing became a global business, able to ride out local difficulties such as changes in destination preference. But in 2006, there was a small fall in sales. The fall was repeated and was steeper in 2007. And again in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 – and 2012. By the end of this year, sales of printed travel guides will have fallen by around 40% in the UK and US since the 2005 peak. In 2005 the average unit sale of the top 100 international travel guides was 9,372; in 2011 it was 6,199. The best selling international guide from a major publisher sold 21,028 in 2005; 10,201 in 2011. People have had less money to spend on travel. Buyers also started shopping online. Before, small travel publishers had relied on their guides being visible in bookshops. We had also entered the era of digital travel information, much of it free and with the added attraction of reviews and advice from like-minded travellers. Where does this leave our travel guide publishers? Some will disappear. A few with strong brands (the top two or three and a few smaller niche ones) will survive, converting themselves from book publishers to providers of digital content who also publish books. And the meaning of travel publishing will change to include the likes of TripAdvisor and couchsurfing.org.