Saturday 26 April 2014



Attractions are of various shapes and sizes (and in fact some are shapeless and without size), present different recreational and educational opportunities and appeal to different groups of people. According to Davidson (1993:93), any facility or event which attracts visitors to a particular place can be called an attraction or more specially, a visitor or tourist attraction. To start with, attractions like the canopy walkway are what generate tourists and sustains a tourist destination. For vast majority of tourists, attractions serve as the main motivation for visiting a particular destination www.ghanaecotours.getafricaonline.com. The ability to appeal to and to lure people to it is a major characteristic of a tourist attraction. Again, attractions form an integral component of the tourist product.
 Moreover, attraction is not only a major component of the tourist product supplied by the tourism industry, but an indispensable component at that. Transport, accommodation, and catering services are the other elements of the tourist product, and of all the component attractions are the foremost in that they are the main reason for tourist trip. Moreover, an attraction such as the canopy walkway forms the basis for the tourist experience. Furthermore, attractions provide what to see and do while at the tourist destination. Depending on its nature and the willingness of the tourist an attraction may be witnessed as a spectator or experienced as a participant by its visitors. Usually, site attractions are viewed (witnessed) whereas event attractions may require visitor participation to experience their nature. The time spent at the attraction center and what happens to the visitor partly account for their destination experience.

Also attractions do not only lure visitors to a destination, but also generate derived demand for other sectors of the tourism industry. Transport, accommodation and catering service businesses depend, to some extent, on the existence of attraction for visitor, and without attraction there will probably be no tourism industry. Demand for attraction invariably generates demand for transport, accommodation, catering and entertainment services. The desire to visit an attraction can only be realized through the use of transport to the tourist destination, and while at the destination the tourist will require food and accommodation services among others.
Attraction stimulate interest in a destination and depending on how well destination marketing organizations, such as the Ghana Tourism Authority promote their destinations, attraction can serve as the single most important factor spearheading the continuous rise in arrivals and receipts for a destination.

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