Private Public Partnerships (PPP) in Tourism: The Case Study of Rent-A-Car Business in Ghana

Abstract

The study set out to investigate Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Tourism using Rent-a-Car business in Ghana as a case study. The study adopted the mixed method research paradigm. Four Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) were sampled using purposive sampling procedure whiles nine Rent-a-Car companies and members of Ghana Tourism Federation (GHATOF) were randomly selected. The study acknowledged that PPP is highly embraced within the Ghanaian economy and gradually gaining stronger acceptance among actors within the tourism sector. Specifically, the study found that both the private sector and the public sector are in favour of PPP within the tourism sector of Ghana. However, the results show that there are some challenges resulting from poor regulatory regimes, weak business structure of Rent-a-Car firms, poor access to funds, information asymmetry within the sector and lopsided access to government contracts.  The study therefore recommends that government should expedite action towards developing a comprehensive sector wide PPP policy that will provide both regulatory and strategic direction. Also Rent-a-Car businesses must consider merger as an alternative to meeting capacity requirement of both government and international assignments. It is anticipated that merger would provide the necessary capacity requirement needed for most projects.

Keywords: Tourism, Tourism development, Rent-a-Car business, Public Private Partnership