Tourism in The Gambia: Gambian Tourism Development
The Gambia has won renown for its hospitality, unsophisticated
charm and cultural diversity. Its 33 years of tourism has
witnessed the growth of an industry contributing about 12%
of GDP and employing the second largest section of the workforce.
In addition, it represents one of the fastest growing sectors
and provides substantial foreign exchange earnings. A study
sponsored by the overseeing Department of State for Tourism
revealed that, apart from the prepaid packages, visitors spend
approximately US $20 million in the country every year. The
attraction has been the all year round conducive weather guaranteed
by a sub-tropical climate, a fascinating cultural heritage,
interesting sights and sounds such as an absolutely enthralling
species of about 550 species of brightly coloured birds.
In addition to these are vast, 250-acre nature reserves offering
a taste of paradise for nature lovers. Yet, the country’s
greatest attraction is the ineffable majesty of the Gambian
welcome. As Dirk W. Dathe, Managing Director of Senegambia
Hotel notes, "the ‘Smiling Coast’ is not just
a slogan, I have hardly found a place where the people are
as friendly as here. It’s a natural friendliness you
can hardly find elsewhere." The proximity of the destination:
a five and half-hour, jet lag-free flight from Europe is an
extra.
The myriad advantages point to a certain potential, harnessing
which the tourism authorities aim at concretising the fortunes
of the industry by addressing its setbacks, and by attracting
more investments. The tact is to revitalize and diversify
the sector through adequate promotion, innovation, quality
improvement and broadening the product range.
The revitalization exercise is in the top gear. An unprecedented
1 million dalasis promotion campaign is billed to aggressively
sell the destination, "we are printing 20,000 brochures
to project the image of Gambian tourism, we are also making
promotional videos for presentation at international tourism
conferences," comments Yankuba Touray, Secretary of State
in-charge. Hitherto, poor marketing has resulted in significant
drops in number of visitors. Another problem, ‘bumsters’
(hustlers) menace, is being closely monitored. A recent demolition
of all illegal beach bars is expected to deprive the ‘bumsters’
of a hideout and the Tourist Guide Scheme seeks to train and
assimilate them into the industry as useful guides.
Diversifying Gambia Tourism involves a shift of focus from
the traditional package-tour business and a foray into the
up-market. "We need to make tourism contribute more to
the economy, we need to diversify the industry, explore the
upscale market and realize the full potential of tourism in
this country", posits Touray, explaining the government’s
drive to encourage five-star facilities and luxury projects
catering for the high-spending traveller.
Underscoring the potential for high demand of up-market facilities
is the high occupancy rates at the two five-star hotels in
the country. Attractive taxes, free land and low labor costs
would also underpin the viability of such projects. Farid
Bensouda, international hotelier and Managing Director of
Coconut Residence, one of the two 5-star hotels, analyses
The Gambia’s competitiveness. "Taxes are reasonable,
very fair, the land is cheap and the labor is cheap. Colleagues
in the Caribbean pay 10 times than I do, or 10 to 20 times
in the south of Spain."
The environment is enabling and incentives for investments
in up-market tourism are huge. These include a three-year
tax holiday, duty waivers and exemption from customs duties,
sales tax and turnover tax. Investors needn’t bother
about buying the land either; acres of beautiful properties
await investors free of cost of the TDA. The all-inclusive
market is also welcome; government has earmarked a special
site to cater for it without disrupting the workings of the
present system. In 1998, the rejection of the all-inclusive
package led to the withdrawal of Frosh Touristik International
(FTI), a German operator, with a prospect of about 20,000
visitors form the Gambia market.
"We are negotiating with Air Tours, new owners of FTI,
for their return into the market", State Secretary Touray
points out.
A number of other projects have been designed to broaden
the smile of the ‘Smiling Coast’, the tourism image
of the Gambia. Plans are afoot, under the Kombo Coastal Roads
Project, which aims at expanding the road network serving
the country’s most beautiful beaches, to develop the
southern Atlantic Coast from Tanji to Kartong.
The beautiful expanse of land, bathed by both the ocean and
river, offers a rare nature’s paradise and an ideal site
for vacations. The Gambia is also targeting the American and
French markets.
Recent breakthroughs in direct air travel between Banjul
and New York will ensure a steady stream of American visitors
into the Gambia and further consolidate the ROOTS Homecoming
Festival; a cultural initiative attracting Diaspora Africans
to explore the continent’s rich cultural heritage. Another
perk is the VISA connectivity of the Automated Teller Machines
(ATMs) of Gambia’s leading bank, Standard Chartered Bank,
giving credit-card-holding tourists 24 hours access to cash.
The diversification move includes an emphasis on ethno and
eco-tourism. Investors are welcome to take advantage of the
potentials in deep-sea-fishing, cultural tourism, nature reserves
and parks development, bird watching, luxury river cruises
and up-country tourism development. Sporting clubs, conference
facilities and golf courses are other investment opportunities
that could earn special privileges and attractive profit margins.
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