GAMBIA TOURISM BOARD

DRAFT REPORT
NEEDS ASSESSMENT STUDY

Submitted by:

MDI Road, Kanifing

The Gambia
Tel: (220) 9290121 / 7792732/9978829

MAY 2017
Contents

1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 3

1.1 Evolution of Tourism in The Gambia ........................................................................................... 3
1.2 Traditional and Non Traditional Markets ..................................................................................... 4
1.3 Emerging Trends (Global Perspective) ......................................................................................... 8
1.4 Future Trends in Tourism ........................................................................................................... 13

2.0 INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT........................................................................................... 17

3.0 KEY POLICY ISSUES................................................................................................................... 17

4.0 PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE OF STUDY ................................................................................... 18

4.1The Objective(s) of the assignment ............................................................................................. 18
4.2 Approach & Methodology .......................................................................................................... 18

5.0 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................... 20

5.1Hotels ........................................................................................................................................... 20
5.2 Other Service Providers .............................................................................................................. 22
5.2.1Tour Operators ...................................................................................................................... 22
5.2.2 International Tour Operators (ITO) ..................................................................................... 22
5.2.3 Ground Tour Operators ........................................................................................................ 23
5.2.4 Restaurants ........................................................................................................................... 24
5.2.5 Beach Bars ........................................................................................................................... 24
5.2.7 Bird Guides .......................................................................................................................... 25
5.2.8Tourist Taxi Drivers .............................................................................................................. 26
5.2.9Air Access ............................................................................................................................. 26
5.2.10 Health and Safety ............................................................................................................... 27

6.0 KEY SURVEY FINDINGS /STAKE HOLDER CONSULTATION ............................................ 28

6.2Food and Safety Hygiene ............................................................................................................. 29
6.3 Customer Care in Hotels ............................................................................................................. 31
6.4 Deal with the Problem ................................................................................................................ 31
6.5 Follow up .................................................................................................................................... 31
6.6 Allow for feedback ..................................................................................................................... 31
6.7 Inexperience Teachers ................................................................................................................ 32
6.8 Selection/Eligibility Criteria ....................................................................................................... 32
6.9 Taxi Drivers Association ............................................................................................................ 33
6.10 Tourism and Travel Association of The Gambia (TTAG)........................................................ 34

7.0 STRATEGIC INTERVENTIONS TO BOOST THE TOURISM INDUSTRY ............................. 35

8.0 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................................ 42

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 THE GAMBIA TOURISM INDUSTRY
NEEDS ASSESSMENT REPORT

1.0INTRODUCTION
1.1 Evolution of Tourism in The Gambia

Tourism in the Gambia goes back to 1964 when Scandinavian Tour Operator Bertil Harding
discovered the beautiful sandy beaches and the pleasant winter climate as the perfect tropical
destination for tourists. Bertil Harding then started a charter flight program in 1965 offering
modest package tours for low and medium income tourists attracted by winter sun, sea and
sand combined with an exotic cultural environment. At its beginning tourism was confined to
the capital, Banjul with only a 200 bed capacity in two unclassified hotels – the Atlantic hotel
and Adonis hotel.

As growth in the industry gradually increased in the 1970s and early 1980s other hotels were
built such as the Fajara, Wadner Beach, Bungalow Beach and Kotu Strand hotels. From a
very modest beginning, the tourist industry has experienced a remarkable expansion in all of
its sectors. Volumes increased from a mere 300 in 1965/66 to 44,300 in 1978/79 exceeding
the 100,000 mark for the first time in the 1988/89 season. Also the rapid growth of the
industry during this period brought about the proliferation of hotels, motels and guest houses
in the Greater Banjul Area.

Tourism remains a key sector of The Gambia’s economy, contributing between 12-16 % of
GDP. In terms of employment creation the industry also directly supports about 54,500 jobs
(7.4% of total employment). This is expected to rise by 0.8 % in 2017 and to further rise by
3.1 % per annum to 75,000 jobs (7.0% of total employment in 2017).

The direct contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in 2016 was D3,943.2 MN (USD80mn),
9.0% of GDP, and is forecasted to rise by 0.6%in 2017 and 5.0%per annum from 2017 to
2027, to D6,441.8mn( USD130.7mn), 8.6% of total GDP in 2027. (Source – WTTC)

The need to meet the growing demand of the tourism industry created the potential for further
investment in the sector. Realising the limitations of the infrastructure and the need to expand
bed capacity, tour operators such as Vingresor the first to establish in the Gambia got
involved in building hotels and training of tourist guides a service that had not existed in the
Gambia. Sunwing Hotel now Sun beach hotel was built on a joint venture between the
Government of the Gambia, the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation and
Vingresor. Government intervention to support the development of the industry was initiated
and assistance was sought from the International Development Assistance and the United
Nations Development Programto build a road network linking the hotels, the airport and the
main urban centres. Recently the Kombo Coastal road was built with a loan of $8.5 million
from the Kuwait Fund and $6 million from BADEA.

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The military coup in July 1994, led to a change of the democratically elected government and
instilling of an atmosphere of fear which prompted the British Foreign office advice against
British tourists travelling to the Gambia, resulting in a serious decline in tourist arrivals.
Arrival figures dropped to 45,000 in 1994/95 season. The rapid recovery of the tourism sector
after the July military takeover confirmed the expansion demand of the sector and by July
1995/96 tourist arrivals had gone up to 78,000. A corresponding increase has also been
experienced in bed capacity, rising from 350 in 1970 to 3953 in 1985/86, 5070 in 1990/91
and 5731 in 1995/96. The current bed capacity is estimated at about 6533

The target of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture and the Gambia Tourism Board (according
to the Tourism, Hospitality and Culture Strategy 2015-2020), is to grow the visitor figures
from its current average of 100,000 tourists per year to 500,000 tourists per year and also
increase the sector’s contribution to GDP from its current 16% to 25% by the year 2020.

The attainment of this goal presupposes that both the government(through the Ministry of
Tourism and Culture and the Gambia Tourism Board) and stakeholders in both the public and
private sectors collaborate and do the needful in terms of hotel accommodation, product
development, quality service delivery, marketing and human resource development toprepare
for future growth in the industry.

A high portion of the tourists coming to the Gambia are repeaters. Tourism has assumed a
seasonal trend with a high concentration in the winter season. Off season tourism is
developing at a slow pace. The British account for visitors arrivals of up to 50% over the last
five year period see table 1 below.

1.2Traditional and Non Traditional Markets

Tourists coming to the Gambia are classified either by traditional or non-traditional markets.
Traditional markets are those countries that The Gambia has traditionally attracted its tourist
from and non-traditional markets are those countries from where The Gambia does not
traditionally attract tourist but where interest in the destination is gradually in the increase.
The Non traditional markets provide an opportunity to increase arrival numbers and
ultimately to become part of the Traditional market. Gambians and visitors from other
African countries with unknown nationalities are also included in the arrival statistics (GTB
Annual Report 2017) as per table 2 below.

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Table 1-Yearly Arrival of Air Chartered and other Tourist by Nationality for the Period 2011/12 –
2015/16 – Traditional Markets

Nationality 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16

British 58029 45866 46800 33288 41,532

Swedish 5322 7,953 6209 5,856 7,423

Danish 18699 1,448 1765 947 1,216
Finnish 5350 2,624 2696 1,687 4,264
Norwegian 3570 1,878 2631 1,730 1,623
German 8057 6,250 4842 3,752 4,201
Belgian 1660 5,068 4296 3,535 5,063
Dutch 1896 25,517 19496 14,340 24,260
Spanish 1540 5,680 5560 5,671 5,488
Total 104123 102,284 94297 70,806 95,071
Source: Gambia Tourism Board

120000

100000

80000

60000

40000

20000

0
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
2014/15
2015/16

5
 Arrival of Tourist By Nationality For The
Period 2011 - 2016
Spanish
6%

Dutch British
26% 44%

Belgian
5%
German
Norwegian 4% Finnish Danish Swedish
2% 4% 1% 8%

Gambia tourism has in recent years seen a fluctuating trend from our traditional markets as
evidenced by the total yearly arrival figures in table 1 above.The decline beginning in 2012/13
year from 102,284 to 94297 in 2013/14 and further declining to 70,806 in 2014/15 and rising
slightly in 2015/16 to 95,071 is partly attributed to external shocks.As demand increases over
time, all indications are that the European tourists will continue to provide major source of
demand for the Gambian market with the British and the Scandinavian continuing as leaders.
There is also evidence that package tours from Eastern Europe will develop and arrivals from
these destinations will increase the number of tourists coming to the Gambia. It is therefore
important to attract more visitors to destination Gambia in order to achieve the objectives
outlined in vision 2020. As total arrival is projected at half a million by air by the year 2020, the
journey ahead is full ofmany challenges. Some of these challenges include the need to improve
the quality of our products if we are to match the competition from the sub-region. Together with
the stakeholders, the GT Board must overcome these challenges by ensuring that appropriate
measures are undertaken to increase total arrival numbers and attract the high spending tourists.

Table 2 -Yearly Arrival of Air Chartered and other Tourist by Nationality for the Period 2011/12 –
2015/16 – Non Traditional Markets

Nationality 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 Total

French 1147 1568 1377 1292 1571 6955
American 3149 3104 3746 3764 3997 17760
Italian 412 562 487 364 666 2491
Austrian 402 910 305 312 759 2688
Czechs 193 113 2195 5875 4997 13373
Polish 272 1980 2527 1900 2565 9244
Irish 2084 1539 668 227 356 4874
Nigerian 5851 7124 4426 4542 3102 25045
Gambian 23252 29175 30204 28532 30544 141707
African 10340 15684 10288 10294 10333 56939
Others 6098 7156 5200 6652 7166 32273
Total 53200 68915 61423 63754 66056 313349
Source: Gambia Tourism Board

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 35000
30000
25000
20000 2011/12
15000
10000 2012/13
5000 2013/14
0
2014/15
2015/16

Arrival trends in the Non Traditional markets as per table 2 above does indicate a significant growth
over the five year period with Nigerians recording the highest growth other than the Gambians,
followed by the Americans. These two markets are potential source markets that the industry needs to
focus on as part of a global strategy to promote destination Gambia.

Table 3 – Summer Arrivals From Traditional Markets - 2015/2016

Month British Swedish Danish Finnish Norwegian German Belgian Dutch Spanish
2015 4424 1399 263 272 465 1220 1113 2961 2576
2016 4795 1199 302 286 445 1251 1335 5326 2677

Summer Arrivals From Traditional markets

6000
5000
4000
3000 2015
2000 2016
1000 Column1
0

Performance of the industry in terms of arrivals during the summer months is generally considered to
be very low due to the notion that it is not suitable for tourism and the stoppage of the chartered
flights for the winter season by the end of April. The summer season sometimes referred to as the
green season begins in May and ends in October. Comparatively according to table 3 above the
industry has registered an average increase of about 9% between 2015 and 2016. To improve on the
arrival figures there is the need to adopt a gradual approach to extending the season from May to

7
August which ultimately depends on addressing the air access challenge as well as an expansion and
diversification of the country’s product suite.

1.3 Emerging Trends (Global Perspective)

In this section,some of the current and future trends affecting the global tourism and
hospitality industry are identified. This includes globalisation, guests’ safety and security, the
importance of offering outstanding services, the new technologies that enhance
competitiveness, the ageing population that impacts directly on tourist demand and the
correlation between price and value. Reference is also made to the trends in the development
of tourism lodgings. The issues outlined include careful analysis of the current and future
trends as well as the use of new technologies and the social networks.

Hospitality means providing service to others, as well as demonstrating consistent excellence

and quality. It should also mean profitably providing value at any price level, while
demonstrating one’s own unique points of distinction. Most of all, hospitality should be a
“place”, where people can still be exceptional individuals and can extend their own
personality and style (Hogan, 2008).

The hospitality industry consists of a huge group of companies that can be referred as the
travel and tourism industry, which provides the necessary goods and services to travellers.
The hospitality and tourism industries are the largest and fastest-growing industries in the
world.

The travel and tourism industry is composed of five parts:

 the tourism lodgings (hotels, motels, camps, cruise ships),

 the transportation services (ships, airplanes, trains),
 food and beverage operations (restaurants, bars, taverns, catering),
 retail stores (gifts, souvenir, arts/crafts shops) and
 the activities (recreation, educational trips, business, festivals, sport events),

Tourism lodgings stand out among other travel and tourism services because they offer their
guests overnight accommodation, food and drinks, recreational activities and more. The
characteristics of the hospitality industry are:

 It is an industry with many career options and a source for a respectful income.
 Its outstanding dimension is the orientation towards guest satisfaction at ultimate
level.
 It offers intangible and perishable products (if for example 25 rooms are not sold on a
specific night, their revenues will be lost forever).
 The hospitality businesses make continuous efforts in maintaining a positive image in
addition to good guest service. It is obvious that quality service is the basis to industry
success. Therefore, organizations that focus on quality become the leaders for guest
satisfaction and loyalty

Globalisation

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Nowadays, people more than ever travel freely around the world. The international tourist
arrivals figures in the year 2000 were 674 million, it reached the 797 million mark in 2005
(an increase by 18.25%) and 940 million in 2010 (increase 39.46% in relation to 2000 and
increase by 17.94% in relation to 2005). Respectively, the international tourism receipts
(global tourism expenditure) from 475 billion US dollars in 2000, reached 679 billion in 2005
(increased by 42.94%) and 918 billion in 2010 (increased by 93.26% in relation to 2000).

Safety and Security

The industry’s concern with security has increased greatly due to several terrorist attacks
worldwide, as well as because of tourists’ kidnappings, robberies and assaults. Security of all
types of hospitality and tourism operations is critical and disaster plans should be made for
each kind of threat. Personal safety of guests must be the first priority (Walker, 2010).
Increased security measures exist in all the international airports and most airline companies
have upgraded their security measures by investing millions of dollars. However,
advancements in technology play an important role in achieving the requirements of the
airline industry and International Tour Operators.

Diversity
The tourism and hospitality industry is among the most diverse of all industries in terms of
employee population and groups of guests.

Hospitality and tourism present a unique opportunity to understand new cultural experiences
for both employees and the tourists. It is important for the personnel to understand and
appreciate different cultures in order to enhance the nature of theirinteractions with tourists of
different cultures, religions, races, colours, ages, genders and sexual orientations. It is for this
reason that operators in the industry must endeavour to train their personnel to appreciate and
accommodate people from diverse backgrounds around the world. As such, diversity not only
facilitates easy understanding of different cultural, social and economic perspectives but
enhances the delivery of satisfactory services as well, through communication and
observation (Merchant, 2011).

Diversity in the hospitality and tourism industry is enhanced through policies that promote
equal employment opportunities to cater for the different nationalities in the market. The
industry operators have to understand the world's socio-cultural and economic differences
through the recruitment of people of diverse backgrounds.

Service
As global competition and market demands change the expanding service sector, quality
plays an increasingly essential role in both attracting and retaining customers.

Service quality and the degree of satisfaction derived from service quality are becoming the
most important differentiating factors in almost every hospitality environment (O’Neill and
Palmer, 2004).

The intense competition and the expansion of unique services and couple with the need to
ensure convenience for the tourist has forced hoteliers to continuously search for the
competitive advantage.

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Service is at the top of guests’ expectations, yet few companies offer exceptional service.
World-class service does not just happen; training is important in delivering the service that
guests have come to expect (Walker, 2010).

It is common knowledge that customer satisfaction has clear linkages to actual financial
outcomes. All service providers know that in order to survive they need to attract and retain
guests. However, they also need to know specifically what it takes to satisfy their guests.
Getting things right is important. The key performance indicators that are relevant in
determining customer satisfaction are:

 accurate reservation;
 complete check-in within five minutes;
 no problems experience during the stay;
 and no billing errors.

Guests who experienced all four of these performance indicators are most likely to grant the
hotel a top satisfaction rating.

A matrix to be developed to measure satisfaction levelswould consist of the following key factors:

 Guest Room 24%

 Costs & Fees 23%
 Hotel Facilities 19%
 Services 8%
 Reservation 3%
 Check-in/out, 13%
 Food & Beverage, 10%

Technology
Technology is a driving force of change that presents opportunities for greater efficiencies and
integration for improved customer services.

Technology has become a tourism business activity in development of strategic resources and
is considered as a tool to increase competitiveness. Effective use of information technology
can make significant operational improvements. Advanced software and communication tools
allow increase operational efficiency, for example, orders may be made better, faster and
cheaper. In addition, decision-making through decision support tools, databases and
modelling tools assist the manager’s job.

Wireless communication systems enabling voice, text and data communication among
employees, managers, departments and guests is now being adapted by hotels. Comprised of
intelligent system software and lightweight, hands-free or handheld communication devices,
these systems allow hotel staff to deliver the best customer service. Examples of wireless
communication solutions for the hospitality industry include: communication badges, food
and drinks ordering systems, as well as devices that allow hotel agents to check-in and check-
out guests, process credit cards, print receipts and program room keys anywhere in or nearby
the hotel.

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Wireless technology offers, among others, the following benefits for hotels and the quality of
service they can provide to the guest:

 Increases staff productivity and reduces response time to satisfy guest requests.
 Improves overall guest satisfaction and service.
 Increases efficiency for restaurants (bars, cafeterias, etc.) and caterers by saving time,
reducing human errors and by providing higher quality customer service.
 Reduces queues at the reception desk and allows guests to check-in and check-out closer
to where their room is.

Demographic changes
The global population is gradually increasing and many pensioners have the time and money
to travel and utilize hospitality services. According to the United Nations, population ageing
is increasingly becoming one of the most salient social, economic and demographic
phenomena of our times.

By 2030 the EU can expect 14% fewer workers and 7% fewer consumers as in 2005. By
2050, the number of people over 60 in Europe will reach 40% of the total population or 60%
of the working age population (Willms, 2007).

It is evident that demographic change affects migration trends (internal and international),
and age, gender, educational and household structures have all changed in recent years and
will continue to change up to 2020. Demographic change can affect different aspects of
tourism. It impacts directly on tourist demand (volume and structure) and the tourism labour
market (number of workers and their qualifications) and has an indirect effect on jobs within
the tourism industry and tourism services (type and quality of sector-specific and enhancing
infrastructure).

Overall, the expected impact of demographic change on demand for holidays can be
summarized as follows:

 Slight increase in demand.

 Shift in the structure of demand, with the importance of senior citizens for tourism
rising more rapidly than their share of the population.
 A slight decrease in holidays with children.

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Table 4-Demographic Development

Feature Top 10 source markets

Population development Overall: rise (particularly sharp in the

(Volume) emerging markets), decrease in Japan and
Italy

Migration of the Net balance of migration in the top 10

population countries positive, in the emerging
marketsnegative

Age structure More older people (esp. in the top 10

countries and particularly in Japan)

Gender Top 10 countries: slightly higher number of

women (will decline somewhat in future).
Emerging markets: opposite trend

Educational structure Increase in formal education (except in Italy,

Austria & Japan)

Household structure Overall, households will shrink

Household income To date: rise, in future: no data available

Source: The impact of demographic change on tourism and conclusions for tourism policy (Grimm et al, 2009)

Shifts in travel behaviour, resulting in particular from journeys made by people in the age group
of 60 to 79 years, include:

a) A higher proportion of journeys abroad and fewer journeys within their country.
b) More air travel and car journeys, less travel by coach and rail.
c) Lower seasonality (fewer summer holidays).
d) Greater significance attributed to culture, nature and health, with a decline in beach and
relaxing holidays at the same time.

Price-value
Price and value are significant factors to the more perceptive guests of today. Customers and their
perceptions about price have changed. Guests are resistant to paying more (instead, they prefer to
get more for less) and tourism enterprises should take measures in order to solve this problem.

The key word today is "value." Value is what you get compared to what you pay. But how could
a hotelier increase value without lowering prices?

Here are the top five elements that create value duringa hotel stay:

1) Guestroom design (size, comfort, room equipment, kitchenette, entertainment,

heating / ventilation / air conditioning, cleanliness).

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 2) Physical property - exterior, public space (cleanliness, landscaping, size,
architecture).
3) Interpersonal service (service friendliness, attentiveness, professionalism, personal
recognition).
4) Functional service (service speed, efficiency, check–in and check–out efficiency).
5) Food and beverage related services (sanitation, quality, atmosphere, room service,
variety, good prices).

Hotels have more flexibility with the services itemised in 3, 4 and 5. Exceptional service is
rare and highly valued by guests. But item 5 is most valued by guests. Food and beverage is
frequently what guests remember about a hotel experience. It's often the social side, the fun
side of their stay. Thus, hoteliers should leverage their hotel's food and beverage, its sanitary
environment and quality, as well as its excitement. Moreover, hotel managers should
communicate it, blog about it and advertise it, because the food and beverage division can
play an important role in creating value for guests (Barsky, 2011).

Development of Tourism Lodgings

In the past few years there is a certain trend towards developing green lodgings and
anincreasing number of hotels worldwide apply policies friendly to the environment. This is
due to the fact that green hotels not only do save money for the owners but they save natural
resources as well, by enhancing the biodiversity, while at the same time they promote
environmental conscience to the guests. Another reason for the development of green hotels
is the fact that there are tourists who are “environmentally sensitized” and even when they
travel, they wish to apply resource saving practices in their everyday life.
Energy efficiency provides hotel owners and operators cost savings that benefit the bottom
line. Efficiency also improves the service of capital equipment, enhances guest comfort and
demonstrates a commitment to climate change. Green hotels prove daily that the
environmental and economic objectives can be achieved at the same time.

1.4 Future Trends in Tourism

According to the European Tourism Trends & Prospects, the global visitor growth forecasts
for 2012 and 2013 are as follows

Table5-Short-Term Global Visitor Growth Forecasts

INBOUND OUTBOUND

2012 2013 2012 2013

WORLD 4.8% 3.9% 5.1% 4.1%
AMERICAS 4.9% 4.3% 5.2% 4.2%
EUROPE 3.9% 3.3% 4.2% 3.9%
ASIA 6.9% 4.7% 7.0% 4.2%
AFRICA 5.1% 4.1% 5.6% 4.8%
MID EAST 4.9% 4.1% 4.8% 4.1%

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The above data show that for 2012 Asia is ranked first among all the other continents
concerning the outbound travels (7%). This is mainly due to the emerging market of China.
For 2013 Africa holds the lead with 4.8% growth. For both years Europe has the lowest
growth regarding the inbound, as well as the outbound travels.

From a Global Perspectives the following adapted forecasts and figures show great interest:

Table 6 - Global Growth Projections by 2017

Countries expected to grow their travel and tourism demand most

rapidly up to 2017 (% Annualized Real Growth) are:

1. China 9.1

2. Montenegro 8.6

3.India 7.9

4. Croatia 7.8

5.Democratic Republic of Congo 7.8

6. Vietnam 7.5

7. Romania 7.4

8. Namibia 7.1

9. Hong Kong 7.0

10. Chad 7.0

Tourism Trends (Willms, 2007)

The United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (NWTO) Tourism 2020 Visionforecasts
that international arrivals are expected to reach nearly 1.6 billion by the year 2020. Of these
worldwide arrivals in 2020, 1.2 billion will be intraregional and 378 million will be long-haul
travellers. The top three receiving regions of the total tourist arrivals by 2020, will be Europe
(717 million tourists), East Asia & the Pacific (397 million) and the Americas (282 million),
followed by Africa, the Middle East and South Asia

Future Trends in Hospitality

The future trends in the hospitality industry can be summarized as follows:

 More green and eco-lodgings.

 Development of mega hotels (multi-purpose facilities with casino, shops, theatre,
theme park, etc.).
 More boutique hotels.
 Intelligent hotels with advanced technology using the guest’s virtual fingerprint in
order to perform all the operations (check-in, charges, check-out, etc.).

14
  Increasing employee salaries in order to retain the existing staff.
 More emphasis on the internet and technology.
 Guests’ virtual and physical social networks will be the best distribution channels.

Conclusions
There is a global increase in tourism and hospitality both in tourist arrivals and tourism
expenditure. The trends that are mostly affecting the industry are:

 the increased concern with guests’ safety and security;

 the enhanced diversity in the workforce composition;

 the importance of outstanding services leading to additional opportunities for

increased revenue;

 the new technologies which contribute to improved guest services and enhance
competitiveness;

 the population ageing that impacts directly on tourist demand and the tourism labour
market;

 and the correlation between price and value which is very important for the perceptive
guests of today.

In the field of tourism lodgings’ development, the trend is an increasing number of hotels
worldwide applying policies friendly to the environment. The green lodgings not only do
save money for the owners but they save natural resources as well, attracting more and more
guests who are environmentally sensitized.

The global visitor growth forecasts for 2012 and 2013 estimate that both the inbound and
outbound travels will continue to grow, with Europe having the lowest growth in relation to
the other continents. Among the countries expected to grow their travel and tourism demand
most rapidly up to 2017 are China, Montenegro and India, whereas the countries expected to
generate the largest volume of demand in 2017 are the United States, China and Japan.

UNWTO’s Tourism Vision forecasts that by the year 2020 the top three receiving regions will
be Europe, East Asia & the Pacific and the Americas.

The future trends in the hospitality industry include more green and eco-lodgings;
development of mega hotels; more boutique hotels; intelligent hotels with advanced
technology; and guests’ virtual and physical social networks to be the best distribution
channels.

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Top 10 Trends Impacting the Global Hospitality Industry
1. Catering to millennials
Millennials (those ages 18-34) are expected to represent 50% of all travellers to the USA by
2025, according to the Cornell Centre for Hospitality Research. Companies need to define
their strategies based on this demographic group’s personality traits and habits—they travel a
lot; are early adopters of technology; like personalized interactions and are spontaneous.
Hotels will want to please them with easy check-in and gourmet dining experiences at
reasonable prices. In return, satisfied millennials will actively promote their businesses on
social media channels.

2. Tech Explosion
The majority of guests today are self-sufficient, tech-savvy travellers who are comfortable
using apps or mobile websites. Hotels need to make sure their offerings are up-to-date and
user-friendly. At business meetings and conferences, travellers expect hotels and conference
centres to have high quality tech equipment and a knowledgeable support staff.

3. Influx of International Visitors

International leisure travel is on the rise. Hotels must be able to provide services in a
multitude of languages, and tailored experiences properly suited to the culture and unique
needs of their international visitors.

4. Increased Emphasis on Health and Well-being

Guests today are taking charge of their health; hotels are responding with well-equipped
fitness centres, pools and spas. Increasingly, travellers are expecting innovative wellness
options. In addition to healthy food options, growing trends include lighting that energizes,
air purification, yoga spaces, in-room exercise equipment and even vitamin-infused shower
water.

5. Need For Seamless Technology

Seamless connectivity across platforms and devices is growing more important. Many hotel
groups are offering mobile check-in and digital concierge services. At Aria Resort and Casino
in Las Vegas, guests are issued high-tech cards that detect their presence and unlock the door
before they even reach it.

6. Sustainability Rules
Eco-friendly practices are becoming the norm, as properties focus on renewable energy
resources and water scarcity. Many hotels are installing solar panels and updating systems so
that air conditioners and lights automatically switch off when guests leave their rooms.

7. New Roles for Staff

Many travellers seem to prefer technology to human beings—they want to check-in digitally
and don’t mind if a robot delivers room service. This will give staff the opportunity to focus
on more personalized service, as opposed to routine tasks.

8. Destination Promotion
The explosion of social media is causing hotels to become more involved in destination and
self-promotion. Many are featuring guests’ images and tweets on their websites; some are
even using the material in their advertising campaigns.

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9. Real-time Damage Control
If a hotel guest is dissatisfied, he or she can easily complain on Face book, Twitter, Yelp or
TripAdvisor. Hoteliers must be able to quickly respond. Engaging with customers and
responding to their needs through these public forums to help maintain positive guest
relations and drive future bookings.

10. Unique Perks

With so many brands to choose from, hotels need to find a way to stand out. Some are
offering free daily wine tastings in their lobbies or bars; some are incorporating sophisticated
informational screens in bathroom mirrors; and others are giving away curated set lists of
downloadable music.

2.0INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT
The Ministry of Tourism & Culture has oversight responsibility for three satellite institutions. These
institutions are:

(i) The Gambia Tourism Board

(ii) The National Centre for Arts & Culture
(iii) The Gambia Tourism &Hospitality Institute

3.0KEY POLICY ISSUES

Vision 2020 states:
"To make The Gambia a tourist paradise and a major tourist destination
through product innovation, quality improvement, improvement of
investment returns and diversification of The Gambia's tourism product".

Currently the main focus of tourism in the Gambia is on package tours, constituting low
pending tourists. Both government and private operators in the industry have come to realise
that as long as the industry continues to focus on the expansion of mass tourism, there can
hardly be any complementary development within this sector and the enhancement of
demand. It is now recognised that higher spending tourists should also be the focus of
marketing activities in future. This group is expected to provide the basis for development of
tourism accommodation to meet this kind of demand. In this context a need has been
established to develop specific interest areas such as:

 Roots related tourism

 Golf
 Sporting clubs
 Bird Watching
 Conferences and conventions
 Upcountry and inland tours

The proposed strategy is however not oblivious of the progressive increase in mass tourism at
the lower level over the years. In order to implement the new strategy, the Gambia

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government within the context of its current national policy for tourism development has
decided to classify hotels in 2, 3, 4 and 5 stars to meet international standards. The primary
objective is to provide the framework for the construction of 3 & 4 star categories with large
capacity and high standard quality room facilities which will include those intended to
capture the higher echelon with specific professional and aesthetic demand categorised in
special interest groups. They will include business centres equipped with the latest state of
the art technologies.

4.0PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

4.1The Objective(s) of the assignment

The objective of the assignment is to assist the Client to conduct a needs assessment of the
Tourism Industry with the objective of providing a baseline perspective of the existing
situation in order to develop a sustainable medium and long term programs and projects that
are relevant and driven by the needs of the stakeholders.

Improve the overall quality of products and services within the tourism industry (all tourism-
related accommodation, restaurants, tour guides, tour operators, and other tourism-related
service providers); raise the levels of demand nationally, regionally and internationally;
promote competiveness within the industry; and, provide valuable and reliable information on
quality standards for the tourist and the travel industry.

4.2Approach & Methodology

We recognize the importance of this study and its successful implementation to MOTC (the
“Client”).

To achieve the objectives of the assignment, weemployed the following methodology:

Activitiesundertakento fulfil the Scope of Work

Activity 1: Initiation and briefing - Data Gathering and Analysis:

Agree with MOTC on the modalities of the assignment
The Consultantsmet with Project Coordinating Team:
(i) To discuss contractual arrangements
(ii) To discuss particular issues considered to be important for the exercise.
(iii) To chart out assessment procedures.

Activity 2: Meeting key client personnel

The consultant held an initial meeting and briefing with the GTBoard’s Senior Management
and stakeholders to lay the ground for commencement of the required activities.

Activity 3 - Desk review of key documents

Another important aspect to be fulfilled was the provision of all relevant strategic documents
of the Client, including but not limited to the GTB Act, Tourism Master Plan, which proposes

18
the re-orientation of the industry to focus on key areas with the ultimate goal of responding to
the needs of the industry and boost consistent surge in revenues. The Strategic Plan if any,
documents relating to the operating environment etc and other documents that will be
required to acquaint the Consultant with the current landscape the Ministry operate in.

Activity 4: Design of Questionnaires and data collection

Questionnaires weredeveloped to be mainly used in capturing relevant information on quality
of accommodation facilities, HR Issues, product type etc. The Consultant performed
reasonability checks on the questionnaires by submitting them to the client to seek
clarification about inconsistencies and to determine the level of data accuracy required for the
purpose of the assignment will be achieved.

Activity 5: Initial conclusions, detailed work plan and Progress Report

As required the Consultant produced an Inception Report. Thisreport provided the
opportunity for the Consultant to submit a report detailing out initial findings and
recommendations to the Client. It also provided the opportunity for the Client to give
feedback to the Consultant who in turn incorporated any salient comments as well as
developed a detailed work plan to carry out the remaining activities for timely completion of
the assignment.

Activity 6: Conducting Needs Assessment Interviews and Consultations

Based on our research and experience, weestablished that the assignment can be done through
the modalities of a collective consideration of these key elements:
a) Establishing the profiles of primary industry groups
b) Determine priority industry needs by administering the questionnaire
c) Identify key gaps in infrastructure and service provision;
d) Determining the level stakeholder support needed.

Basically, this wasthe field work phase where data was gathered for analysis through the
administration of questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. To this end and after developing
questionnaires, the Consultants carriedextensive consultations and interviews with a selection
of stakeholders that are representatively adequate.

The purpose of the interviews and consultations wasis to collect and gather primary data
helped to pinpoint issues of concern, identify capacity and competency gaps, determine the
anticipated resource needs and underscore the emerging industry requirements.

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5.0SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
5.1Hotels

There are thirty seven (37)hotels, thirty (30) up country facilities and one hundred and one
(101) Guest houses and lodges in The Gambia.The hotels are mostly concentrated along the
coastline from Cape Point in Bakau to Bijilo and Brufut. The hotels range fromtwo star to
five star, with the two and three star categories constituting the majority.

The general outlook of hotels, in particular the three, four and five stars is quite satisfactory
albeit the fact that service standards can still be further improved. However, conditions in
some of the two star category needs to be significantly improved in order that they may be
able to regularly sign contracts with International Tour Operators and stay in business. Such
hotels may require partner financing mechanisms to refurbish and bring up to standard the
state of such hotels. The World bank, through the Gambia Growth and Competitiveness
Project(which has now phased out)had actually conducted a study in 2013 to assess the state
of two star hotels and provide recommendations for possible financing mechanisms to
refurbish and bring up to standard the state of some of these two star hotels. This is an
important strategic action that needs to be vigorously pursued to its rightful conclusion if
hotel bed capacity during the winter season in particular is to adequately cater for tourists.

While a few of these hotels have in the course of the past two or three years been either
refurbished or additional rooms added ( Fajara/ Senegambia beach Hotels for instance), the
majority of hotels have not undertaken any additional rooms construction in the course of the
last five years, either for lack of finance, profitability or space. However, with a few hotels
now under construction, their completion will bring the total hotel bed capacity to about 9000
by 2018. In the rural areas, there are virtually no hotels, except for hunting camps, lodges and
a few eco-tourism facilities of reasonable standards.

In general, business for many of these tourism accommodation facilities is seasonal, just like
in the urban centre (TDA1) as opposed to it being all year round. Many of these
accommodation facilities operate between October and April, with the remaining five months
being a “lame duck period” when hotel workers are laid off.

The Ministry of Tourism’s strategy and that of GTBoard is to bring half a million tourists by
the year 2020. Given that the total hotel bed capacity as at 2017 stands at 6633, there is need
to build additional high standard hotels to cater for the deficit in room availability and
suitability. This calls for more investment in hotel accommodation and/or eco-tourism
facilities, but the issue of land availability and suitability in the context of TDA1 needs to be
borne in mind. This calls for the need to do a land audit in TDA 1, in order to ascertain what
is suitably available now for future allocation for such infrastructure needs as hotels. The
argument for the construction of more hotels is however eclipsed by the current seasonality of
visitors to the destination, hence the fundamental need to solve the problem of seasonality
and thus keep hotels in business, which would:

(a) Facilitate the attainment of the 500,000 tourists target by the year 2020

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 (b) Justify the need for the construction of more hotels

(c) Keep Gambians at work throughout or for most part of the year.

The hotels promote themselves through their respective websites and also by either attending
directly or through the Gambia Hotel Association (GHA), such tourism fairs as WTM, ITB
and FITUR. Hotels however, do not make direct financial contribution to the acquisition and
construction of a Gambian stand at these tourism fairs, albeit the fact that individual hotels or
the GHA participate at such fairs. The argument of course is that hotels are already paying
annual operational license fees to GTBoard.

In terms of hotel entertainment, this is limited to music, beach sport such as volleyball, soccer
and horse riding and cultural and other artistic presentations. Facilities for games such as
billiards, tennis, badminton, basketball, etc are virtually absent in most if not all hotels. This
trend is indicative of the limited sportive leisure offerings to tourists. Diversity of leisure
offerings is vital to catering to a critical mass of tourists with diverse interests at any given
period, but more so during the winter season.

The Gambia Tourism Board has instituted a new hotel classification system that incorporates
service standard tools in classifying hotels as to their star ratings. Sporadic or random
inspection is undertaken by GTBoard inspectors as well as through random “mystery guest
appearances”.

In terms of gastronomy, most of the hotels offer a variety of both local and international
dishes in their cuisine. There is need however, to promote Gambian dishes and delicacies
more. In order to do this, it will be useful and clientele attractive for hotels to publish a
separate “Gambian dishes and delicacies” menu that briefly describes with what ingredients
local Gambian dishes and delicacies are prepared. The same applies “mutatis mutandis” to
Gambian beverages. This is critical to popularizing our own local dishes, delicacies and
beverages.

In terms of hotel surroundings, there is need to construct well paved secondary roads and
street lights in the vicinity of all the hotels in order to greatly enhance the safety and security
of the tourists. It will also contribute to the beautification of the environs of hotels during the
night.

There has been much talk about attracting “High Spenders” in to the destination. In order to
achieve this, high quality hotel accommodation, ideally four and five star is required. High
quality eco-tourism lodges should also be seriously considered. It should also be noted that in
addition to quality accommodation facilities and services, other product offerings that may
attract high spenders such as golfing, nature parks and other eco-tourism attractions should be
promoted.

In the majority of cases, hotels are often subjected to electricity outages, thus making them
heavily dependent on the use of generators, albeit a few such as Senegambia Beach hotel are
now resorting to solar energy to meet some of their energy needs. A constant uninterrupted
supply of electricity will greatly enhance the operations of hotels and heavily reduce

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operational costs of frequently running generators. The environmental benefits are also quite
evident. Quite a number of hotels are also primarily dependent on boreholes for their water
supply system. It is however envisaged that the NAWEC water project in Bijilo will greatly
improve the water supply system of hotels in the TDA (Kololi/Bijilo areas).

In terms of staff training, there are staff induction programmes in virtually all the hotels.
Some hotels also organize staff training and the Gambia Hotel Association periodically does
so for the staff of its membership.

As regards price competitiveness, this is complicated and needs to be looked at. First of all,
many hotels are often at the mercy of International Tour Operators who invariably fix
accommodation prices, resulting in the undercutting of prices by hotels irrespective of the
hotel’s star rating in order to remain in business when faced with a “take it or leave it”
situation. In some hotels, International Tour Operators sign “exclusivity” contracts with them,
thus rendering such hotels a “no go” area for other tour operators even if there are vacant
rooms and thus the affected hotel’s inability to maximize on earnings. It is the Gambia Hotel
Association with its entire membership standing in solidarity with it and supported by the
Gambia Tourism Board through legislation that the problem of hotels being virtually
conditioned to signing exclusivity contracts by International Tour Operators will be
systematically solved.

5.2 Other Service Providers

5.2.1Tour Operators
Tour Operators can be categorized into two: International and Local. The International Tour
Operators bring the tourists in to the destination whereas the local Tour operators, commonly
called Ground Tour Operators take tourists around the country to places of historical,
ecological and cultural interests. In this regard, International Tour Operators work with the
Ground Tour Operators to provide the tourists with a rewarding and interesting holiday.

5.2.2International Tour Operators(ITO)

International Tour Operators have monopoly over the air transportation of tourists in to
“destination Gambia”. They are a powerful force to be reckoned with as far as Gambian
tourism is concerned.

The main Tour Operators that do business in The Gambia are: Gambia Experience/Thomas
Cook, TUI, Correndon, Binter Canaries and Rainbow Tours who fly tourists from the UK,
Scandinavia, Holland, the Canary Islands and Poland respectively.

ITO’s select and sign contracts with hotels, who have met their set standards. They also more
or less fix the prices and sign contracts on terms that they primarily determine, leaving hotels
with “little room to manoeuvre.

The ITO’s bring tourists in to the destination by “Chartered flights” primarily during the
winter months in Europe (October-April), hence the seasonality of Gambian tourism given
the heavy dependence on Chartered flights. With the exception of Gambia Experience, TUI

22
and Binter Canaries who fly in tourists during the summer months, others virtually abandon
the destination during the summer months and promote and market European destinations
instead.

The exigency of the moment therefore, is for the G T Board along with other stakeholders
such as GHA and TTAG to work towards creating some incentivized mechanism or scheme
whereby joint marketing initiatives with ITO’s in addition to concessionary incentives by
GCAA and GIA by way of reducing parking/landing fees and handling charges respectively
as well as the cost on the supply of aviation fuel in a bid to motivate ITO’s to market the
summer months in a more aggressive and determined manner. The hotels should also be
prepared to give rebates on room rates to complement the above stated measures. The
incidence of malaria which has always been a negative factor cited during the rainy season
also needs to be addressed through the supply of adequate information on the measures that
Gambian tourism stakeholders are taking or will take to mitigate the incidence of malaria.

5.2.3Ground Tour Operators

There are currently four main Ground Tour operators in the country, namely: Gambia Tours,
African Adventure Tours, Discovery Tours and West African Tours. The destination
currently has a reasonable number of buses, trucks and land rovers at its disposal for
excursions as well as airport/hotel transfers.

The current fleets are quite comfortable and fully air-conditioned in the majority of cases.
However, there is room for improvement such as having buses with Wi-Fi and other visual
paraphernalia fitted to enhance the needs of tourists, particularly when they are not in the
vicinity of the hotels.

While the GTO’s move tourists across the country, it is evident that places of attraction to
visit are primarily limited to the National Museum and Arch 22 in Banjul (both of which
leaves much to be desired), the Katchikally Museum and Crocodile Pool in Bakau, a few eco-
tourism sites (Sandele/Makasutu) and the heritage sites in the North bank (Fort Bullen,
Juffureh/Kunta Kinteh Island) and in the Central River Region, the Stone circles of Kerr
Batch and Wassu, as well as the Island town of Jangjangbureh including the “Kankurang
centre there. Apart from the aforementioned places, there is very little else to show tourists.

The National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) has a comprehensive inventory of
historical and cultural sites across the country which the people in those communities hold
dear to their lives.

The GT Board should work with the NCAC,TTAG and other relevant stakeholders to
develop and interpret some of these sites in order to make them visitor friendly. This will
significantly add to the current list of attractions and at the same time help boost rural tourism
with all the positive spinoffs that such an eventuality will create. The TTAG should be central
to this strategic intervention.

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5.2.4Restaurants
There are about 95 Restaurants and bars registered by the GTBoard. They are also an
important pillar of the tourism industry. Many of these arein the Kotu, Bijilo, Kololi and
Bakau/Fajara areas.

Restaurants provide tourists with the opportunity to dine outside of the hotels to a wide
variety of continental and local dishes. They also provide entertainment to tourists in the form
of music as part of their services. In addition, they provide employment to hundreds of
Gambians, particularly between October and April when tourist numbers are high.

A requirement instituted by GTBoard is for restaurants and bars to install Decibel machines
in order to regulate the music to a level not exceeding 80, so as not to cause nuisance to
tourists in nearby hotels as well as to other nearby restaurants because of the close proximity
of these restaurants to each other. The GTBoard periodically carry out random on the spot
checks to ensure that there is compliance to this regulation.

The restaurants, like the hotels are in full business only for seven months of the year, i.e.
between October and April of each year, resulting in many of their employees being laid off
work at the end of April each year.

Because of frequent electricity outages as well as its huge costs, these restaurants’
expenditure on electricity and the constant use of generators remain a big challenge on their
operations. They also complain of high taxes in addition to the payment of operational license
to the GTBoard.

Competition is also high between the restaurants because of their clustered proximity,
resulting at times to some aggressive marketing by their employees. Some of these
restaurants have at times been accused of harbouring prostitutes. The GTBoard Quality
control department and the Tourism Security Unit (TSU) are tasked with monitoring the
situation to put a check to this malaise. Responsible tourism practices remain a cornerstone of
The Gambia’s tourism policy and any actions that negate the cultural norms and values of
Gambian society must be nipped in the bud.

It would therefore be useful for the GTBoard to institute an exclusive regular forum between
it and restaurant proprietors to discuss issues that are of common concern to these restaurants
and the concerns that the GTBoard has, with a view to finding solutions to them.

5.2.5Beach Bars
There exists 24 Beach Bars in the TDA. Beach Bars have always been an integral part of the
tourism industry. They are sprawled across the Atlantic seacoast from Cape point to Gunjur.
Some of these beach bars are of acceptable standards in terms of physical structures, hygiene
and services rendered, but there are many more that left much to be desired. The move in
recent times to demolish a great number of these beach bars by the GTBoard due to either
poor standards or illegal operations is commendable. The rationalization of the location of
these beach bars and their distance to each other is also a good strategic decision. So is the
introduction of three different yet similar prototypes that demolished beach bar owners must

24
now of necessity have to comply with. This will ensure uniformity as well as good standards
in the physical structures of these beach bars.

It is however noted that since approval was granted to several beach bar owners, work on
them have been rather slow; the complaint from most of them being lack of capital to
construct any of the prototypes chosen. Some of these beach bar proprietors have worked in
the industry for many years. In order to empower these beach bar operators, the GTBoard
could help them find some financing mechanism and arrangement that will ensure the timely
completion of the new types of beach bars that it wants sprawled along the coast.

5.2.6Official Tourist Guides

The National Tourist Guide Scheme established in 2000 is a bold and positive step taken by
the Tourism Authorities to:

a) Provide organized and orderly guiding service to tourists

b) Transform young Gambians who were then bumsters to play a positive and dignified
role in the tourism sector by becoming guides.

The GT Board (then Gambia Tourism Authority) provided structured training on a regular
basis.

Today, the national tourist guides have formed themselves into an Association that represents
their interests. They have established their own rules to facilitate their Modus operandi and
they work with hotels to provide their guiding services to tourists.

The challenges highlighted by the National Tourist Guide Association can be found under the
section dealing with the Association.

5.2.7Bird Guides
Destination Gambia is well endowed with over six hundred bird species. The country is
therefore a popular destination for bird watchers from Europe. There are about 68 overbird
guides in the country who possess tremendous knowledge on birds, their sanctuary and
migratory patterns. These guides also speak diverse European languages.

Bird watching is an integral part of The Gambia’s tourism product that must continue to be
supported given its wide appeal.

The recent move by the GTBoard to institutionalize a Bird Watching Festival is a step in the
right direction. Such a festival, if properly marketed and organized, will undoubtedly lure
many more bird watchers to The Gambia.

The GTBoard should therefore follow up vigorously on the modest success of the first
festival to ensure a bigger second edition. In this vein, it is recommended that in addition to
using the conventional marketing strategies that the GTBoard employs, advertisement of the
festival in Bird watching magazines in Europe can yield great dividends. The PR and
marketing Firms contracted by GTBoard can help such an initiative.

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5.2.8Tourist Taxi Drivers
The GT Board, through its Quality Control Department is responsible for the licensingand
regulation of tourist taxis. The GTBoard sets the criteria for licensing and are also responsible
for monitoring and making sure that there is compliance to the regulations.

In the hotel areas, tourist taxis are parked on the side of the streets(with the exception perhaps
of Coral Beach Hotel whose taxis are parked inside their premises) as there are no tourist taxi
car parks in the TDA.

The Senegambia taxis are located in a premises owned by a Gambian businessman, and this
is a temporary measure. In the past, there has been talk of moving the tourist taxis from there
to the land area behind the TSU office on the Bertil Harding Highway, but concrete action is
yet to be seen in this direction.

The tourist taxi drivers have their own association that represent the views and interests of
their members.

The challenges highlighted by the taxi drivers arefound under the section dealing with key
findings of the survey.

5.2.9Air Access
The issue of air access has, over the years, been of primary concern to tourism stakeholders.
As has been noted, Gambian tourism is primarily dependent on chartered flights which bring
tourists mainly during the cold months in Europe, i.e. between October to April. Once those
chartered flights cease, with the exception perhaps of TUI and Gambia Experience who fly
once a week, the tourist arrival numbers drop significantly as is evident in the preceding
statistics showing summer arrivals.

The scheduled airlines that ply the destination all year round is limited to not more than three
airlines.

If the seasonality of Gambian tourism is to be broken, the tourism authorities must work
closely with the GCAA, GIA and other relevant stakeholders to improve the air access
situation by way of luring other airlines to fly the destination. In this regard, the Air Access
Task Force established by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture in the outgoing government
should be reactivated to assiduously work towards improving the air access situation. For
example, Turkish Airlines now fly to over fifteen destinations in Africa, and given The
Gambia’s close bilateral ties with Turkey, efforts should be intensified to get Turkish Airlines
to include Gambia in its list of African countries that they fly to. However, luring more
airlines is not going to be easy given The Gambia’s proximity to Dakar and the edge that the
latter already has in terms of the number of flights that use its airport as a hub. The new
airport being built there could further compound the problem once complete. Moreover,
Dakar has a large expatriate community and is also home to many international conferences
and events.

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This situation begs the question as to whether it is not about time for The Gambia to have its
own aircrafts to ply the West African route for a start and later expand this to other
destinations in Africa and beyond.

The GCAA has established contacts with Turkish, South African and Ethiopian Airlines, but
the feasibility of these airlines including the Banjul route in their flight schedules primarily
depend on the volume of business passenger wise that such an arrangement will yield.
Therefore, improving air access must be matched by introducing new products that will make
destination Gambia a place where many things happen. These range from conferencing
facilities, international sporting events (football, cricket, golf, etc) to duty free shopping mall
and international musical and cultural events (concerts, fashion, beauty pageants and the like)

In attracting airlines, both the GCAA and GIA are more than willing to offer good incentives
in the form of free parking/landing fees or at significantly reduced costs. The GIA on their
part, will be ready to give concessionary rates on handling charges. For instance, the new
airline, Mid Africa that is to be launched in Banjul has been granted fifty percent discount on
handling charges while Brussels Airlines currently enjoy thirty-five percent discount on
handling charges levied by GIA.

In terms of the facilities at the airport, all three GIA Buses are in good condition as are the
baggage carousels, the scanners, check-in conveyor belts and flight screens. The GCAA is
currently engaged in expansion work and the check-in desks at the airport are being increased
to at least six more desks.

In view of the foregoing, there is need for the Ministry of Tourism and Culture and the
Ministry of Works, transport, construction and infrastructure to work closely with their
technical departments and take the necessary strategic measures to improve the air access
situation.

5.2.10Health and Safety

Health and safety are key factors that great attention needs to be paid to

Health and safety is a fundamental requirement that cuts across the broad spectrum of the
tourism industry. All services and activities geared towards the optimum enjoyment of
tourists must satisfy the health and safety requirements as promulgated by the GTBoard. The
quickest way for The Gambia to lose its credibility and rating as a destination of choice is
when food or other services put tourists at risk for want of adequate health and safety
standards. Therefore, both the GTBoard and stakeholders in tourism must continue to work
together to ensure that the health and safety of tourists in all their ramifications are assured.

Thus, the kitchen of all tourism establishments must be environmentally satisfactory and
fitted with state of the art equipment. The health of the employees that work in such
establishments must also be medically certified. They should also be trained and constantly
reminded of the values of hygiene and cleanliness all throughout the service delivery chain.

Comparatively speaking, health and safety standards are higher within TDA1 than in many
tourism establishments in the rural areas. If rural tourism is to receive a big boost, then there

27
is need to improve accommodation facilities and allied services to instil confidence in tourist
visitation and sojourn in rural Gambia.

The GTBoard’s collaboration with the Food safety and quality authority needs to be
actualized to the fullest so that they can effectively monitor health and safety standards in the
TDA, share information and collaborate in defining the criteria as well as the parameters of
health and safety standards in the TDA.

The work of the GTBoard’s Quality Control department is extensive and there is need to
continue to train and also strengthen the capacity of the department to enable it carry out its
responsibilities to the fullest.

In order for GTBoard to raise more awareness of health and safety issues, it is recommended
that an annual awards event to be sponsored by it with the support of stakeholders in tourism
and others in the private sector be instituted so as to induce competition for the highest
standards. This could very well be a fundraising event where awards similar to the one
organized by the GCCI is annually held.

6.0 KEY SURVEY FINDINGS/STAKE HOLDER CONSULTATION

Human Resources play a pivotal role in the success of any institution and the tourism sector
is not an exception. The satisfaction of the numerous visitors to the country with service
delivered in various sectors of the tourism industry is largely dependent of the quality of the
staff.
Tourism is a specialized field and therefore needs professional and highly trained personnel
to meet the expectation of tourists who visit the Gambia. For many years the staff that work
in the industry are usually trained by the Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute(GTHI)
formally Hotel Training School. Institutions that emerged of late are the Institute of Travel &
Tourism of The Gambia (ITTOG),University of the Gambia and some other public and
private institutions delivering hospitality and tourism programmes which were assessed and
accredited by National Training Authority (NTA).
Apart from pockets of excellence an inconsistent level of professionalism affect the tourism
sector which is largely caused by the shortage of vocationally trained human resources
(Spency & Rozga, 2007). The need for strengthening tourism training hopefully would help
in three (3) broad areas namely:-
 Increase efficiency and productivity
 Improve performance
 Become more professional
There is therefore a disconnection between tourism school curricula and the skills needed by
the tourism industry the resultant effect of which is inadequate and in efficient service
delivery. In view of the foregoing there is therefore the need to improve Technical and
vocational education and Training (TVET) delivery to improve service offerings in existing
tourism businesses.

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The curricula at some of the hospitality institutions do not reflect changing trends in terms of
responsiveness expected in the tourism industry. We therefore recommend that the curricular
be redesigned to be in line with changing global trends. The curriculum should be adjusted to
include the following modules.

 Effective Time Management

 Customer Care Ethics,
 Professional Ethics in the Tourism Sector,
 Effective Communication Skills

It is envisaged that the above highlighted modules once incorporated in their curricula will go
a long way to improve the caliber of graduates from these Institutes and be in a better
position to serve the hospitality industry efficiently.

In addition to the above the following technical topics should be included in the training
programmes of these institutions to equip students with requisite technical skills to prepare
them to serve the industry diligently upon graduation with consistent quality services.

6.1Food and Beverage Service

This training will build competences, knowledge and skills in Food and Beverage service
procedures and norms. It will also equip trainees with demonstrable knowledge of menu
styles and courses, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as skills in setting tables
for guests, presenting a menu and taking orders, serving plated meals to table, and clearing
main plates and accompaniments. Once these topics are covered it is envisaged that the role
played by employees in the food and beverage unit will greatly improve.

6.2Food and Safety Hygiene

This module introduces Food Safety & Hygiene knowledge and skills to people working as
kitchen assistants, fruit sellers, cleaners, janitors and other personnel in the industry. The
following topics should be covered in this module.
1. Knowing the importance of food safety to the business.
2. Prevention of cross contamination through personal hygiene
3. Prevention of cross contamination in food preparation
4. Prevention of cross contamination through control of pests
5. Keep a clean kitchen.
6. Requirements of proper food storage.
7. Sources food from safe suppliers.
8. Understanding food safety
9. Chill food safely
10. Freeze food safely
11. Defrost food safely
12. Reheat food safely
13. Prevention of contamination in foods
14. Understanding and dealing with food allergies

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Food preparation and handling is important in the tourism value chain since tourists tend to
explore other different cuisines when they visit the country. It is therefore crucial that
hygienic and safety standards are adhered to at all times in ensuring that tourists are served
clean and healthy food to avoid contamination and resultant health effects.

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6.3Customer Care in Hotels

This module is relevant to a wide range of new entrants and experienced staff. Important
areas to be covered by this training should include the following topics;-
1. Communicating skills
2. Team work
3. Effective time management
4. How to deal with complaints
5. Understanding main components of Tourism industry
Customer care is very important because its effects have the tendency to either grow or kill a
business entirely. A delighted customer or tourist will not only come back or demand the
service but will recommend it to many more would-be customers. The reverse is also true of
poor customer service which undeniably would leave the tourist with a negative impression.
An assessment of the number of tourists visiting the Gambia revealed that a chunk of them
are repeaters which means that their experience has somewhat been a memorable one.
However we must not be complacent.
The following guidelines should also be adopted as part of a customer care strategy.

6.4Deal with the Problem

Things do go wrong but it is important to admit and rectify mistakes. This will build trust and
restore confidence. You can also control the situation, re-focus the customer’s attention and
resolve the issue to their satisfaction.

6.5Follow up

Once a problem is solved follow up is needed to ensure the issue stays solved and that guests
were satisfied with the service. Sending an email, or a feedback survey is a great way to let
the guests or customers know you’re still interested in them.

6.6Allow for feedback

It is very difficult to deal with every customer issue. To make sure you learn about them,
create an easily accessible way for customers to give feedback.

An email survey or a form on the “Contact Us” page of your website, or a “contact us” email
address can be used. However the industry need to find a way of creating a means for
customers to give feedback which can be used to improve service continuously .This will not
only show what and where needs improvement, but also discourages unhappy customers
from commenting negatively in visible places like social media pages. It will also help
highlight strengths and weaknesses, and help get closer to tourists.

Invariably Tourists will be able to see that service providers are dedicated to providing first
class, proactive customer service.

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6.7Inexperience Teachers
The quality of teachers that lecture at the tourism and hospitality institutions is very important
in molding the students who will eventually be produced to serve in the industry. The candid
truth is all most all operators rely heavily on the products of the tourism and hospitality
institutions for staff especially at the lower support function. Given this known fact it is
therefore critical that only technically competent lecturers with the necessary background are
recruited to lecture at these Institutes. This is the only way to guarantee that students who will
eventually be working in the industry will be equipped with the requisite skills set to perform
according to expectations and leaving very long lasting positive impressions on the tourist
they come into contact with. This will invariably delight the tourists which can be a recipe for
another visit and to recommend the destination to others yet to visit. This could also lead to a
boost in the numbers that visit the country thereby help in meeting the earmarked target of
500,000 arrivals by 2020.

6.8Selection/Eligibility Criteria

High standards should be set at entry requirements as part of drive to attract students to the
tourism and hospitality institutions. They must not be a dumping ground for only school
drop outs. A minimum of 5 credits at WASCE including English and Mathematics should be
the benchmark for enrolling students on the tourism courses. This will ensure that only
serious students are attracted.

A good example is in 2013 - following the handing over of the Refurbished GHTI by the
Spanish Government it was realized that the student intake was very low and the Board of
Directors took a decision to double the number of intakes. In ensuring quality output the
eligibility criteria was also upgraded for students with a view to augmenting their standards.

As part of efforts to establish GTHI as Centre of excellence it will be important to build

additional facilities specifically dedicated for apprenticeship training to enable students to
have hands on experience.The practical plaza shall be dedicated purely for teaching practical
aspects like they will find at the hotels. Demos, role plays, simulation exercise in all aspects
of hotel work can be conducted at this exclusively dedicated practical plaza to help equip
students with the requisite technical skills backed by the theoretical knowledge already
acquired on various subject matters. Inthis regard there is the urgent need to look into the
annual subvention of GMD3 million given to GTHI. This can hardly cover its cost.

Similar arrangements could also be explored in other tourism and hospitality institutions so as
to expose their students to practical lesson to enable them have ‘hands on experience’

It has been brought to the attention of the consultants that quality human capital is lacking in
the tourism industry which is having its effects on the performance of the industry. The
current caliber of staff available in the industry does not meet the industry standards
especially for big and renowned hotels. This is a major challenge in the tourism industry that
needs to be urgently addressed to improve the level of service delivery and boost tourism
numbers

Human Capital is greatly lacking in the tourism industry, but that notwithstanding some
hotels like Senegambia pride themselves with service excellence. This is due to the fact that
Senegambia and some other hotels stand out as one of those hotels that regularly train their

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staff through partnership arrangements with Triple M before the commencement of the
tourism season in the form of refresher courses.

This is a very good arrangement which should be reciprocated by other hotels to improve the
level of service delivery. The smaller hotels may not be in a position to fly in trainers into the
country to provide similar training but could identify local expertise and get them to train
their staff to ensure improvement in the quality of service delivery.

The building of capacity is crucial in boosting tourism in the Gambia in the face of tense
competition from other destinations which, currently excels in conference tourism which
could also be expanded by the Gambia as part of a strategic move in product development.

Tourism is so dynamic that employees in the sector should be exposed to continuous training
to keep them abreast of developments in the industry. This is the surest way of ensuring
service excellence in the industry.Interestingly 90% of all hotel employees are seasonal staff
which justifies the need to organize refresher programmes to keep them abreast of changing
trends in the tourism industry.

We have been informed during interviews that the official tourist guides even though have an
organizational structure in place do not have an institution that has oversight responsibility
for the organization. They operate on their own and try asbest as possible to regulate
themselves which has tendencies to dilute standards. Since the Official Tourist Guides
(OTGs) interface with tourists it is absolutely necessary that the Gambia Tourism Board
organize regular training for the OTGs to provide them with basic broad based knowledge
and ensure that they operate strictly within standards sets by the Gambia Tourism Board. The
Official Tourist Guides’ survival is largely dependent on the hotels but according to them
their operations are restricted as they are not allowedto work closely with Ground Tour
Operators to conduct excursions and city tours on board their buses. The OTGs strongly
believe that their role is being usurped by the
GTOs.

6.9 Taxi Drivers Association

The Taxi Drivers Association during our consultation expressed certain constraints which
needs to be addressed to enable them contribute effectively in boosting tourism in The
Gambia. The issue of lack of garage facility was raised by them. They need a designated
parking lot.

Ferry crossing has also been highlighted as a major constraint. Taxis usually spend precious
time at both crossing points i.e. Banjul/Barra due to the relatively slow ferries. The long
waiting time usually spent during crossing times is a frustration to tourists and could be a
recipe for negative experience which could have serious implications on the country image.In
view of the foregoing frantic efforts should be made to explore opportunities to ease ferry
crossings for tourist taxi drivers. We recommend that in the interim the management of
ferry services consider issuing priority crossing for taxi drivers when they travel with
tourist.

To encourage more upcountry visits and rural tourism eco tourism should be developed and
attractions sites properly maintained to enrich tourist visitor experience. Many tourists upon

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visit will like to relay country experience to friends and loved ones and even recommend the
destination in the event their experience is good. They also have the opportunity to
discourage potential visitors to visit destination Gambia due to negative experience. In view
of the foregoing we recommend that GTBoard urgently engage stakeholders and develop
cultural heritage sites and eco tourist camps to attract cultural tourist who are usually big
money spenders.

6.9National Tourist Guide Association (NTGA)

The National Tourist Guide Association is responsible for taking tourist on journey to visit
places of interest. They are registered with the Gambia Tourism Board (GTB) and contribute
in no small measure in enhancing tourists experience by conducting visitor guides which
form a crucial component of tourist visits. In our consultations with them regarding what is
needed to boost tourism and enhance their work for operational efficiency, we were informed
of their frustration especially with the hotels regarding sensitization on tourist arrivals. The
absence of a link between them and the hotels and of information on tourist arrivals affects
their preparedness to offer exceptional service especially when they are taken by surprise. To
avoid this kind of situation they call for an effective collaboration between them and the
hotels as they view the tourist as everyone’s responsibility to make them happy.

Given the crucial role played by NTGA it is important that training is regularly organized for
them by GTBoard. It is envisaged that this training will provide them with useful and updated
country information which they in turn can share with tourists during guide tours. Given their
close interface with tourists it is absolutely important that all the information they give tourist
must be accurate and based on facts. The GTBoard should ensure that this happens out of
interest.

6.10 Tourism and Travel Association of The Gambia (TTAG)

The Tourism and Travel Association of the Gambia expressed the need for a new fleet of
vehicles but pointed out the financial constraints they are faced with. The only option
available to them is to secure a bank loan to purchase any additional new fleet needed.
However the high interest rates usually charged by banks are a disincentive to further
investment in this area.

The educational level of personnel working for the TTAG also leaves much to be desired.
Therefore there is an urgent need to augment the capacity of the personnel through the
introduction of suitable training programmes.

According to the TTAG it is crucial to encourage animal husbandry and horticultural farming
so that the food supply chain is enhanced rather than rely on imported food always. This is
the surest way of lowering operational costs and thus becoming price competitive.

Further they opined that GTBoardshould endeavour to attract brand named hotel chains who
will invest in building big hotels that will be in a position to increase arrival volumes and thus
eventually promote all year round tourism due to their big bed capacity.

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In addition they also expressed concern about the current high taxes and appealed for
reduction in order to attract investors. The Association also suggests for investment to be
made by government in infrastructural development such as bridges, bigger access roads and
road linkages connecting different places for easy of movement.

The TTAG is also of the view that only those who have the ability to promote the Gambia as
a destination should attend tourism fares. In that regard they pointed out that the excessive
numbers that visit these fairs should be reduced considerably to cut on cost and make savings
which can be used to invest in other areas of need within the tourism sector.

In order to attract high spending tourists TTAG believes that more scheduled airlines should
be attracted in addition to creating a boulevard with shopping centres to attract tourists and
cater for their shopping needs. Cruise boats can be equally launched to cruise the river
Gambia and take tourist on excursions to enrich their holiday experience.

7.0 STRATEGIC INTERVENTIONS TO BOOST THE TOURISM INDUSTRY

The needs assignment study commissioned by The Gambia Tourism Board aimed at the
revitalisation of tourism under the New Gambia ushered by Gambians under a coalition
Government has delivered liberty to the nation that was under siege for 22 years and is now
poised to deliver prosperity to Gambians. In this connection the strategic importance of the
tourism sector cannot be overemphasised.Strategic plans are designed to impact favourably
the key factors on which the desired positive outcomes are implemented in a progressive and
sustainable manner.

It is evident from our analysis and observations of Tourism Masterplan as enumerated

hereunder was not implemented since it was finalised, consequently, the tourism potential of
The Gambia has not grown exponentially. This unfortunate turn of events lends credence to
the belief that The Gambia leads the continent in terms of sound socio- economic policies,
projects and programmes, but regrettably, those policies are never implemented and there
does not exist a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to track and ensure the effectiveness
and efficiency of policies at both micro and macro levels of economic development. Hence
the need to reinstate the key recommendation from the tourism Masterplan and commend
them to the new authorities for consideration and priority and sustained implementation.

TSIP 1
Affordable Luxury- Positioning Gambia as preferred destination for tourist goods.

Rationale
The Gambia has had an enviable track record as an enviable entrepôt economic flagship as a
shopping destination for the region, this comparative advantage has eroded overtime but can
be reclaimed given its geographic and strategic location. The Airport can serve as a possible
mini Dubai for West Africa and an emerging destination for tourist shopping, a major
attraction for the affluent Nigerian tourist as well as the middle class that is growing rapidly
within the ECOWAS Region.

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The cruise ship experience can also benefit the artisanal sector of The Gambia as obtains in
the Caribbean Islands and East Africa especially Kenya.

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Actions
Develop project documents and interest major outlet brand and dedicated Airport duty free
shopping enterprises to explore opportunities abound in the New Gambia under a reenergised
GT Board in concert with GCAA.

Funding
Several funding agencies both local, bilateral and multilateral institutions have visited the
New Gambia and expressed keen enthusiasm to fund development and sustainable projects.

Impact
International shopping is an experience for international tourists and serve as an impetus to
generate artisanal businesses and spur the growth of the latent creative industries.

TSIP2 2
The Gambia is blessed with an abundance of biodiversity and is recognised worldwide for the
wide variety of bird species and marine diversity and famous for gorillas and monkeys and
hippopotamus species which are major attractions for tourists. The monkey park at The Bijilo
Forest in closed proximity to the major tourism cluster of the SeneGambia area is largely
under-utilised. This dedicated monkey park could be fully utilised and modelled after the
Monkey Park located in Stoke on Trent in the United Kingdom.

Moving forward, New Gambia can aim to be one of the best presenters of biodiversity in
West Africa. Likewise the Abuko Nature Reserve which used to be a national treasure for
wildlife conservation should be restored to its former glory as well as harness the vast
potential of Kiang National Park amongst others across the country.

Actions
The Ministry of the Environment in concert with GTBOARD should aggressively and
purposely benchmark the forest parks and aim to attract quality investors to harness this vast
potential of our bio diversity with the knowledge that tourists are increasingly being attracted
to Nature and Wildlife as experienced in East and South Africa.

Funding
The funding agencies interested in the preservation and conservation of nature are numerous
and are all poised to help countries along these lines particularly within the context of the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Impact
The impact of Nature Tourism could be quite substantial and has the added advantage of
assisting communities to benefit sustainably through conservation of nature and wildlife. The
Gambia's pioneering and leadership renowned the world over as demonstrated at Makasutu
and Sandele should be replicated.

TSIP 3
The Gambia River described by most as The Majestic River Gambia with its rich fauna and
flora remains one of the most under-utilised comparative resources bestowed on The Gambia.
This unfortunate situation must be reversed as a matter of importance and top most priority.

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The major driver of tourist to Egypt apart from the ancient Pyramids is the River Nile,
considered less majestic than the River Gambia, it is therefore imperative to New Gambia to
maximise the vast tourism potential of the River.

Actions
To leverage on the potential of the River and in recognition of the natural fact that The
Gambia is divided through it length and breadth a the Atlantic Ocean or the River Gambia, it
is imperative for River transport to be given its pride of place within the National Transport
Masterplan and four bridges to be provided at critical crossing points as currently taking
place at Trans Gambia , this would certainly boost tourism and open up rural Gambia for
exploration and rural development with multiplier linkages abound in all sectors of the
economy required for accelerated transformation as desired by New Gambia.

Funding
The investment required could be harnessed from private investors as well as from innovative
financing instruments through strategic public/private partnerships mechanisms abound.

Impact
The progressive and sustainable development of the River Gambia will impact positively the
tourism sector and have a salutary effect with significant impacts on the Rural Economy.

TSIP 4- Family Fun Theme Parks

Family fun theme parks have increased in popularity as an annual family tourism vacation of
choice taking the lead in this endeavour was the innovative and pioneering resorts
developments by Walt Disney of Micky Mouse. Theme parks have now mushroomed to all
corners of the world and serve as pacesetters for family tourism especially during the summer
school holidays; This is a segment that offers tremendous potential particularly for the
emerging youthful population in Africa that are increasingly achieving middle class status.
Opportunities in this niche target market should be explored especially within the scenic and
natural environment is diverse places of The Gambia.

Actions
To realise the potential, New Gambia can develop existing coastal destinations and try to
emulate the Orlando experience in Florida and even closer home the experience of
MagicLand in Senegal, despite the fact the initiative of Dreamland in The Gambia under the
previous Government was not sustained.

Funding
The Public Private Partnership models of innovative financing ushered in by the Ministry of.
Finance and Economic Affairs would serve as enticing mechanisms to realise new projects
into the tourism sector.
Impact
Given the youthful demographics emerging around the world and indeed in The Gambia, this
initiative might have the desired impact within our tourism landscape going forward.

TSIP 5 - High End & Business Tourism

The high end and business tourism currently represent a small segment of overall tourism in
The Gambia, however, the potential for this segment is enormous if specifically targeted by
the industry players Meetings Incentives Conferences and Exhibition (MICE) is a niche
market that has been developed in developed countries and opportunities are abound to

38
harness the smiling coast as a MICE destination of choice.It is noteworthy to indicate that
delegates to MICE activities spend up to three times more than non business tourists and
furthermore most business tourists eventually return as regular tourists.

The need to attract high end spending tourists and business tourists must however be
complemented with adequate and frequency of air access to destination New Gambia.

Actions
Priorities high end tourism and MICE as a major initiative and develop the systems and
structure to strategically take maximum advantage of this all important segment of tourism.
Collaboration with GCCI to promote MICE could yield significant results.

Funding
Again the PPP innovative financing models and targeted investment promotion activities
could attract funding aimed at the realisation of the important initiative.

Impact
Collaboration with the Business Community under the GCCI could result in the realisation of
a World Trade Centre for the ECOWAS Region that would yield multiplier economic
benefits across all the value chains of socio - economic development.

TSIP 6 - Educational Tourism

The strategic location of The Gambia surrounded by Francophone countries and Habib regard
to the fact that English is the language of business offers tremendous opportunities for
educational tourism that has so far not been harnessed. This natural advantage combined with
The Gambia's enviable reputation for peace and stability augurs well for educational tourism
within the ambit of the fact that the world has now entered the Knowledge Age. It is therefore
imperative to reposition The Gambia to take advantage of this unique opportunity and to aim
to purposefully target and attract institutions of higher learning to establish in The New
Gambia. The University of The Gambia and other tertiary institutions already established can
serve a nucleus and hopefully develop a nucleus Knowledge Zone similar to the Knowledge
village in Dubai.

Actions
Establish a deliberate policy to encourage existing institutions currently operating in The
Gambia and endeavour to attract major institutions that already have a trajectory of opening
up offshore campuses as Global Universities to use The New Gambia as a Knowledge hub
for international students and thereby offer choice and enhanced prospects for Gambian
students as well.
Funding
The PPP models of financing and aggressive and targeted investment promotion will yield
the desired results.

Impact
The impact of quality education is a sin qua non for rapid socio- economic emancipation and
development, it is therefore necessary for the tourism landscape to be expanded to include
educational tourism as a specialty niche market.

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TSIP 7- Medical Tourism
The adage that Health is Wealth has created the niche market around the world now referred
to as Medical Tourism of which India is now a destination of choice as well as Cuba; The
New Gambia can also be repositioned to develop her credentials along those lines using the
Horizon Super Specially Hospital being built within the Tourism Development Area and
financed by the African Development Bank as an anchor for starters. Prospecting mission by
Indian Hospitals to establish in The Gambia over the last few years were not logically
followed up resulting in those initiative being established in other West African Countries.
The possibility now exist to aggressively pursue medical tourism as a potential niche to
expand our tourism in a holistic manner.

Actions
The Medical Universities and research institutions of International repute and standing like
the Medical Research Council certainly have the pedigree to serve as magnets for super
specialty hospitals and medical and alternative medical treatment centres to use New Gambia
as a Hub for Medical Tourism.

Funding
The innovative PPP models of financing and targeted investment promotion mission could
yield the desired results for this emerging niche market. The Africa Export Import Bank
having realised the potential for Medical Tourism has established a dedicated financing
instrument exclusively for this purpose.

Impact
The impact of Medical Tourism could certainly create a unique opportunity to grow our
tourism arrivals and more importantly also provide medical services that hitherto had to be
obtained overseas at a premium.

TSIP 8 - Development of Sports & Spa Resorts

The sports and spa tourism business has grown by leaps and bounds and destinations
particularly in Asia have carved a niche a spa treatments and wellness, in addition, the world
is only united in Sports , therefore, opportunities in the sports and wellness segment of
tourism cannot be overemphasised.

New Gambia has a golden opportunity to take advantage of by developing its sporting
infrastructures to entice and use the destination for training as well as to establish sports
academies in addition to a very proactive approach to organising sporting competitions in a
coherent and sustainable manner.The pride of place earned by Gambians in the field of sports
participation and management at international level should be harnessed to develop this niche
tourism segment.

Actions
GT Board should engage the National Sports Council, Gambia National Olympic Committee
and selected sporting associations to develop sports tourism as a niche market.

Funding
The innovative financing instruments under PPP and targeted investment promotion activities
could yield the desired results.

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Impact
The impact of sports tourism is exponential and will also harness the energy of our youths
and provide them with opportunities to develop and excel as well as nurture solidarity for self
worth in pursuit of excellence.

TSIP 9 - Development of Golf Course to International Standard

The sport of Golf is a major attraction and high end spenders and a networking event for
investment and business promotion recognised as such the world over. Given its unique
advantage, there is a need to explore ways and means of gradually and systematically
development Golf as a tourism niche in New Gambia. This could be realised through a
partnership approach with Fajara Golf Club and or to identify and develop an 18-hole Golf
Course along the scenic and serene coastline of The Gambia.

Actions
Priorities the development of an International Golf Course as a veritable instrument to attract
high end tourists and to position New Gambia in the Golf calendar of events of choice
overtime.

Funding
Again the PPP models of financing and targeted investment promotion activities could yield
the desired outcome for financing of this niche market.

Impact
The impact of Golf into our tourism infrastructure would yield salutary results and help grow
and diversity of tourism product.

TSIP 10
The Gambia has a very strategic and position in relation to Air Travel which regrettably has
not yet being fully maximised in relation to its landing rights to the USA with a flight
distance of about 6 - 7 hours , the same obtains for flights to most European destinations and
also to Brazil.

The flight time to most of the surrounding countries like Senegal; Guinea Bissau- Guinea
Conakry and Sierra Leone are between 25 minutes to 50 minutes.Banjul International Airport
can be repositioned as a hub and spokes airport of choice for West Africa with a feeder to
Leopold Sedar Senghore & Blaise Diagne International Airport.

Actions
GT Board should engage with GCAA, GIA and private sector operators to reinvent and
revitalise Banjul International Airport as a preferred Gateway for International travel as
Global Travel Hotspot.

Funding
The PPP model of innovative financing and targeted investment promotion activities could be
harnessed to realise this objective.

Impact

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The accelerated development of Banjul International Airport is a sin qua non for the
exponential growth and development of tourism in New Gambia targeting half a billion
tourists arrivals within a decade.

TSIP - 11 - Proactive Tourism in Source Markets

The number of tourist arrivals is directly correlated to the level and intensity of marketing
promotion for the destination. The promotion and advertising of Destination Gambia should
continuously be revamped and reenergised utilising new marketing and innovative tools
abound. The Gambian Mission should going forward have dedicated tourism attaches to
selected diplomatic missions to purposefully and aggressively promote Destination New
Gambia.

Actions
Develop a strategic road map for tourism promotion and marketing and target 10 percent of
GT Board revenues for direct marketing of destination New Gambia.

Funding
The innovative models of financing and targeted investment promotion activities could yield
desired results.

Impact
Tourism is a major driver of economic growth and prosperity with beneficial multiplier
effects for economic development and transformation, hence its promotion and effective and
efficient marketing will significantly impact New Gambia and Gambians.

8.0RECOMMENDATIONS
In addition to the above there is need to pursue the construction of a state of the art
conference centre to enable the destination attract visitors who come for conference
purposes.

Introduce Sports Tourism by the GTBoard and other stakeholders working with the
Ministry of Youth and Sports, the National Sports Council and the sporting associations
to promote and develop international sporting tournaments/competition especially
during the summer season.

Promote cultural and artistic tourism by promoting international musical shows art
exhibitions and festivals {rebrand and revisit the modus operandi of the International
Roots festival given its relevance to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and Juffureh /Kunta
KintehIsland (Alex Haley story to be capitalised on) and the fact that it has held some
grip here over the years.

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