Seventy students recently graduated at the Institute for Travel and Tourism of The Gambia (ITTOG) after completing their course in good standing.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony held at the Joint Officers Mess in Kotu, the principal of the school, Sheikh Tejan Nyang, thanked the parents and sponsors, who have shown trust and confidence in them, to share professional knowledge and skill with their children.
He stressed that his team will continue to do their best to maintain their reputation of producing the best students in professional tourism education.
He pointed out that the institute started in 2008, and in that particular year they enrolled 23 students, who all graduated with good grades.
In her remarks, the guest speaker of the occasion, the Minister of Tourism and Culture, Aja Fatou Mass Jobe, expressed gratitude to ITTOG for building the human resource base of the country.
According to her, currently there is a significant number of institutions offering high quality international standard courses in almost all aspects of the hospitality sector and the ITTOG is a shining example in this area.
This, she says, is an encouraging development that people tend to ignore or even take for granted when dilating on the strides that have been made in the tourism sector since the few batch of Scandinavian tourists landed on the Gambian shores in 1965.
The tourism minister added that the Gambian government under the dynamic leadership of President Jammeh will continue to support and encourage tourism education in both public and private institutions.
Minister Jobe also advised the graduands to ‘find their target and aim at it and endeavour to hit at it at all cost.’ She further admonished them to be patient, honest and disciplined to get to their chosen destination.
Other speakers on the occasion included the chairman, board of directors of the institute, Adama Bah, and the vice-principal of South Nottingham College in the UK, John Grey.