In
the previous segment of this series, focus was on the search for the ideal
tourist, followed by another piece on the tourism product and the range and scope
of these products were outlined with emphasis on those products that blend our
staples, beverage, local charm, seafood to produce a cocktail of wonderful
tourism experience and it was pointed out that products anchored on our fauna
and flora have also have been given pride of place and the maiden international
birding festival was cited as a success story in the drive to develop niche
tourism.
This
latest piece will focus on the milestones - the significant events and
initiatives that shaped the destiny of Gambia Tourism.
From
Groundnut Colony to Tourism Destination
It
could be recalled that Gambia was rightly called the “groundnut colony” in
pre-independence days and this was mainly because of our over dependence on
agriculture as the central plank of the national economy. However with
independence this changed dramatically and the Government of the day saw the
need to diversify the economy and tourism was identified as a viable means to
diversify and decongest our over reliance on agriculture. First things first
and the Government of the day stated by gradually putting in place the
appropriate legislation, institutional frameworks, infrastructure and consciously cultivated and nurtured a
positive image of the country anchored on a very outgoing and open foreign
policy to kick start tourism.
According
to reliable sources tourism as we know it today was sparked by accident in 1965
when Mr Bertil Harding stumbled over the Gambia en-route to the Canary Islands.
He fell in love and by October 1967 Mr. Harding flew in the first batch of air
chartered package tourists under the aegis of Vingressor - a tour operator,
later to be known as My Travel and today operating under the Thomas Cook brand.
Invariably from this humble beginnings in the mid 1960s destination Gambia has
gradually evolved in to a major tourism destination. Accordingly the Government of the day put in
place various strategies to support the development of tourism including
infrastructural development such as the upgrading of the airport and the demarcation
of the Tourism Development Area. The next level is the crafting of appropriate
legislation and regulations to regularize tourism development as well the
emerging tourism enterprises and hospitality outfits. This led to the
promulgation of series of legislations such as the Hotel Regulations Act as
well as the Restaurant Act.
Institutional
Development
Given
the rapid growth of tourism since its inception, the Government of the day felt
the need to create the requisite institutions to serve as the regulatory arms
of Government and to promote the Government agenda for a more sustained and
coordinated tourism development.
Thus
in 1970, the first Tourist Office under the President’s Office and the Tourism
Liaison Board were established to provide a controlled and coordinated
mechanism for industry. To crown these developments, the Government established
the Ministry of Tourism –another major milestone and fully recognizing the
importance of tourism as viable and promising sector. At the time it became
abundantly clear that “Tourism whatever its scale or nature, has become an
undeniable fact of modern life. It is a firmly established and significant
factor of economic development throughout the world, and in view of its social
character, the Tourism phenomenon is constantly evolving”.
The
reasons behind the growth of tourism are many and varied however the most
notable range from change from work oriented to leisure oriented societies,
reduced working hours and the desire to break from the daily routine, expansion
of public transport, and improved mobility, increasing income and growing
wealth and last but not the least growing ratio of senior citizens versus
working population. The last point is particularly very relevant for
destination Gambia to date given that the latest authoritative survey 2016 revealed that a significant chunk of tourists
73% of visitors to the Smiling
Coast are within the age bracket of 40
years of age of which 44% are below 40 – 64 years and 29% were 65 years or
above.
Assault
on Democracy and Impact on Tourism
In
1994, a military coup toppled the democratically elected government. The UK
reacts with a travel advisory and warned of the volatility of the Gambia,
followed by other countries. Consequently most tour operators pulled out of the
Gambia within 24 hours, bringing the industry close to its knees. The good news
was that the specialist Gambia Tour operator – the Gambia Experience stayed,
thus effectively giving the industry a lifeline during this crisis. However,
overall the sector witnessed challenges during this dark period as the
international goodwill evaporates with declining standards in human rights and
good governments.
However,
within this period the need to craft a tourism policy was felt and accordingly
various processes were put in place by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture and
this culminated in the launching of the National Tourism Policy 1995- 2005.
This was a major milestone and some years later a tourism colleague commented
that “the policy was indeed all embracing and relevant, and the only mistake
was to put a time line on it”.
To
celebrate the 30 years of tourism in 1995, the National Tourism Week was rolled
out and this galvanized the industry and raised the profile of tourism. The
following year the Roots Homecoming Festival was unveiled to target the
Africans in the Diaspora and also to serve as strategy to prolong the season.
The objective and the lofty ideals embedded in the Roots Festival are still
very relevant and with a bit of fine tuning and overhaul of organizational
modus operandi the Roots Festival can be used in our marketing strategy to
entice and appeal to certain micro segments such as culture seekers, ethnic
tourists and history buffs. These segments within the leisure category are looking
for a more loaded experience and drawn by their desire to rediscover their
roots and interested by how other people express their culture via distinctive
customs, food, art, music, and this fits in neatly with the vision and mission
of Roots.
Rise
and fall of FTI
The
Roots Homecoming Festival was a good omen for Gambia Tourism because in the
same year business picks up well with package tourists surging to all time high
of 96,126. The major contributing factor in this surge was the emergence of a
major German Tour operator to the scene – Frost Touristic International (FTI)
with 4 weekly flights and this was indeed a golden era of Gambian tourism with
FTI dominating the tourism landscape and also became well known for the
introduction of the ill conceived All Inclusive tourism at the Siva Sun Beach
Hotel formerly Sunwing in the heart of Bakau. This tour operator was also
credited for undertaking very meaningful corporate social responsibility
projects mainly in Bakau and was also instrumental in organizing a beach
musical splash the highlight of which was the life performance of the late
reggae star Lucky Dube in 1999. However in 2000 FTI ran in to problems and
tourist arrivals dropped significantly.
In
2001 FTI ceases operations and completely depriving the Gambia of one of the
most largest and lucrative markets in Europe (Germany), thus reducing the
number of tourist arrivals.
In
2001 a major milestone was recorded and the Gambia Tourism Authority was set up
by an Act of The National Assembly as a one stop shop to develop, regulate and
promote the tourism industry in the Gambia. The Authority kicked off on a high
note and even though according to the master plan the Authority could not fully
tap in to its promise and potentials, but was a step in the right direction and
was a major improvement on its predecessor – The National Tourist Office. Lack
of stability at top level, including weak leadership and excessive executive
interference in its modus operandi were the main causes of its decline and
eventual fall.
The
September terrorist attacks were a bad omen for tourism globally as tourism
facilitation became constrained and travel phobia became the order of the day,
thus the tourism industry bears the brunt.
Renewed
Optimism
2002/2004
investors saw massive interest in
tourism, most hotels were refurbished including the Sun Beach Hotel, Kairaba
Beach Hotel , Ocean Bay Hotel, Sunset Beach Hotel and the Al Kharafi Group
invested in the 5 star Sheraton Hotel, thus raising the profile of Gambia’s
international bed stock and raising the figures to7000. Other hospitality
outfits such as the Corinthian Atlantic was taken over by the Libyans and
transformed it into Laico Atlantic. The Libyans further went on an investment
spree to develop Jerma Beach Hotel, Liptis and the Nigerian also showed some
interest and invested in the Banna Beach Hotel and renamed Mansea Resorts. In
the area of Eco-tourism which was increasing gaining prominence, this was given
a boost with the unveiling of the award winning Makasutu Culture Forest. This
world renowned eco- lodge was a major boost in terms of genera rating good
publicity for the Gambia. This was preceded by the launching of an Eco- Tourism
Strategy in 2003/. The Sandele Eco – Retreat also made a proud entrance.
The
Tourism Development Master Plan was completed in 2005 and submitted to Cabinet
through appropriate channels. The blue print undertook a comprehensive
evaluation of the industry and charts a way forward. In my view this has been a
living document and its relevance cannot be overemphasized in the sustainable
development of tourism. Did it need fine tuning? Certainly, at the same time
tourism stakeholders launched the Responsible Tourism Policy in April 2015 to
serve as another blue print for sustainable tourism development and this was
indeed a milestone,
In February 2010 the Hotel Classification
Programme was finally launched and true to GTAs mandate of promoting,
regulating and guiding the tourism industry to its zenith, this marked the
official rolling out of the first ever hotel classification scheme, with
technical assistance from the Netherlands Foundation. On the auspicious
occasion the then Minister of Tourism pointed out “that with hotel
classification, good customer service delivery can be assured, a scenario which
will play a crucial role in determining whether visitors repeat their Gambia
experience.”
The
Smiling Coast in quest to cement its reputation as a MICE destination –
(Meetings, Incentives, conferences and Exhibition Centre) hosted the 35th
Congress of the Africa Travel Association in high profile fashion and this
convergence attracted participants from far and wide including from the sub
region, and he USA. The congress was rated a resounding success and in my
humble view the highlight was the trip to the Land of Roots in Juffureh and
Kunta Kinteh Island and the fanfare and ambience was indeed captivating
including the wrath laying ceremony whereby each participant was given a
calabash with flowers and these were thrown in the River Gambia as a tribute to
all the victims of the infamous slave trade.
Then
came the reforms and the objective of which was to reengineer and transform the
Gambia Tourism Authority to the GTBoard in 2011. The official reason was that
the GTA over time was defocused and there was the urgent need to put in place a
more focused institution to focus on destination marketing as its core
mandate., Accordingly the GTBoard Act was promulgated, and the birth of the
GTBoard as the latest institution tasked with the mandate to promote, develop,
and regulate tourism was actualized
The
Scourge of Ebola - “Guilt by Association”
The
Ebola epidemic derailed the forward march of Tourism in destination in
2014-2015 as the destination became “guilty by association” given that not a
single case of Ebola was ever reported in this country, but our location in the
affected sub-region was not a blessing. Thus tourist numbers plummet and
tourism as an industry bore the brunt. This notwithstanding the International
Fishing Competition as well as the Food and Beverage Festival were consolidated
in the calendar of events as well as select community festivals.
Signs
of a robust recovery were looming in the horizon in 2016, especially after the
launching of the International Birding Festival in Tendaba by the GTBoard, on
the eve of the winter season but all that came to a halt with the protracted
political impasse. Given susceptibility of tourism to unrest, history was gain
repeated when travel advises were issued by home governments of the tour
operators and overnight all tourists deserted the Smiling Coast. With the
tourists gone, hotels empty and no sign of peaceful breakthrough to the impasse
“the people of the Smiling Coast, who for more than five decades have been
hosting and putting a smile on their face and that of their visitors had to
abandon their beloved country and became refugees in neighboring countries-
thus the Smiling Coast became” the Crying Coast” for a brief period, and
normalcy was restored, thus ushering in the new Gambia.
New
Gambia Reforms
The
new Gambia is undergoing a transformation and myriad of reforms are in the
pipeline to overhaul an undo 22 years of autocratic rule. That governance style
impacted terribly on tourism as a hospitality industry and “our image has been
battered for reasons well known to us all’. The country was isolated, tour
operator fatigue became the order of the day as most international tour
operators downscaled operations or ceased operations completely and the
industry bore the brunt of this disengagement. The good news is that the
authorities of the new Gambia are cognizant of the key role of the tourism
industry and its elevation to the level of a strategic sector will not be out
of order. Reforms touching on improving good governance, open foreign policy
and improvement of human rights including constitutional and institutional
reforms are laudable as these will impact on tourism positively, given that
tourism thrives on good publicly and image.
Having
said that I would like to humbly remind our new authorities that gone were the
days when nations count on their natural endowments and attractions to spur
tourism. Most Tourism destinations have wonderful natural attractions, but they
have gone a step further to not only create the conducive environment for
tourism to thrive through direct investment such as Cape Verde (one of our
competing destinations), but also deliberately put in place strategies and pro-
tourism incentives and strategies to serve as fertilizer for the growth of
tourism, ranging from developing air access, overall travel facilitation. and
addressing product obsolescence A case
in point is the fact that the portfolio of aviation is under the purview of the
Ministry of Tourism in Senegal to underscore its significance in the scheme of
things.. Another area that needs urgent attention is high energy costs for the
sector and by extension high cost of aviation fuel and high tax burden on
tourism business units across the board and to up the efforts in marketing.
The
author Lamin Saho is a tourism and marketing consultant and was formerly Senior
Tourism Officer (National Tourist Office)-2000- 2002. Former Director of
Marketing, GTA/GTBoard/ (2006-2012) and briefly served as Director of Planning,
Ministry of Tourism & Culture (2012)
Lamin Saho
