The Ministry of Tourism and Culture in partnership with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) recently held a two-day statistical building workshop at the Kairaba Beach Hotel.
The forum was attended by senior government officials, particularly from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Gambia Tourism Board and officials from the UNWTO.
Delivering the opening remarks, Fatou Mass Jobe-Njie, Minister of Tourism and Culture, said this training course is for the first-ever high-level capacity building workshop, and was conceived and designed to principally horn the skills of participants on the best methodologies in terms of collection, production and reporting of tourism statistics and related data.
The minister added that, at the same time, the capacity development initiative will also serve as a platform to share best practice in terms of tourism data management, and standard operating procedures in this regard.
“This is as a result of the positive response by the UNWTO, which has graciously agreed to extend technical assistance to The Gambia with a view to evaluating the current state of tourism data and statistics in the country under its National Statistical Capacity Building Programme,” she announced.
According to the Tourism Minister, the workshop is one of a series of activities to be conducted under the aegis of the UNWTO, with a view to addressing the capacity gaps and build institutional capacity in the area of tourism statistics and the development of a robust System of Tourism Statistics, STS.
She said that this would help to measure the economic and social dimension of the tourism sector, and particularly its economic impact through the elaboration of a Tourism Satellite Account.
“This is essential to fully understand the economic impact of tourism to the Gambia economy, and to facilitate research based policy, strategic planning and marketing initiatives,” she added.
