The Gambia is one of the regular faces in the World Travel Market to promote the destination. It continues to make its footmark at this second largest market.
The Gambian contingent was led by Honourable Hamat NK Bah, the minister for Tourism and Culture and was accompanied by Aboubacarr S. Camara, director general of the Gambia Tourism Board, Adama Njie, director of Tourism Promotion, UK, Senior officials of GTBoard, Sulayman Suntu Touray, deputy head of Mission at the Gambia High Commission in London and tourism stakeholders from Gambia Tours, ITTOG, Kunta Kinteh Beach Complex among others.
At the ongoing convergence, Mr. Charbel Hobeika, managing director of the Gambia Tours and partners in The Gambia who met some of the new and old partners that his company had been working with couple of years, commented on the achievements derived from the meeting.
Among the achievements are “we were able to meet old business partners and we also achieved meeting and getting new companies and potential clients for The Gambia from different source markets that are interested in our destination.”
“If what we have seen and discussed becomes positive, we are hoping that it will be very good not only for this ongoing season but hopefully for 2024/2025 onward,” he disclosed. He added that this year more people attended the market summit.
“This year more countries are showcasing their products with lots of activities and here The Gambia has a nice stand in the Africa Hall and people are visiting us and it is looking really good,” he noted.
Besides, Mr Hobeika also noted that the British market formed the majority numbers of tourist arrivals in The Gambia with over 40%, while The Gambia Experience, a very old partner and TUI UK started not very long ago arriving Destination Gambia with four flights a week and The Gambia Experience doing 2/3 frequencies a week “which is good from the UK market”.
“But there is still space to have more flights from these companies because they have the capacity and I would not be surprised if TUI UK might want to add one or two more flights to the destination for next year because the demand is there and they have the flights; though it is all about business,” he explained.
Sarjo Suwareh, a Front Desk Officer at the Kunta Kinteh Beach Complex, commended The Gambia Tourism Board for hosting the stakeholders at the WTM, adding that WTM provides an opportunity for every country that can participate. “It is a place to promote your products and what you offer to the world to know.”
At the stand, Mr Suwareh also met some new and old interested partners to Kunta Kinteh Beach Complex.
