Liane Burger-Sallah, CEO of African Adventure Tours who admitted that tourism in The Gambia for over a year is dead stated that, tourism in the coming winter season which is due in October will be okay and promising, as “people want to travel because people are tired of been locked up for over a year.”
According to her, one of the regular chartered flights to The Gambia(Corendon Airlines) is very positive to resume flying to the Smiling Coast “in October with one flight a week and from November to frequency increase, as they are planning on four flights per week.”
She affirmed that like Destination Gambia, international tour operators are also struggling but are very positive and willing to start visiting the destination.
The Dutch, she stressed, are tired of staying home. “People want to visit different places to see the effect of the Covid-19. They want to go feel the sun, walk on the beach to meet people and interact. So they are positive about travelling in the coming (winter) season and I’m positive, too.”
Mrs Burger-Sallah who is also the Chairperson of the Travel and Tourism Association of The Gambia (TTAG) with her tour firm being the grand handler of the Corendon Airlines in The Gambia explained that in the past, Corendon Airline Holland was doing three average chartered flights but ready to add one more.
However, in this era of Coronavirus pandemic which has no boundary, some stakeholders in the sector have revealed some missing links between them, Gambia Tourism Board and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. The missing links include inadequate communications among the sector especially on the way forward.
According to them, they were for hoping better communications because by sitting together or coming together via zoom meetings to put minds together can bring hope, fast conclusions or even bring up a solution to fix things. Unfortunately, they said that has not been happening and they feel a bit sad.
“That is true, we are all professionals in what we are doing. We are working in the field and we see what is happening in our country and it will be nice if we also know what is happening on the other side in term of plans, observations, evaluations either monthly or bimonthly meeting,” Mrs Burger-Sallah alluded to their statements.
The meetings she said can be used to update each other as well as help them be on top of things.
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