The PIU, through Acorn Tourism Development Consultants, undertook an International Visitor Survey at the Banjul International Airport for the inbound tourist segment. This exercise was administered through a questionnaire jointly developed and validated by all relevant stakeholders. It was conducted from March 14, 2024, to May 3, 2024.
At the event, Momodou Ceesay, Project Director for the Tourism Diversification and Resilience in The Gambia, on behalf of the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry, said the survey was funded under component 1 of TDR project, where interventions aim to address sector capacity for relevant data collection and analysis to inform policy decision making, enhancing marketing to promote tourism recovery and diversification beyond source markets.
“One of the key activities under component 1 is the development of a participatory data-driven marketing strategy with a focus on digital tools and channels, a focus on promoting diverse tourism products, and with the targeted objective to increase visitors from non-traditional markets.” he explained.
“We hired a world class international firm to support the development of the comprehensive marketing strategy for tourism. It goes without saying that gathering market intelligence through the conduct of international visitor survey is an important activity whose output will support the development of the tourism marketing strategy.”
The International Visitor Survey, he added, was rolled out to gather valuable insights into the demographics, preferences, and satisfaction levels of visitors to The Gambia as a destination as well as to gauge the reaction of visitors to different attractions within the country in order to inform future tourism development strategies and actions.
“I am pleased to inform you that this comprehensive survey is the first complete deliverable from the Joni-joni activities. Initial reactions from perusing the document reveal positive feedback such as good report, high quality infographics, very useful information that will help the tourism sector in implementation of evidence-based policies.”
