In their bid to contribute to the country’s environmental preservation while promoting its sustainability in the tourism sector, the Gambia Tourism Board (GTBoard) alongside key stakeholders on Saturday, 27th September 2025, joined the global community to mark ‘World Tourism Day’ with a symbolic tree planting exercise held at Solomon’s Beach Bar and Restaurant Sea front.
Since 1980, the United Nations World Tourism Organization has celebrated World Tourism Day as international observances on September 27. The theme for this year’s event is ‘Tourism Sustainable Transformation’.
The Gambia Police Force (GPF) band earlier led stakeholders during a march past from Palma Rima junction to Solomon’s Beach.
This year’s celebrations, according to officials, provides a valuable opportunity to highlight the importance of the sector as a driver of sustainable development and to showcase the country’s unique role as the ‘Smiling Coast of Africa’.
Addressing the gathering, Musa Dem, Package Development Manager, Gambia Tourism Board, who is also the spokesperson for GTBoard highlighted the importance of the day, reminding that it is a day that has not been officially celebrated within Destination Gambia.
Given the importance and sustainability aspect of the initiative, he said they thought it fitting to plant trees to ensure environment sustainability.
He acknowledged that ‘Destination Gambia’ is at a crucial stage where they feel the destination needs a facelift.
He made reference to the Tourism Diversification and Resilience in the Gambia Project, which he said, is to look at what they can do as a destination to diversify product offerings, not just for sand, sea and sun, but also a glimpse of the rich cultural heritage of the country.
“We have the River Gambia, we have nature and our culture and people. So, these are the things that we need to combine to move tourism away from here, but not just to abandon it, but to consolidate what we have, both on our source market and also on the products that we offer.”
He acknowledged that tourism is cross-cutting and looking at its importance, many believe the sector contributes 20% to the country’s GDP.
Dem underscored the country’s unlimited tourism potentials, indicating that tourism is everything from health, agriculture, to culture and the list goes on.
For Lamin Drammeh, a lecturer at the University of The Gambia, major in Tourism and Hospitality Management, underscored the importance of the tree planting exercise, which he said, is another part of sustainable and environmental tourism approach.
“We want to make sure that the environment is protected. You can only bring people when your own environment is effective.”
Also speaking, Mamat Sallah, director for cultural heritage at the National Center for Arts and Culture (NCAC), expressed similar sentiments.
He underscored the importance of the sector and how it contributes to the country’s GDP, adding that the sector has the potentials to boost the country’s cultural heritage as well as promote its culture.
“It also makes the Gambian culture to be well appreciated by people, because tourists come to the Gambia also to visit the tourism sites.”
He thus commended the Gambia Tourism Board for coming up with the initiative, which he said, would significantly contribute to the country’s environmental conservation.
