Alieu Mboge, the Director General of Gambia Tourism Authority (GTA), talks to Tourisphere about the tourism industry as well as the requirements one should fulfil to become a tour operator in The Gambia.

What can you tell us about tourism in the Gambia?
Tourism is very important to The Gambia and its economy. As you know it started in a small way some four decades ago and expanded rapidly to what it is today.

In The Gambia today, we are having tourist arrivals running up to 350,000 annually. It is significant as it contributes to the GDP as well as foreign exchange earnings of the country.It is a comprised of small-scale industries, grand tour operators, bar/restaurants, accommodations.

To become a tour operator, what are the requirements or criteria?

To be a ground tour operator, you must be a Gambian. We have other tour operators, like European tour operators, who make arrangements for flights, among other things.

The ground tour operators who handle the ground operations are restricted to the Gambians. Apart from this qualification you must have the required equipment like jeeps, trucks, buses to move tourists around. And insurance. This is important as operators deal with vulnerable people who have decided to come to The Gambia to spend their holiday.

Have all tours operators operating in The Gambia met these GTA requirements?
Yes, they have met the requirements.In the construction of hotels in The Gambia, what is the role of the GTA?
 According to the Act that established the Gambia Tourism Authority, investors have to apply through the GTA.

The board and the technical committee responsible for land will take a careful look at the application. The board is solely responsible for the allocation when requirements are satisfied. On crafts markets,  almost all hotels in The Gambia have craft stalls within their premises. Does this not affect the sales of those who remain in the craft markets?

Since the inception of the industry and before the GTA, there have been craft markets located in some cluster areas to serve the hotels within such areas.  Wherever you have cluster hotels there are always craft markets.

Having craft stalls within hotels does not affect craft market sales. This is because there are other things you can't find in the stalls in the hotel which are at the craft market. And vice versa. It is very important that they have it like that. What are the aggressive policies that the GTA is putting in place to penetrate new markets?

We have a very aggressive marketing program that goes along with promotion. The Gambia is succeeding in marketing. When we started, we havd the Scandinavian Market. Over the years, the German market came in and now it is the English market, which is the biggest. The Dutch market later followed this. But GTA lost the German market because of the products in place. Germans are more interested in what they call the "all inclusive" product. If you have the "all inclusive" product, this means other sectors will not be able to benefit. It is the reason why the German market has not been successful in The Gambia.

Since we are competing with destinations that are also very attractive to tourists, GTA is working very hard to convince more tour operators to come to The Gambia. At present GTA has a joint marketing program with Gambia Experience. They are the biggest players in tourism. We need a German market representative too, to advertise and convince the tour operators to come back to the Gambia.

What are your expectations on ecotourism?
GTA has been promoting ecotourism for a long time now. We commissioned the Sandele Ecotourism site in Kartong about three weeks ago. Another one is Makasutu. We are extending ecotourism to every part of the country. How would you compare the trend of tourism in The Gambia to other West African countries?

You might have seen the gathering of Mboka, which is the forum of regional tourism. This gathering has proven beyond reasonable doubt that as far as the Gambian tourism industry is concerned, the products we have to offer show how advanced we are. That's in term of our operations, hotel classification and also, how our ground tour operators are performing. I am not saying we are the best in the region but we are doing extremely well with a lot of developments. Tour operators are quite satisfied with the development in the Gambian tourism industry.