Lamin Saho, director of marketing at The Gambia Tourism Authority (GTA) has said that child sex tourism is a great cause for concern for his department, under the ministry of Tourim and Culture.

Saho made this remark recently, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Observer at his office in Kotu. He said hence tourism has become a very interactive business, child sex tourism is not much practised in The Gambia any longer, adding that the Gambia Tourism Authority took a firm step on it and has put in place drastic measures for those who engage in such practices. According to him,GTA do collaborate together with the Child Protection Alliance(CPA) in the fight against child sex tourism (CST).

He spoke at length on the improvemnets made by this parntership in the fight against child sex tourism, noting that there is high reduction in the practice of child sex tourism. Saho revealed that the GTA do organise sensitisation programmes for the people of The Gambia to be aware of the existence of child sex tourism in the country.  He said that they used to hire security personnel to patrol around the tourism development area (TDA), to reduce the menace of child sex tourism.

Saho also said that as it is not their right to take the law into their own hands, adding: " If you  check the country's constitution  you will realise that there is a law that  talks about the child offensive act and as you know that the GTA officials are not legal practitioners and so when this happens, the offenders are taken to the  law courts for  judgement and I think the only punishment that fits these offenders is by deporting them back to their country of origin".

Saho further disclosed that when these tourists come to the country to visit, the GTA do give them a book which contains the Do's and Don'ts of the country and it includes all that the country likes and dislikes or all proper acts and improper acts. He urged parents to also do their own part of the job by advising their children about the negative impacts of having sexual relationships with tourists. "This doesnot mean that they should not interact with tourists in positive ways because we  Gambians do not have much resources to offer them,  we do have our smiles and friendliness, which we can offer to them as they call us the Smiling Coast of Africa," he concluded.