The slowdown in the industry since mid of last year as was issued in a press release by United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) continues to affect the tourism industry in which The Gambia is not exceptional. This can be proven by the tourists' monthly arrival analysis of March 2009 as released by the Gambia Tourism Authority (GTA).

According to the release, the month of March that marked the end of the first quarter of 2009 recorded the figure of 17,474.  This shows a 6 per cent drop from the figure (18,597) of arrival in the month of March 2008. In a combined figure the first quarter of 2008 stood  at 76,622 (tourists arrival) while the first quarter of 2009 registered the figure of 51,768. This is a year-on year quarterly drop of 32 per cent.

However, of recent, the first quarter of the year has always been the peak periods in The Gambian tourism. In spite of the global slowdown of tourists, in breakdown, the nationality trend shows the continued growth of the British tourists. As usual, they continue to top the arrival list with the figure of 9,524 (54.5%), followed by the Dutch with their strong arrival figure of 1,374 (7.9%). This is followed by Swedish with total arrival of 1,203 (6.95%). Norway, Finland, and Denmark also registered their arrivals as they came 4, 5 and 6th respectively.

The monthly analysis of the number of arrivals by air for the month of March 2009  goes as follows: 17,298 in total out of which 176 is registered to have come by land whilst none by sea. However, the current troubles and the softening of tourist arrivals to The Gambia as well as international arrivals follow four historical strong years. That is a 15 per cent average growth between 2005, 2006 and 2007 - 107,904, 124,800 and 142,626. This is well above the 4 per cent long term trend observed by the UNWTO and 2008, with an increase of 2.9 per cent based on a strong first half performance.