As tourism industry continue to grow in The Gambia so also people in the industry continue to injects new innovations and ideas to attract tourist.

Tourism has long time shifted away from lying on the sun bed and watches the sky or swimming at the beach. Tourist wanted to see new things and visit new places. The Gambia is a home of hospitality the people is kind and generous as they can go out their way to please visitors without conditioning. Every visitor is part of the family and been part of the family you will learn about the culture and tradition with many things you will live to remember.

Talking about learning and adding to your knowledge food and health and hygiene naturally becomes the issue. For the pleasure of tourists and promoting our local cuisines this become one idea Ida Cham, Chairperson of Association of Small Scale Enterprises for Tourism (ASSET) put together and established Yabouy Home Cooking Center.

Ida Cham is an admirable woman in her 40s with some decades experience in tourism hotel and catering management. A course she studied at West London College. According to her she established Yabouy Home Cooking Center to showcase the smiles of The Gambia to the outside world. At her center, she trains tourist how to cook Gambian food. This training is practical it start with going to the market and make shopping for the cooking.

This is interesting because tourist like to interact directly with Gambians in the community market and immediately they arrive from the market cooking start like every other Gambian does on daily basis. This is a unique product that has wins the heart of tourist and Gambia Experience, one of the largest and oldest tour operators in the country has recently subscribed to this unique product. They have incorporated it in their year 2009/2010 traveling guide.

All tourists spending time at the Yabouy Home Cooking Center dress in real African styles, they eat together with the host and visitor like other Gambian does when it is lunch hours. After the delicious food the local produce juices will follow. They relax and chat together while brewing 'attaya' - green tea. "Gambians are doing a lot to expose Gambian cuisine internationally. Most of the trade fairs with a Gambia presence showcased our own local menus, which tourists had always asked for while they were on holiday in the Gambia. I therefore look forward to the day in the not too distant future when our cuisines will get the sort of international recognition they so richly deserve," this is Ida Cham's expectation.

According to her it is time restaurants and hotels in the country should start to showcase Gambian cuisine as part of their program such that visitor will get used to them. This is because many tourists want to experience something very different. So it is necessary we show them how very nice and palatable Gambia food and local juices are.

Yabouy is a local language that means mother in Wollof (language). She named her center Yabouy Home Cooking after her mother, simply because of the great role she had played in her life. "She is responsible for where I am today. My mother was a really hardworking woman, whom I treasured a lot. She was exclusively dedicated to the development of her children," these is her words.

The Gambia is well located in the sub region with great potentials in the tourism sector. So there is need for continue develop on tourist products and services in varieties. In the past, Ida Cham has worked in different places like the Senegambia Beach Hotel, one of the biggest hotels in the country, where she was exposed to how all units within the hotel operate. She worked in the food and beverage department for some years and one time head of guest relations and conferencing as well as head of sales and marketing. She also carved a niche for herself at Makasutu Cultural Forest where she served as the General Manager before she moved to Omakan Hotel.

She called on tourism stakeholders to positively contribute towards the advancement of tourism in The Gambia. She wants stakeholders to be innovative with new concepts that will attract more tourists from around the world. That's stakeholders should bear in mind that tourists always want to see and taste what they don't have in their countries.

Learn more about Yabouy Home Cooking Center by visiting it's website: www.gambiahomecooking.com.