Kaliba Senghore, Director General of The Gambia Tourism Authority (GTA) has described cultural tourism as those cultural aspects which are of interest to visitors and can be marketed as such; including the customs and traditions of a people
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Eco-tourism on the other hand, are those natural or near natural areas that promote conservation and cultural exchange.

The GRTA boss made these remarks whilst presenting a paper on cultural tourism and marketing, at a three-day workshop on updating the National Cultural Policy organised by the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC), recently held at the Baobab Holiday Resort in Bijilo.

He disclosed that there are efforts to diversify the source of market and promote tourism vigorously in other markets, such as the USA, and attract other categories of visitors including heritage tourists, culture seekers, ethnic travellers and other special interest groups who are keen to discover their roots.

"The keystone of cultural tourism revolves around the active participation of local communities in every stage; from the formulation of plans and ideas to the management of small scale projects on the ground," he said.

Mr Senghore however said that it is the responsibility of central and local government agencies to formulate the correct policies and legislations and provide support to enable local communities to respond to the challenge of eco-tourism.

The correct procedures, he went on, must be put in place so that high standards expected by eco-tourism can be set up and maintained throughout.

The following are the exact words of the GTA boss: "Eco tourism, particularly in its nature and cultural variations, could and should play a large part in diversifying the tourist sector and providing an incentive for some tourists to move away from the coast and travel up country, thus redistributing employment and income generation opportunities that are inherent within eco-tourism.

"The main attraction for this group of tourists or visitors is the heritage of slavery, historic monuments and sights of significance of slave trade, most of which are now recognised by the inscription into the World Heritage List maintained by UNESCO."

On the marketing of cultural tourism, the GTA boss noted that projects aimed at conventional tourism development need to be well researched, well promoted and well marketed if they are to be successful. He said that currently there is very little research, marketing or promotion of Gambian eco-tourism either in The Gambia or overseas.

This is mainly because the existing eco-tourism projects are small and for the most part are poorly funded. The exception to this, he went on, is the Makasutu Culture Forest, whose managers are successfully selling their product abroad through a mixture of personal recommendations and approaches to foreign media.

Other projects are not reaching their full potential in part because they lack the resources and capacity to successfully promote and sell their products. The major limiting factor with the present marketing of The Gambia's eco-tourism is the lack of informational and interpretational material for tourists.

This weakness, according to Kaliba Senghore, has a long standing history in The Gambia. But it has only recently been identified and as yet has not been addressed in any great depth. It is important to consider that tourists, the more discerning eco-tourists in

particular, have a craving for knowledge about the destination that they want to travel to.

They want information in an easily accessible and understandable form on all aspects of the country, from its ancient and modern history to others.

He, therefore, recommended for the establishment of a national heritage trial and camp site network in the interest of developing the spirit of eco-tourism in The Gambia.

"Through out the Gambia there are interesting historic buildings associated with the history of slave trade, European settlement and colonisation of the country. Sacred trees, wells, stones, groves, burial grounds and memorials can also be found all over the country, representing The Gambia's cultural and spiritual past," Mr Senghore asserted.