By Sulayman Waan
Hamat NK Bah, the Minister of Tourism and Culture has aimed at cutting down pay rates for the hotel owners to the government and that his Ministry is ‘looking to reducing the rates.’
He made the remarks at the inauguration of board members for Ministry of Tourism and Culture at the Quadrangle in Banjul on Thursday 17th January, 2019 as he lamented that ‘the rates are very high in the country’.
“We should look at reducing the rates in hotel industry because the rates are very high,” he said, adding that it would be difficult for the hotel owners to sustain and develop their facilities with the present rates.
He added that: “The hotel owners need to make profits. If everything goes to NAWEC and other areas, they will not be able to sustain themselves.”
He further told the members of the new board of his Ministry that if they made the recommendations to government it would be look into consideration.
Bah said: “Tourism is the engine to drive poverty out of the country because it employs people from different works of life in the hotel industry- Travel and Tourism companies among other areas in the country to ensure that they earn their living.”
According to him, a research regarding the tourism’s contribution in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is ongoing to make sure that the government has scientific proves on what tourism is contributing in the GDP.
“I don’t want conflicting figure, I want scientific proves of what tourism is contributing in the GDP that is why UNDP and others are all engaged on the issue to ensure that we know the figure. In fact, World Bank says the tourism industry is contributing more than thirty percent of the GDP but we want to have scientific proves,” he noted.
He added that knowing tourism’s contribution in GDP in the nation’s social-economic development will help the government to raise the necessary funds to advance the industry, saying that if Ghana can raise 50 million dollars and Senegal 70 million dollars for tourism promotion, why not Gambia do something little meaningful to boost the tourism industry.
However, he said; with experts in the board he sees no reason why the Gambia cannot offer such funds to promote and develop the industry. He noted that he is optimistic that by early 2020 Gambia will realize positive changes in the tourism industry.
He called on the experts in the industry to come up with innovative ideas to so as to make tourism the most vibrant sector in the Smiling Coast of West Africa [The Gambia].