By: Sulayman Waan
Hamat NK Bah, Minister of Tourism and Culture, has said he personally targets 500,000 tourists by 2021 despite his ministry’s targets 350,000.
Bah made the remarks during a press conference held at Gambia Hotel School recently, aimed at updating the media about works done by his ministry.
“Our target is to reach 350,000 tourists by 2021 but for me at the level of the ministry we want reach 500,000 tourists where every Gambian will earn money from the hotel industry,” he said.
“We decided to put the policy in place and get the people who will do the work because looking at figures the Gambia had been in tourism for fifty years but Cape Verde just started few years ago. It just commenced to work with the World Bank and African Development Bank and now they are receiving 800,000 tourists and targeting one million tourists,” he added.
“This country has no tourist attraction means, it only has stone and sand but now they are proud to say we receive about 800,000 tourists and it now develop from a poor country to meddle income economy,” he said
He urged Gambian to work and scarifies for their country to ensure nation building, adding no foreign person will do that for the nation but the citizen.
He said: “The tourism sector had a remarkable success in the tourism industry because it registered 28% incensement in tourist arrival.”
“We had 162,075 tourists in the previous year and when the year ended we recorded 209,000. I belief the figure is more than that because some tourists travel through boarders without being recorded,” he said.
According to him, the first quarter of 2019 his ministry registered 97% of increment of tourists, adding in 2018 the ministry recorded 37,000 and in 2019 it recorded 75,000 tourists for the first quota.
He said his ministry also increased the number of flight coming to the country yearly, from over thirty flights to fifty fights.
“Last year, fifty seven flights were landing in the Banjul International Air Port per week.”
He said during the tropical season there used to be about two to three flights landing in Air Port weekly but now the tourisms sector is receiving eight flights on weekly from now to October.
“Most of our youth who were redundant will not be redundant massively as it used to be because some of them will still continue working because the tourist arrivals are still coming,” he said.
He added that the Gambia Tourism Board (GTB) will work with other stakeholders to ensure the sustainable development goals in the tourism sector is attained, saying his ministry is proud to say the development of tourism in the country has begun.
He noted that GTB had been trying to support the new infrastructural development of the hotel industry such building roads, canals, electricity among others, noting the tourism ministry is committed to establish another tourists zone like the Senegambia terrain in another part of the country.
Hon Bah said he is now encouraging investors to build three star hotels in the rural area so that Gambians will commence discovering the beauty the country and become local tourists.