By: Nyima Sillah
Taxi drivers at the industry have said they don’t have much hope for tourism this year’s tourism because of low incoming flights, as the coronavirus continues to rage in the European countries.
Lamin Yaffa, a tourist taxi driver said: “I lose hope in this year’s tourist season due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has affected the entire whole of Gambia.”
He added: “In the previous year’s October 16th is normally the time we open our services and it happens with high expectation on both the industrial workers and the tourist drivers but this year, there are no changes as I am speaking.”
According to him, most of the tourist drivers only work seasonally, adding: “so if this year should turn out boring it will definitely affect their source of income because if one has been sitting for several months due to lock down and resume with nothing.”
“Our job is basically dependent on the tourist sector so if the drown we drown with them as they keep our business moving by giving us customers”
Another driver, Ousman Barry, said since the season started, he has not even got one customer to drive whiles in the previous years. These times are one of the busiest times for the tourist drivers because they will all be in their various positions with their customers.
“I do not have any hope because guesses are not coming in fact the few that we have in some of the hotels are going back. Covid-19 is our biggest enemy this year and we wish the government could also do something for the tourist drivers because we are also part of the industry sector,” he said.
For Malang Manneh said: “We do not know when the pandemic will be over so for the main time I even use my car as a normal taxi and once in a while I go to my garage to see if I will have customers which I think might not even last because there is no sign of improvement on this year’s season which is so sad.”
