By Yunus S Saliu
Receiving the TUI UK maiden flight for the 2022 winter tourism in destination Gambia at the Banjul International Airport on Monday night, the Managing Director of the Gambia Tours and Travel Limited has harped on the importance of aggressive marketing of the destination to allow the tourism sector back to its pre-Covid-19 position.
Mr Hobeika Charbel who is also an agent to the TUI UK in the country emphasized that “we need to promote the destination because three years of Covid-19 we have been affected and it is also difficult hence we couldn’t attend any important tourism or trade fair in Europe such as the ITB Berlin, WTM, fairs in Gothenburg, Madrid and so on.”
He disclosed that these fairs are places to sell the destinations and “it is an investment where you will let people know about the Gambia. This means you have to market your destination at these fairs by inviting the press, tour operators, travel agents, investors, and so on to know about the country.”
Mr Charbel underlined that there are a lot of competitors now, especially after Covid-19, “so many destinations are competing because everybody wants to have a share of the market, therefore, we have to stand up collectively and push hard to make sure we bring the clients into the country.”
The tour operator who is one of the top hoteliers in the country disclosed that for now, the booking at the hotels is still low just in the range of 30 to 40% “we still have a long way to go to reach the day of pre-Covid-19.
Among other things to attract more travelers is to revisit the Covid-19 measures so that tourists and other visitors can travel to the destination without PCR, Covid-19 vaccine so on because nobody is asking without it, it makes the flow of passengers easy.
Foday Bah, the E-Marketing, IT Manager and OIC for the marketing department at the Gambia Tourism Board (GTBoard) expressed delight on the landing of the TUI UK maiden flight while he said it will be doing four flights per week.
He said the expectation is very high in the ongoing tourism season as he described it as a joyous moment for the stakeholders and the country as a whole.
The OIC disclosed that TUI airline flew direct from Gatwick to the Gambia with 184 passengers onboard which is a good number.
Commenting on the restoration of the Titan Airlines rotation flights to the destination, he said it is a plus for the country as the airline arrived at the destination at 3 pm on the same day with 300 passengers.
He said the initial announcement was a great concern for everyone but quickly commended the Ministry of Tourism, GTBoard, and other relevant authorities for a job well done to resolve the situation.
Meanwhile, he said so far the issues raised in their letter are resolved.
Randy Zimmer, the team manager for the TUI in the Gambia who is responsible for the source market said he was delighted as everything worked out professionally while noting that all the guests are smiling the moment they stepped out of the airbus.
“It is a happy destination and we are looking forward to a successful season here in the Gambia,” he added while saying the Gambia has a lot of potential “it is such a nice place to be and our goal is to bring more people here to see this beautiful country.”
