By Yunus S Saliu
Director General of the Gambia Tourism Board (GTBoard) highlighting some of his institution’s achievements regarding an ongoing aggressive marketing strategy put in place by the marketing unit of the institution, disclosed among other things that two new international tour operators will be moving their offices from Dakar, Senegal to Destination Gambia, the Smiling Coast of Africa soon.
The Director General, Aboubcarr S Camara accentuated that ”In line to penetrate the non-traditional markets such as Italy and Portugal, the Gambia for the first time in a cost-effective way participated in the BTL Lisbon and BIT Milanio Trade Fairs in Portugal and Italy respectively.”
As a result of that, he said, “tour operators such as Solfferiousand Pinto are moving their offices from Dakar, Senegal to Destination Gambia.”
He added that another major tour operator, Abreu had recently conducted a FAM Trip to the Destination and is very excited and promised to vigorously sell Destination Gambia in Portugal.
DG Camara disclosed that The Gambia entered a joint marketing venture with Correndon, TUI, and Gambia Experience for the winter season 2022/2023 while another is in the pipeline for the upcoming winter season.
Nevertheless, the GTBoard boss added that four new tour operators namely, AEP Travels, Best of Travels, Femma and Travel World Belgium started selling the Gambia from Belgium.
Also, he said, the three biggest tour operators – Solferias, Abreu and Pinto Lopez will start selling the Gambia from Portugal “which is our non-traditional market.