By Yunus S Saliu
Since the 2024/2025 winter tourism season was officially declared open on Friday, 11th October 2024, different maiden flights from both traditional and non-traditional markets have been landing in Destination Gambia, and the latest among were Corendon, TUI UK and Titan Eastern Europe received at the Banjul International Airport by senior officials of the Gambia Tourism Board (GTBoard) and accompanied by members of the press.
Corendon from Holland made its landing at 1230 hours with 197 pax (passengers) on board, and Titan Easter Europe flights from Warsaw Poland landed with 193 pax at 2030 hours and half an hour later at 2100 hours, the TUI UK flew into the destination with 192 pax.
Passengers on board each maiden flight were well received and culturally entertained by Gambian cultural performing groups at the airport.
Foday Bah, Head of Marketing of the GTBoard receiving and welcoming the maiden flights and passengers onboard to Destination Gambia, known as The Smiling Coast of Africa, disclosed that more maiden flights are expected this season while commending the Gambia Tourism Board and Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture for their efforts in capturing more markets for the destination.
He said the Ministry and its tourism institution have made a lot of efforts in terms of joint marketing to promote the destination across the world. Among others, he disclosed that Poland is another viable destination for Gambia, and “the team is trying so hard to promote Destination Gambia in Poland and the country is among that come through chartered flights.”
He also rated Holland and the UK as markets “that we cannot do without,” while he noted that for the ongoing winter tourism season 2024/2025, the total flight frequency to the destination is 57 per week and it comprises scheduled and chartered flights of 33 and 24 flights respectively.
Commenting on the service delivery of the Airport personnel, compared to last year “There’s a huge improvement because last year the place was so congested, especially when receiving two flights simultaneously. But so far this year, we have been monitoring the situation and have been impressed and with the believe that it will continue like