The Gambia Tourism Board (GTB)’s Director, Ida Jeng-Njie who led her team to Akwaaba African Travel Market recently, spoke to LAOLU ADEYEMI on how The Gambia has managed to boost her GDP through Tourism despite the Ebola threat in some parts of Africa. Jeng-Njie also bares her mind on the preparation for the coming Gambia Roots festival and how it has helped unite many Africans in The Diaspora.

What is unique about The Gambia and why should Nigerians consider it as their tourist destination?
The Gambia, the Smiling Coast of Africa is blessed with good people who take hospitality as business. The Gambians are very friendly and the country is known for her peaceful nature. It is about the most peaceful country in the whole of Africa. Aside that, The Gambia is also at the mouth of the Atlantic ocean which makes it one of the choice destinations for Europeans, Asians, Jamaicans and people from other countries of the world. Our Eco-tourism is another unique selling point and it is rated high in Africa.

The Gambia generates about 12.5 percent of her GDP from Tourism, four years ago, what is the situation now?
Considering the sustainable efforts made by President of The Gambia, and other stakeholders, the nation’s tourism business has improved tremendously. The Gambia has managed to boost her GDP from what its used to be. Our GDP from tourism is now between 16 to 20 percent.

Are there new things happening in The Gambia?

Gambia is really blessed in her tourism business. Out of our tourists, we have repeaters; people who are coming for the second time or more. Out of 100 percent, we have about 35 percent repeaters.
With this data, it is imperative for the country to improve on its tourism products with a view to face the new challenges. The Gambia has renewed some of her tourism products to meet the current and prospective demands of our tourists.

Cocoa Ocean, Makasutu, Ngala are new tourist sites for tourists to enjoy. We have equally organized a fishing competition, which affords the winner with the biggest fish to go home with 10,000 pounds.
Some of our hotels are also upgrading to meet tourists demand. Two-star hotels are upgrading to three stars; three Stars are upgrading to four stars hotel and four-star hotels are upgrading for five-star hotels.

What kind of Holiday packages is available for tourists?

We have many exciting holiday packages for our Nigerian market. We have honeymoon, wedding, beach resort, business among other packages because the Nigerian market is very big. Yes, it is so big that we cannot concentrate on one market. We have golfers coming to play golf in The Gambia, footballers, and bankers coming to do their retreats in The Gambia because most of the banks that are here in Nigeria are also in The Gambia. The bankers fly over to do their retreats. We carter for all the packages.

However, the most popular package for the Nigerian market is the leisure.  I think our strength as Gambians is of the people.  We are friendly with lots of smiles, the country is very relaxing, and you can feel the ambiance. Hence, Nigerians go for the leisure. Fashion also woos them because lots of Nigerians come, and they buy the traditional outfits and souvenirs. In line with that development and to encourage them, we now have fashion outlets such as Zara, United Colours among others in The Gambia. The reason was due the research we conducted and discovered that Nigerians like shopping. So, we are really prepared for our Nigerian market.

Who can visit the Gambia?

Golfers, Honeymooners, footballers, Bankers and other corporate organisations come to the Gambia and they never regret coming. In terms of affordability, hotels in The Gambia charge moderately and many packages for tourist are very affordable.

Of what significant is the Roots festival to The Gambia?

The Root Festival is celebrated every year in The Gambia. As you know, our president is passionate about culture. So, he is the pioneer and sponsor of the festival. 

The next festival will hold from ‪May 6-13, 2016‬. Preparations are already in place since last year. I was in the United States of America in April, May, August and September this year all because of promoting the road show of the Root Festival. We have other agenda as well in the pipeline for the Nigerian market to attend the festival. We are planning a familiarization trip sometime at the end of February/March this year for tour operators, travel media and other relevant bodies for the Pre-Root fam trip. 

In terms of distinct package, Nigerians prefer the leisure market of the Gambia. Nigerians also visits for fashion and we are really prepared for the Nigerian market. In our research; we find out that Nigerians love to shop around the world, so we are trying to upgrade so many things to meet the increasing demands of the nation’s tourists.
Is there any increase in the number of Africans who have retraced their roots through the Roots Festival?

The number of people retracing their roots is increasing. Kunta Kinte, the slave boy, was taking from The Gambia to a city in America called Annapolis. When you get to that city today, they have a testing machine to know where your roots are from. We are going to work with the city of Annapolis so that the black people from that area would come and be able to trace their roots. The number of people making effort at tracing their roots is increasing and some of them are promising to come to The Gambia for the forthcoming Root Festival.

The Root Festival is also for The Gambians and other Africans in the Diaspora who do not know anything about their culture to come and experience its first hand in The Gambia.