By Lamin Njie
The Honourable Minister of Tourism and Culture, Abdoulie Jobe, accompanied by some stakeholders in the tourism sector, recently briefed the Vice President of the Republic of The Gambia, on their state of preparedness for the 2024/2025 tourist season.
According to Minister Jobe, the briefing was necessary, taking into account the significant contribution that the tourism sector is adding to the economic growth of the country.
“This is imperative, given that tourism, as we are all aware, is impacted by a range of cross-cutting issues and critical enablers, including air access, and travel facilitation, more so at the Banjul International Airport”.
He therefore noted that the removal of barriers and related operational bottlenecks can ease the mobility of visitors between destinations and ensure a hitch-free tourist season,” he said.
Minister Jobe told the VP that he was made to understand that there has been progress with the work at the International Airport to facilitate travel.
“Though, based on the findings of the air safety inspection audit, there are pocket areas of constraint, and operational bottlenecks that need fixing to create a more conducive environment for our esteemed visitors, especially the first timers, whose numbers are increasing yearly based on annual tourism statistics reports,” he stated.
The Minister told the Vice President that his Ministry is committed to rolling out a high-level consultation with critical stakeholders in travel facilitation, to thrash out all the operational issues as part of the ongoing preseason activities.
During the meeting with the Vice President emphasis was laid on the issue of waste management in and around the airport, appropriate security of the airport fence, among others.
