By Alagie Manneh
The Gambia is looking to attract at least one million tourists to boost her tourism industry further in the next 10 years, the Minister of Tourism Hamat Bah said.
In an exclusive interview with The Standard, Mr Bah said this must be the priority of his ministry, as the country and the industry ‘staggered so badly in the last 52-years.’
“Our immediate task is to secure 500,000 tourists in the next five years and then in next ten years, one million tourists,” he said.
He said “a lot of work has been done,” in the last months designed to “rebrand the country and restore its image positively.
“We are also now going into the Middle East and other parts of the world to rebrand the country and the people appreciate that.”
He called for patience as his ministry works to deliver expectations, since the tourism industry according to him, and tourists themselves have encountered ‘massive challenges under the former regime.’
Mr Bah however said the country is now recovering as investors are coming to partake in tourism development, “and hopes are that dozens of those projects will be realized soon. So we are on a right footing in getting people back to our country.”
