By: Sekou Hydara
Chairman of Gambia Hotel Association (GHA), Bunama Njie has disclosed that 70 percent of Gambian hotel will be affected by the cancellation of bookings by Thomas Cook Group of UK.
He further disclosed that 35% Gambians working in the tourism industry are on the brink of losing their jobs as a result of the cancellation of bookings by Thomas Cook.
“We receive the cancellation of bookings by Thomas Cook with great shock because we haven’t prepared for this situation especially that it is just less than four weeks before the start of the tourists’ season,” Njie said on Wednesday
The UK Civil Aviation Authority announced on Monday that Thomas Cook Group, the biggest tour operating Company in UK, will cease trading with immediate effect, with all flights and holidays cancelled all over the globe, revealing that the government had asked Thomas Cook Group to launch a repatriation programme over the next two weeks.
Njie, also the general manager of the five-star Senegambia Beach Hotel, said the cancellation of bookings by Thomas Cook Group for the winter season will have a huge impact not only on hotels and restaurants but also on government, banks and other service industries that rely on tourism business.
“This is a very stressful time for Gambia’s tourism industry because we are expecting more than 35 percent of tourism workers to be cut off from their jobs for this coming season. We can adequately say thousands of Gambian businesses and families will be equally affect by this development,” Njie pointed out.
He said major hotels such as Senegambia Beach Hotel, Kairaba Beach Hotel, Kombo Beach Hotel, Badala Park Hotel and Tamala hotel will be affected, adding that tourists taxi drivers, craftmarket vendors, juice pressers, fruit sellers among others will be affected too.
Njie revealed that his association has engaged some of the existing tour operators namely; Gambia Experience, Tui Travel Tours as well as schedule flight operators in the country in a bid to minimizing the damage caused by the abrupt cancellation of Thomas Cook Bookings.
Njie urged The Gambia government to look into issues such as reducing operational cost on hotels, municipal taxes including Gambia Revenue Authority taxes.
He said this will go a long way in keeping hotels in business otherwise most hotels may virtually close down operation.
He said government has to start learning lessons by creating emergency funding in the event that such development arises, recalling that similar situations such as the British Travel Advice and the Ebola endemic should be a learning point for the Gambia government.
