Halifa Sallah, Secretary General and Party Leader of the People’s Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) has told the twelfth batch of graduates of the Institute of Travel and Tourism of The Gambia (ITTOG) that technocrats are what is needed to build the tourism industry of the Gambia, arguing that both the product and demand for the growth of the sector are available on the ground and all what is needed is to explore opportunities.
The former Spokesperson of Coalition 2016, made this disclosure on Saturday 15th, February, 2020 where he also advised the graduates to be innovative in their quest to make an impact in the development of the sector.
“We need technocrats to build the tourism industry, the products are there, and the demands are there regardless of the status of the world economy. If the products are packaged accordingly, the whole world will be interested,” PDOIS Leader observed.
According to him, if the country is to harness the gains of tourism and remains as a competitive destination it must diversify its products and services, arguing that it is the cultural aspect of tourism that will inspire tourists to see The Gambia as a place of pilgrimage where visitors can find a place for their sole and a new beginning to their lives that can serve and make them have a sense of belonging to the country.
“They have talked about heritage tourism, where is it? If you go to Juffureh now, what is the status of the Hakalang road, what is there, so essentially there are people even in the Diaspora searching for their roots in Africa but the objective is no simply to make money from them, it is the cultural aspect of tourism that will inspire them to see Gambia as other African countries as a place of pilgrimage, a place that they will go and search for their soles, to find a new beginning for themselves, to inspire themselves, to make them to have a sense of belonging that means acculturation must change all of us, so that when we come together they find brothers and sisters in us not people looking for money, that is where the value element of tourism is fundamental,” Sallah explained.
PDOIS Leader applauded the Principal and Board of Directors of ITTOG for their steadfastness and resilient in contributing to the growth of Gambia’s tourism industry, revealing that the concept of small and middle scale enterprises in tourism was started by these Gambians.
According to him, the gains of the concept of small and middle scale enterprises in tourism remains to be fully harness because of lack of strategic direction of the tourism industry, arguing that the starting point of building Gambia’s tourism should not have been externally directed and still in the hands of the tour operators.
Addressing the graduates the PDOIS Leader stated: “This is the starting point, knowledge must be translated into a life of life, you have been given the capacity to serve but you have also been given the capacity to innovate and it is that innovation that will give us the capacity to reach out to others to come to our country but not only others from the developed world but to attract others from the developing world.”
He added: “Based on what we do, we can integrity our economies, we must do research to find out how we can improve our cuisine, our handy craft, and our artifacts and be able to exchange among ourselves,” Sallah task graduating students of ITTOG.
