A key number hotels still remained closed due to the negative impact of coronavirus pandemic; sources closed to Gambia Tourism Board have told The Voice.
In March, 2020, The Gambian Government has declared a State of Public Emergency (SoPE) that included the closures of both Land, Sea and Air borders in a bid to scale down the impact of Covid-19 in the country.
The situation has led to the closure of all tourism businesses including hotels, guesthouses, lodges, restaurants, casinos among others whose multiple employees remain seated at home even after the lockdown.
“There are many hotels and other establishments within the tourism industry that are still not open for business even after the lifting of the SoPE. It’s very unfortunate that key hotels such as Bungalow Beach hotel, Kombo Beach hotel, Kairaba Beach hotel and Coral Beach hotel that used to employ lot of Gambians remained close” a top Gambia Tourism Board official revealed.
He observed that the closure of these key hotels among other tourism establishments in the country will have adverse effect on their many employees who have already been seating at home for more than a year, noting that with the upsurge of the second wave of Covid-19 is not yet certain when these hotels be open for any serious business.
The top GTBoard official disclosed that it will take many more months for Gambia’s tourism industry to come back to normalcy, noting that many tourists could not come for holidays to The Gambia because of lockdown imposed by their countries.
According him, some hotels that took the risk to open for businesses are experiencing low returns for their investment, revealing that currently there is only one tourist on holidaying at Ocean Bay hotel including 30 players and officials of the Gambia National team.
“Tourists are not coming and as a result it will continue to have adverse effects on both investors and employees of the tourism industry. Most of the tourist coming to this country are coming from European countries who are presently on a lockdown, and without their coming expect little or no business for Gambia’s tourism industry, ” he observed.
Omar Jammeh, a Community Based Tourism Specialist said the effect of corona virus pandemic on community-based tourism especially in rural Gambia cannot be over emphasized, noting that since the opening of the 2020/2021 tourists season many establishments are yet to receive tourists making lives and livelihoods unbearable to both employers and employees.
“The state of rural tourism is a concern and requires an overhaul and proper positioning. However, since the emergence of covid19, we haven’t seen any strategic direction in supporting small scale service providers’, Jammeh told The Voice.
He added: “The impacts of covid19 has serious negative impact on existing businesses and discourages upcoming initiatives in tourism development in rural Gambia. Many investors are living in a state of fears of carrying on developments that they intend to venture on due to the uncertainty of the future of tourism in rural Gambia.”
Jammeh called on the Gambian government and Ministry of Tourism to engage in the diversification of tourism in the country, noting that the over dependent of the country on foreign tourists will continue to hurt the nation if plans are not redirected to promoting domestic and regional tourism.
