Improving Access for the Informal Sector to Tourism in The Gambia

Abstract

This paper first provides a brief overview for tourism in the Gambia. Section 3 then describes the pro-poor tourism project and its stakeholders, while Section 4 gives a detailed description of the two phases of the project, namely consensus building (phase 1), and implementation and testing (phase 2) used to achieve these objectives. Section 5 summarises the results of the surveys undertaken during phase 1 and 2, and Section 6 outlines the steps taken by the informal sector in order to improve their access to the tourists. Section 7 gives a detailed description of the specific initiatives undertaken by the different informal sector's groups in order to increase their linkages with the tourism industry. Section 8 summarises the main lessons learnt and makes suggestions on how these can be applied in other countries. The project's aims were to: increase sustainable employment opportunities and earnings for the informal sector in The Gambia by improving access for the informal sector to the tourism industry and to tourists; and identify and disseminate Best Practice for implementation through the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO), the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) and the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO)