Promoting Responsible Tourism in The Gambia

Responsible Tourism is now a fashionable buzzword for the leisure industry not only in The Gambia, but also in other parts of the world. Promoting Responsible Tourism in The Gambia could not have come at a more appropriate time, when The Gambia, a small country inside and population is earning an enviable reputation as the epitome of responsible tourism behaviour and practices.

This remarkable evolution in Gambian tourism is much more than just hype and euphoria, and could be gauged by the country’s leading role in setting ‘International standards of best practice’ for the leisure industry. The Gambia has a rich cultural diversity with different ethnic groups, which include the Mandinka (42 percent) of the population, Fulla (18 percent), Wollof (16 percent), Jola (10 percent) and Sarahule  (9 percent) and others  (5 percent) respectively. Food and drink tourism is one of the fastest growing areas in the country’s tourism sector.
According to the International Monetary Fund’s report on The Gambia, the hotel and restaurant industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the country’s economy.