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).

Citation

PPT Working Paper No. 15, 40 pp.

Improving Access for the Informal Sector to Tourism in The Gambia.

Published 1 January 2003