The Honorable Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Abdoulie Jobe, accompanied by stakeholders in the tourism sector recently briefed the Vice President of the Republic, on their state of preparedness for the 2024/2025 tourist season.
According to Honorable Jobe, the briefing was necessary because of the significant contribution that the tourism sector is making to the country’s economic growth.
“This is imperative, given that tourism, as we are all aware, is impacted by a range of cross-cutting issues and critical enablers, including air access, and travel facilitation, more so at the Banjul International Airport.”
He, therefore, noted that the removal of barriers and related operational bottlenecks can ease the mobility of visitors between destinations and ensure a hitch-free tourist season,” he said.
Minister Jobe told the VP that he was made to understand that there has been progress with the work at the International Airport to facilitate travel.
“Though, based on the findings of the air safety inspection audit, there are pocket areas of constraint, and operational bottlenecks that need fixing to create a more conducive environment for our esteemed visitors, especially the first timers, whose numbers are increasing yearly based on annual tourism statistics reports,” he said.
The Minister told the Vice President that his Ministry is committed to rolling out a high-level consultation with critical stakeholders in travel facilitation, to thrash out all the operational issues as part of the ongoing preseason activities.
During the meeting with the Vice President, the issue of waste management in and around the airport and appropriate security of the airport fence among others was emphasized.
By Lamin Njie
Information Officer
Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture