Dear Sirs and Ladies,
I am a newcomer on this list, so let me introduce myself to you.
I am a dutch citizen who married a  Gambian women Bintou Jatta.
My wife always tries to stay in contact with Gambia trough the internet, and because we have many friends and familie there we always feel connected with the Gambian daily life.By planning our next trip to the Gambia in march I stumbled over some disturbing news that I want to inform you about. I found out that all the dutch touroperators (Sunair, Marysol, Vakantietoppers)  are going to cancel Gambia as a holidaydestination from 21 march onwards. Transavia the chartercompany wil stop flying then, and the last returnflight will be on the 26st of march, By writing them and asking about the reasons they wil only say, we stop because the rainseason is starting and the weather will be bad (in march?) More disturbing is the fact that they tell people they might start going again the end of october. Previewing the new holidaybooks for this year show no Gambian destination at all. So my big fear is that Dutch touroperators switched to a new  more lucrative destination ( Goa in India) and wil never fly to the Gambia again. At the same time the German touroperator FTI has told that they will stop flying to the Gambia in may and as yet it is very uncertain if they will resume flying in october. At the same time the newly re-erected Airholland chartercompany is having big dificulties getting started. Autumn last year they proudly released an article to tell that they were apointed to be the national aircompany of Senegal in coorporation with Senair. Daily flights would start  15 december to Dakar, Banjul, Monrovia and Guinee-Conakry. But still they are not flying and time and money is running out of them, by asking what happend they replied that working with their African Partners  needs a lot of time and somehow doesn,t get started. This problems will have a big impact on Gambian economy I fear. Because  a big part of tourisme income will fall away. Something must be done about that, maybe the Gambian High Comission has to make an apeal of at least partly resuming the flights. Who has got a good idea of boosting tourisme to the Gambia again? 
Regards
Roger Sterk

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