Roger,
    Your ideas are very rich and wonderful.This shows a planner who hopes on
the will of the collective efforts of every Gambian by putting
aside the usual style of "blame-the-government-for-all-that-is wrong".You
are great!

Actually,the news that sabena is currently going through crises is not the
least surprising to me because this airline has mercilessly been ripping
travellers to Banjul off with exorbitant prices! A round trip ticket to
Banjul has risen up to 2000USD.from Bruxelles. Can you imagine? Actually
those prices were neither decided by Gambian citizens  nor the Gambian
Gvt.The only reason behind is the fact that sabena has for years been
monopolisisng the Banjul-Bruxelles leg! I would encourage you and all well
wishers to convince Air Holland to step in and compete that bankrupt sabena!
Air Holland is actually better in terms of ticket rates.For the New
york-Europe route the KLM rates have always been reasonable compared to
either sabena,airfrance and our own "yaakaar"(the one that most of us hope
on)being AIRAFRIQUE.

As far as the sending of films (ie:videos on gambian sites)for the promotion
of our tourism is concerned, that is a wonderful idea!The Gambia TV with
their Betecam cameras in collaboration with the DOS TOURISM have a role to
play here and they should jointly look into this forthwith. You see shared
approaches are always more effective than leader-centered ones, or
unilaterally-carved ones from institutionalised
texts that were NOT subjected to public scrutiny.

There are a lot of lopeholes as far as the promotion of tourism towards
certain tourist destinations in Africa are concerned,The Gambia inclusive.I
agree with you frankly speaking.You are right!tourism does not only mean
"quenching the thirst" for the  pleasure of certain certain "Rumba-loving"
tourists in islands or exotic atmospheres no!there is more to
that.Ie:eco-tourism,etc etc...Some depressed tourist/ guy from
europe,america or elsewhere can be "cured" at Kiang keneba,Niumi berending
croccodile pool and of course in that green looking forest around Yero beri
kunda MID etc.

I subscribe to your idea as far as the diversification of our tourist market
is concerned,likewise adressing the issue of flights to Banjul. No airline
should be allowed to monopolise the route,especially where we have so many
carriers that are yearning for a wider market.Iberia,KLM,Air Maroc,Egypt air
Air france etc etc can all be approached in order to be able to enrich your
proposal.

Although, i know that the DOS Tourism is doing all it can to reorientate
issues,i believe our supportive suggestions can help a lot in that area!
The competion in the tourism market is becoming more and more agressive
compared to the late sixties and the early seventies when the Gambia used to
receive scandinavians,British tourists etc in large numbers without having
been engaged on any "wild" marketing strategies.At that
time it was an easy ride because the  tourist spots in the former eatern
bloc were closed to western tourists, as they were considered no.1 exporters
of capitalism-at-the farthest,from capitalist states!
Therefore,the dissappearance of the cold war era has produced a bigger
challenge.Because there are very good tourist sites in
Bulgaria,Rumania,Ukraine(as countries in the former eastern bloc).

A better example of the current agressive style of competetion is the
'thalasa'(a bathing/therapy center) in Tunisia which is competing the famous
one in Laspalmas.The dark and salty mud in certain beaches in Jordan which
is used to fight against on the skin disease etc; can also divert the
attention of tourists to such destinations!
Therefore the dessimination of tourism-related material is a matter of must
if we want to sell the immage of the Gambia world-wide as far as that sector
is concerned.

Our hope lies on all well wishers whether Gambian or not.Non Gambians
Mr.Rogers are more than welcome in that regard because when we say tourist
we mean visitors from other parts of the world and not the "aborigine"
Gambians.Thus your contribution is highly appreciated.
AL K.
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