Roger,
Thanks for your concern. It is true that a number of operators in Holland are winding up from our beloved country. There is a serious decline in tourist arrival this season as predicted before the beginning of the season and we expect a 25 to 30 percent decline. It is true the we also have seasonal operators who operate in The Gambia  only during the winter months and move on to other destinations during summer. This to operators is more profitable considering the use of the flights i.e  you can make only one run to  our country. take 6 hrs 1 way and return = 12 hours and compared to most spanish or Mediterranean destination you could make  between 2 to 3 trips a day. The Gambia has a various disadvantages when it comes to tourism.
1. Taxes are to high and are not hamonise.< area councils and government competing for bigger share of the cake
2. The country  has the highest energy cost in the whole universe and we cannot get uninterrupted supply of electricity.
3. Our incentives to operators compared to other countries are not favourable to attract continuos operation on an all year round basic.
b. reduction of taxes to also half during off season for operators could have encouraged
 operators to stay  and thus would ensure employment for most people and also earn government some revenue.. Most of all ,reduce some of the social problems.

The industry will suffer serious setbacks in the summer when all the operators withdraw, only Gambia experience flight will be operational once a week and none from Germany or any other country. This situation is irreversible as tour operators plan a year ahead for their operations.
These issues has been raised with government by the private sector and we are working with both  the European union and the African Development Bank to look seriously into the problems of the sector and find appropriate long term solutions .
There are plans in hand to establish a National Tourist authority hopefully before the end of March this year. This body will operate on purely on commercial basis. Lets pray and hope that all goes well with our plans  re activating the sector for our  survival. Amen.
Chi Jamma,
Bro Sheikh Tejan Nyang
roger
sterk wrote:

> 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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