Mr. Jerreh Camara, The President Of The National Tourists Tour Guides Association
By Ramatoulie Jawo
The Gambia is currently enjoying a thriving tourism season, attracting visitors eager to experience the country’s rich culture, pristine beaches, and renowned hospitality. Tour guides play a crucial role in offering exceptional experiences to tourists, though they face numerous challenges despite their contributions to the industry.
Founded in 1997, the National Tourist Guides Association of The Gambia works to promote and support the interests of licensed tour guides, ensuring the delivery of high-quality services to tourists. In an exclusive interview, Mr. Jerreh Camara, the association’s president, shared valuable insights into the current state of the tourism industry and the hurdles faced by professional guides.
As a trained tour guide, Mr. Camara stressed the importance of understanding tourists’ needs and ensuring that services are delivered in accordance with the country’s legal framework. “It is essential to know exactly what tourists want, which is a key responsibility of a tour guide, always within the boundaries of the law,” he explained.
However, Mr. Camara highlighted a significant issue: the increasing presence of unlicensed individuals performing the same duties. While the association currently has 39 members who are trained and licensed by the Gambia Tourism Board, many others are operating without certification, a situation Mr. Camara believes undermines the profession.“Almost everybody is doing our job and that is definitely affecting us. I have informed the authorities that we are facing troubles with regard to how people are doing jobs, which even makes our work difficult for us as guides. So I am still trying to engage the authorities about it to make sure that we solve the problem that is affecting the tourist tour guides because that one is just too much for us. You will realize that the membership of the tourist guides that I am in charge of is just 39 members that are registered and licensed by the Gambia Tourism Board within the tourism development areas. There are other tourist guides that are not licensed by the government and in fact, those people are doing better than us. I have talked about these issues several times but nothing has been done about it,” he stressed.
Another concern for the association is the growing trend of tourists traveling to neighboring Senegal, particularly to visit the Fathala Wildlife Reserve. Mr. Camara pointed out that the development of local tourist attractions in The Gambia is essential to reducing this trend and ensuring that more visitors stay within the country. He called for greater investment in key tourist sites such as the Abuko Nature Reserve and Kiang West National Park, both of which he believes have great potential to attract more visitors if properly developed.
“We are not doing much in terms of products of development, and we need to do more about that just to talk About what we have in the Gambia we have places like Abuko Nature Reserve there is nothing at Abuko Nature Reserves that warrants the tourists to go and visits that area. I can tell you for the whole of this season I did not go to Abuko nature reserves as a guide and most of my men also did not show up there, so that is something else. And you will realize that any money that or any tickets that we buy there will definitely go to the government accounts and that is happening,” he highlighted.
Mr. Camara also highlighted the potential of Kiang West National Park, noting that it could provide substantial economic benefits, especially for the youth in the Lower River Region (LRR). However, despite previous calls for improvement, progress has been slow.
“We have talked about it with the government, and my predecessors had talked about it, I am the sixth president of the Tourists Guides Association and all my predecessors have talked about the Kiang West National Park. We know for certain that Kiang West National Park could do something for the country because it will create employment opportunities for the youth of that area and will bring the economy around the LRR area, but that is not happening. We also go to Fathala Senegal. Fathala was built for Gambian tourists because it is just 15 15-minute drive from the border. So definitely they built that place for Gambian tourists instead of Gambian tourists visiting our local places like the Abuko nature, Kiang West National Park, or even the river Gambia National Park but the thing you will see is tourists crossing the river every day to Senegal to visit Fathala, and we are spending thousands of dollars Dalasi which is not telling well with regard to our tourism sector is very bad,” he emphasized.
He stated that the budget allocated to the tourism sector is minimal when compared to other sectors, and on a global scale, it is almost insignificant.
He called on the government to increase investment in the tourism sector and improve its products to meet international standards in order to attract more tourists to The Gambia. He also highlighted that the tourism industry employs approximately 40,000 to 42,000 people in tourism development areas.
Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of the government collaborating with influencers to promote the country globally and draw more visitors to The Gambia.
“So we cannot compete with other countries when they are doing all they can to see more tourists and more tourists coming to their countries so if we want to have more tourists in the Gambia we must invest heavily in tourism to make sure that we have products, and we also try and do all we could to market our country we use influencers who can sell the country to the international market so we can have more hands coming to the Gambia. So without those things we will not make it because we talked about tourism we must invest you must put in money if you don’t have money I am sorry, you must put in more money, and you do your basic rights,” he said
He called on the government to seriously address the tourism sector and take action. He highlighted that tourism contributes approximately 20% of The Gambia’s GDP.
With their establishment in 1997, he emphasized their experience and technical expertise, assuring that they will continue to thrive in the tourism industry in The Gambia.
While their business remains stable as tour guides, he expressed a desire for more tourists to visit The Gambia to expand business opportunities. He also stressed that, despite their stability, an increase in tourist numbers would further enhance their business growth.
The tourism industry is a significant contributor to The Gambia’s economy, accounting for about 14.3% of GDP and 13.5% of employment.