Until four months ago, the forecast for Gambia’s tourism season for 2020 was a very promising one, with more tourists expected to visit the country’s long stretch of white-sand beaches during peak season from November to April.
The government had entered into an agreement with one of the world’s leading tour operators, TUI UK Ltd, at the back of the demise of Thomas Cook Group Plc in September last year.
Thomas Cook flew in 45% of tourists to The Gambia and its collapse saw a 16 percent drop in arrivals from the UK in 2019, according to official data.
Despite this, tourism officials managed to attract a record number of visitors (235, 788) mainly from Germany and The Netherlands in a boost to the country’s economy, according to data from the Gambia Tourism Board.
The TUI agreement was meant to fill the void left by Thomas Cook when the UK-based tour operator begins flying in British holidaymakers to Banjul from November this year.
The Gambia Tourism Board, the authority responsible for marketing destination Gambia, had hoped to increase air arrivals in 2020 by 22 percent to 289, 000, according to a UN development programme (UNDP) brief on impact of the coronavirus on tourism published in April.
Devastating impact
However, a global outbreak of coronavirus which began in China’s city of Wuhan in mid-December 2019, is weighing down the projected continued growth of the industry.
Hotels are likely to remain empty for greater part of 2020 after weeks of tourist evacuations, cancellation of flights and hotel bookings. What is left of the tourism industry is empty hotel rooms, lodges, and safari camps.
With massive job losses already, tourism stakeholders are beginning to understand that the tiny nation’s hospitality industry will suffer significantly from the impact of the pandemic.
According to the UNDP brief, the industry stands to lose about 101, 930 air arrivals between March and October 2020 due to the virus outbreak. As a result, a loss of $8.3 million (D423.3 million) will emanate from ground handling fees, landing fees, lighting, temporal air services and levies charged to airlines and tourists visiting the country.
“The mass closure of hotels, small and medium businesses at every level within [the] tourism area is having catastrophic ripple effects, hitting a huge number of employees and suppliers,” Fatou Mass Jobe-Njie, chairperson of the Gambia Hotel Association (GHA) said in a statement on May 3. “Covid-19 is right now having a massive impact, wiping out an entire economic sector.”
Figures taken from the UNDP brief shows that tourism supports over 42,000 direct jobs, and another 40,000 jobs indirectly and generated up to $85 million in foreign exchange earnings last year, making it the largest foreign exchange earner for the country. The sector also attracted more than $45 million in foreign investment over the last five years, according to the brief.
Began shutdown
The tourism industry, a major contributor to Gambia’s $1 billion economy, began a total shutdown from March 2020 when the first case of the coronavirus was confirmed in the country.
As a result, The Gambia’s hospitality industry and allied sectors could lose up to 6.7 billion dalasi (over $131.3 million) in three months, according to a rapid assessment of the impact of the coronavirus on tourism and related sectors conducted by the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS).
Hotels have reported a combined loss of 6.4 billion dalasi so far (about 95 percent) of the total loss. Tourism camps have a combined forecast loss of 15 million dalasi, lodges and eco-lodges reported a forecast loss of 7.7 million dalasi and 5.7 million dalasi respectively, the GBoS assessment finds.
Ms Jobe-Njie said it is “heart-breaking that the livelihoods of thousands of people who have dedicated their lives to the hotel, travel and allied sectors are being decimated.” Those affected include waiters, taxi drivers, room attendants, cleaners, chefs, receptionists, and pool attendants.
The GHA and the Tourism and Travel Association of the Gambia (TTAG) said in a joint statement on May 3 that most hotels are saddled with unsettled invoices from tour operators to the tune of over 350 million dalasi from December 2019.
The hospitality and allied sectors want immediate recovery assistance from government of Adama Barrow. Such assistance should include financing (a stimulus package), easing of taxes, and the payment of salaries of hotel employees for up to five months – from Covid-19 funds, TTAG chairperson, Liane Sallah, said.
The Gambia received funding for the pandemic from the World Bank to the tune of $10 million as grant, 9 million euros budget support from the European Union, and $21.3 million from the International Monetary Fund as disbursement for a rapid credit facility. Locally, the government has raised more than D1.2 billion for its coronavirus response from budget cuts.
The Gambia has so far 24 cases confirmed of the coronavirus with 10 under treatment, 13 recoveries and one death as of 18 May, 2020 and there are fears that the country’s GDP figures will be revised downwards if the global outbreak is not contained soon.
This will likely result in a loss of up to $94.2 million in revenue (about 0.05% of GDP) from the average out of pocket expenditure of the 101, 930 tourists who were expected to visit between March and October. Overall, the Gambian economy will potentially lose $108.5 million in revenue – about 0.07% of GDP, the UNDP brief stated.
Impending problem
The tourism industry had in recent years faced external and internal shocks that weighed down its growth, like the 2014 Ebola outbreak and the 2016/17 political impasse.
While it is not clear when the current crisis (the coronavirus) will end, The Gambia’s tourism sector faces an impending problem – the possible withdrawal of the FTI Group, according to GHA and TTAG. The tour operator flew in 40 percent of tourists with seven weekly flights of 1500 holidaymakers.
The FTI Group runs the Kairaba Beach and Labranda Coral Beach hotels which jointly contribute 92.2 million dalasi in taxes between 2017 and 2019, GHA and TTAG said. The Nordic Leisure Travel Group is also likely to withdraw from the Gambian market due to a significant drop in bookings from Scandinavian countries for 2020 winter arrivals.
GHA and TTAG said The Gambia would need to consolidate existing markets, diversify source markets and ensure a year-round tourism objective is attained in order to remain competitively relevant.
- NOTE: At current exchange rate, $1 is equals to 51 dalasi, and 1 euro is 56 dalasi
