Destination Management: Evaluating Tourism Challenges in Gambia

This presentation provides an overview of destination management in the context of tourism in The Gambia, highlighting the nation's popular tourist attractions and the affordable prices that draw visitors. It identifies key challenges such as lack of airline connectivity, poor marketing, limited skills in the labor force, an unfriendly visa policy, and limited use of ICT. The presentation emphasizes the need for a comprehensive tourism strategy, improved infrastructure, effective marketing practices, revised visa policies, and increased ICT usage to enhance tourism in The Gambia. The analysis concludes that addressing these challenges and implementing the recommended strategies will lead to improved tourism and economic growth in the country, with responsible bodies including business operators, local government authorities, residents and local people playing a crucial role in the process.

Destination management

Table of Contents
 INTRODUCTION
 MAIN BODY
 Tourism in Gambia
 Challenges faced by tourism in Gambia
 Local and National Tourism Planning
 CONCLUSION
 REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION
Destination management could be
determined as process comprised all essential elements
that result in making up a particular destination. For
instance, it is inclusive of attractions/places, additional
amenities, access to place, pricing, etc. which result in
impacting upon that particular destination in some or
the other manner. This presentation will be presenting
knowledge of destination management in context of
tourism in Gambia. Furthermore, it will be further
evaluating challenges faced by respective economic
nation associated with tourism and tourist destination.

Tourism in Gambia
The respective economic nation is quite popular among tourists and travellers for
their natural places of attractions in the geographical boundaries of Gambia. For instance,
places with maximum tourist attractions include kuntah kinteh Island, bijilo Forest Park,
River Gambia National Park, etc. The primary and major influencing aspect associated
with tourism in Gambia lies in affordable prices all year around. The flea and street market
are another major attraction for tourists and travellers in the economic nation of Gambia.

Challenges faced by tourism in Gambia
 Lack of Airline connectivity
 Poor marketing
 Limited skills and expertise in labour
 Unfriendly Visa Policy
 Limited use of ICT

Local and National Tourism Planning
Availability of an overall tourism strategy
In order to promote tourism in Gambia, there is
a requirement of overall tourism strategy which could
facilitate in attracting customers as well as increasing
visits of tourists and travelers towards tourist destinations
in Gambia.
 Improvisation and Enhancement of Airline and Road
connectivity
 Effective Marketing practices
 Increasing usage of ICT
 Revising VISA policy

Responsible Bodies
 Business operators
 Local Government authorities
 Residents and local people

Effectiveness of the strategy
Referring to strategy mentioned above, it will
be effective with optimum utilisation of
resources as well as prevention of challenges
faced by Gambia in their tourism culture. With
access to effective airline connectivity, using
effective marketing practices, revising VISA
strategies will allow respective nation to
ensure upright tourism in the particular nation.
Furthermore, it will facilitate in increasing
overall tourism in respective nation.

CONCLUSION
From the above presentation, it could be concluded that respective economic
nation i.e., Gambia is lacking in effective tourism culture. In order to be precise, Lack of
Airline connectivity, Poor marketing, Limited skills and expertise in labour, Unfriendly
Visa Policy, and Limited use of ICT has been determined as challenges faced in tourism
industry of Gambia. On the other hand, Improvisation and Enhancement of Airline and
Road connectivity, Effective Marketing practices, Revising VISA policy, and Increasing
usage of ICT has been recommended in order to improvise existing scenario of tourism in
Gambia.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
 Fyall, A. and Garrod, B., 2019. Destination management: a perspective article. Tourism Review.
 Avila-Robinson, A. and Wakabayashi, N., 2018. Changes in the structures and directions of destination management and marketing research:
A bibliometric mapping study, 2005–2016. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 10, pp.101-111.
 Reinhold, S., Beritelli, P. and Grünig, R., 2018. A business model typology for destination management organizations. Tourism Review.
 Haid, M., Albrecht, J.N. and Finkler, W., 2021. Sustainability implementation in destination management. Journal of Cleaner Production,
312, p.127718.
 Seraphin, H., 2019. Natural disaster and destination management: The case of the Caribbean and hurricane Irma. Current Issues in Tourism,
22(1), pp.21-28.
 Innerhofer, E., Fontanari, M. and Pechlaner, H. eds., 2018. Destination resilience: Challenges and opportunities for destination management
and governance. Routledge.
 Lozano-Oyola, M., Blancas, F.J., Gonzalez, M. and Caballero, R., 2019. Sustainable tourism tags to reward destination management.
Journal of environmental management, 250, p.109458.
 Martins, C.A., Carneiro, M.J.A. and Pacheco, O.R., 2020. Key factors for implementation and success of destination management systems.
Empirical evidence from European countries. Industrial Management & Data Systems.
 Solazzo, G., Maruccia, Y., Lorenzo, G., Ndou, V., Del Vecchio, P. and Elia, G., 2021. Extracting insights from big social data for smarter
tourism destination management. Measuring Business Excellence.
 Yrza, B. and Filimonau, V., 2021. Integrating sustainability in destination management plans and policies of a post-Soviet state. Tourism
Planning & Development, pp.1-23.