By Yunus S Saliu
Like other sectors, the tourism industry which has been one of the steady sector contributing to the Gambia GDP has recorded a drop of 26% in the last 2016/2017 tourism winter season.
According to the analysis, the arrival from January to May 2017 was 65,639 compared to 78,522 in 2016 of the same period.
This signifies a drop of 12,883 (-16%). In brief, the arrivals from UK, Sweden, Finland and Norway recorded large drops of 26%, 15%, 22% and 29% respectively. But, on the other hand, there is said to be an increase in other markets such as Germany, Belgium, Holland and Spain as they got increased by 7%, 63%, 4% and 5% respectively.
However, comparing to what was projected in 2017 – 88,626, total arrivals in 2017 recorded a drop of 26% and in terms of monthly arrivals, all the months with the exception of May declined in 2017 compared to the same period in 2016. More so, there was a significant drop for all the months in 2017 compared to the projected arrivals.
