Gambia Increases Tourism Investment

The tourist industry in the country receives over 100,000 visitors a year and is the second biggest earner of foreign revenue. Visitors from the UK make up 50 percent of arrivals. Now the country is looking to increase these numbers to further boost the country’s economy, of which it is already one of the main drivers. Jobe-Nije is positive as to the impacts that increased tourism can have on the country, in spite of the fact that the sector has seen some turbulence recently.

Gambia is targeting a 5 percent increase on its tourist numbers, according to tourism minister Fatou Mas Jobe-Nije, and is upping investment to attract more visitors to the country.
“It is a real breadwinner, in terms of job creation, income generation and cultural interaction,” she said. “Gambian tourism has always been about people and their interaction with tourists within a limited geographic area, coupled with the proximity to most European destinations.”
“Tourism plays a key role in terms of the socio-economic development of the country. The vision is to diversify the scope and geographic spread of tourism to benefit our communities in terms of developing ecotourism and community-based tourism initiatives. At the same time, we want to diversify the product mix in terms of developing high quality facilities to appeal to the top end of the market and attract more high-spending tourists.”
Tourists have long been attracted to Gambia for its climate and great beaches, as well as its many species of bird and the River Gambia, which has 200 islands along it. Jobe-Nije said that the government was planning to invest in and further utilise these islands to attract more people to the country. The building of new resorts and hotels is central to this.
“The hotel industry has a two-pronged role – the development and consolidation of beach-based products into five- and four-star categories, with state-of-the-art facilities to attract high-end tourists, while at the same time developing inland tourism facilities for ecotourism,” she said. “New resort projects and eco-tourism facilities in the pipeline include: Kanuma Beach; resources and Game Park, to be located in south Gambia; Sanyang Sanctuary to be located in south Gambia and the Ndemban Community Eco-Tourism Project.”
The government hopes to attract investment in the sector to make it more appealing and worthwhile to foreign tourists, and is offering incentives to those looking to pour money inrto rejuvenating the sector.
“The opportunities for investors are immense, especially to high-end products such as golf course, marinas for river cruising, ecotourism, river transport, game parks, top-notch hotels and resort development,” she said. “Incentives for investors in tourism include: exemption from customs duties on capital equipment, spare parts, raw or semi-finished materials; exemption from withholding tax and tax on dividends for a period of five years; preferential allocation of land for the projects.”

Culled from Ventures Africa

SLIDING GURARA

Little wonder, Nigeria's largest state by land mass, Niger is christened, the "Power State". It not only account for around 40% of  total power production output to the national grid, but hosts two past Heads of State - Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, and Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar. It is also the birthplace of Nigeria's only indigenous Governor-General, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and secessionist leader, Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who were both born in the sleepy town of Zungeru.

It is a well drained area, with countless tributaries, emptying in to the Niger river at various points, or first entering the Kaduna river, which is itself, a major tributary of the Niger. Thus, it is hard to say Niger State is not the geotourist's haven. But when the topic of tourism is associated with the state, just the magnificent Zuma rock and the Bida blacksmith district come to mind. However, the discovery of a beau, and the subsequent interest in developing it in to a tourist delight, urged me to pay a recco visit, but not without company.

Thus, in line with taking a tour of Tswata Mukun -  the blacksmith district at Bida, even though we were not allowed to take pictures, I took four Chinese and one Vietnamese tourists to visit the Gurara waterfalls. Characterized by features which still make African rivers unnavigable - rapids, the waterfall is a gigantic stampede of water, slaloming over granitic rocks cut in beautiful formations to form a collection of small falls, and a colossal waterfall which plunges off a cliff, and then proceed through Gurara Local Government to empty in to river Kaduna.

We spent about 45 minutes at the site, taking pictures, and playing at the bank, where I was able to engage with the only local tour guide, who briefed me about the vision of turning the place in to a truly pro-poor tourist destination in Nigeria. While he talked, I kept dreaming, drawing up imaginary structures of how the place could be transformed, but now, I pictured myself as a holder of a 99year BOT tenure.

We got to the site around the time the sun was about to descend beyond the horizon, so, we were able to avoid the heat of the day, but we couldn't help folding up our pants, and feeling the coldness of the water with out feet. The tourists were delighted, and wanted to stay much longer, but we had not bought enough time on the day. We thus, left for the capital, Minna, where I plot my return in grand style, to Gurara Waterfalls.