Updated
May 8, 2005
Gambia Tourist Support - Reg Charity No 362/2003
Cynics & 2005 Staff Picture File
Recent items on the Banta Ba represent a significant minority of regular visitors to Gambia with some very negative views
News
Page
Home
Comments to GTS
We get little flurries of this sort on the Banta Ba when people stray from the very political Gambian sites mainly representing the oppositions view of the Gambian authorities.
Recent criticism has been aimed at the bumsters, a diminishing group of Gambian individuals intent on extracting what money they can from any tourist willing to fall for their smooth or rough talking ploys.
Criticism then switched to the authorities whose attempts to curb & control the bumster problem was attacked as a brutal attack by a corrupt regime on innocent Gambians.
The third strand was a general comment about the quality of recent tourists describing them as scum being sold Gambia by unscrupulous tour operators as a tourist alternative to Spain.
For a whole range of reasons Gambia has always attracted a real social mixture of visitors.
Partly because it is one of the most
affordable alternatives to the Caribbean Islands in terms of climate.
It is a ex British colony where English is the official language.
It is just 6 hours flight from UK and basically
in the same time zone, so no Jet lag or DVT problems.
BUT it is Africa and so offers a totally different cultural backdrop for
a sunshine holiday.
As a result tourist represent a complete mix of political, economic, racial, cultural and religious attitudes - a rich soup of differences arriving in an African culture where flexability and tolerance confronts most visitors per-conceptions of Africans, Muslims and the 3rd World.
Gambia caters for all the sorts who arrive.
In the past many visitors went to Gambia to enjoy
a sunshine holiday protected and guarded behind the walls of their hotels.
They arrived knowing little about Africa and left knowing little more.
There were also those happy to exploit the poverty
of the locals by providing venues where prostitution and drugs could flourish,
not just for male tourists but for women who could pickup young men, this
created the bumster culture.
There were always the brave ones who went off to meet the locals, who recognised a need and set up clinics, schools, irrigation and well projects or just took pictures like new age explorers finding the real Gambia for themselves.
Slowly tourism in Gambia became regulated and a dedicated tourist authority was established to try to control the monster that free enterprise had created for its own economic advantage. At last the people who got rich through exploitation are finding it harder to milk the profits from the sex holiday image they had created & Gambia is maturing as a proper holiday destination.
Gambia is still a very poor country and money can still buy most things including justice and the abuse of justice so you can still find prostitution and you can still be approached by bumsters, because the successful ones have the money to bribe their way into the controlled areas, but remember that and you'll soon sort out the genuine Gambians from the money grabbers.
BUT don't be put off - Gambia is an easy holiday experience if you go as a responsible tourist, read the GTS feedback pages, the guest book entries and the Banta Ba.
Each year, GTS hosts more and more responsible visitors who have joined GTS as members to support the employment and education projects we run, they see a quite different view of Gambia and Gambians, even tourists who have visited many times before say their visits as GTS members was the best they ever had.
AND YES there is a hidden agenda, GTS is a registered charity, it is there to provide SUPPORT to TOURISTS and GAMBIANS and not to exploit either of them.
AND YES we want tourists
to join as members - AT ONLY £12.50 a year it is a very cheap way
of improving your Gambian visit as well as supporting The Gambia in a
responsible way.
Through GTS in Gambia and our totally voluntary charity GES - Gambia Education
Support in the UK.
We are able to create sustainable employment (45 GTS members of staff
in 2005)
We are able to fund schools (3 nursery schools - 2005)
We are currently funding a nursery curriculum project, which will train
Gambians to deliver a complete nursery curriculum with all the teaching
resources required and will provide a teacher training college for short
residential courses for teachers from schoolls not run by GTS.
WE administer the sponsorship and support of 450 young people's education.
We have built a multi-purpose sports hall, funded & supported through
the efforts of the GTS/GES Sports adviser Lesley Headley.
We have opened a community library and are currently stocking it with
books, a project that grew out of our first working holiday placement
We have a highly successful Restaurant adjacent to our offices in Kololi
GTS implements, administers and controls a number of independent projects
for UK based fund raisers who want to make sure their funds are used as
they intend without the financial leakage experienced by so many projects
run remotely.
JOIN GTS and help to make the difference.
Many of our non teaching staff are shown in the left margin, how many can you identify and below GTS people who have come and gone over the years.
And staff who have Come and Gone
. 
. 
. 
. 
.
. 
. 
. 
. 
. 
. 
. 
.
.
. 
.
.
5 Top
