Dear Sirs

Following several holidays there, my son has become most interested in The Gambia, in West Africa, and has conceived a way of helping local people at the same time as giving tourists more interesting and better-value holidays.

He sees the country as suffering from withdrawal of support by Britain following the coup of 1994, when The Gambia was declared an unsafe destination for tourism. This led to much hardship for the people, and has induced their government to welcome inward investment rather indiscriminately. The coastal area is being developed rapidly by overseas interests, building hotels and other tourist attractions, the profits from which are, as usual, whisked away. The tourists mostly stay within the hotel compounds and the only benefit to Gambians is the wages of those employed in menial jobs in the hotels at the very low local rates.

My son is in the process of setting up in The Gambia an organisation for tourist support – support for tourists and support of Gambians by tourists. Provisionally it is called Gambia Tourist Support – GTS – though this must be changed somewhat because only governmental organisations can use "Gambia" in their name. Support of tourists will be primarily by providing them with a native ‘host’ for some or all of their stay. The ‘host,’ as a Gambian, can negotiate very favourable terms on behalf of his ‘guests’ for visits to places of interest, river boat trips and so on, and, by accompanying them, generally ease their path. These tourists would be shown the real Gambia and the lives and crafts of the native people, not just the holiday hotel and beach which is the usual. In return, the tourists support their ‘host’ by paying for his services. The charge for the ‘host’ is very modest in our terms because average incomes are very low. Even so, with no profit-taking middleman, a week’s hosting can earn a Gambian several times the average weekly income, so that his entire family benefits. If the host’s wages are paid to him weekly throughout the year by GTS, he is assured of some income during the hot rainy season (May to October) when tourists are few and work scarce. I use the term ‘host,’ though there is no suggestion that ‘host’ and ‘guest’ would share accommodation. Visitors could perhaps stay in a native compound if they wished, however.

My son has already bought a car for GTS use in The Gambia as a taxi, so providing a means of income for one Gambian. Also he pays another for PR work, which is to say spreading news of GTS around market stallholders, restaurants and other small businesses and securing discounts from them for GTS members, and finding Gambians who would be prepared to have flush toilets with hand-washing facilities built on their compounds for use, with payment, by GTS members.

The primary aim of the project is to provide employment, income and independence for native Gambians. My son is not monied and is, obviously, hoping that GTS can attract sufficient paying members, both regular and occasional, to become a viable, though not necessarily profit making, organisation. He is intending to take early retirement in a very few years and is then thinking of dividing his time between England and The Gambia, promoting and working in GTS.