First Impressions

The Gambia is a wonderful country. Having said that, the aviation world has not been fair to this tourist gem because everybody who is here has some untoward experience to narrate about the difficulties and at times comitragic distances they had to cover to get here. Can you imagine a South African having to fly to Brussels and then back to West Africa. Even Nigerian and Ghanians who are literally next door neighbour have to struggle to get here. Nobody got here on less than three flights. For me it is a sad statement about how much work African states need to do to dismantle the borders that hinder travel and commerce. Many delegates from Nigeria had to drive from Dakar by road. Kenya Airways is doing booming business connecting many of the major capitals in West and Central Africa, but hopping from those main hubs of Lagos, Dakar, Freetown to the smaller state capitals is impossible. Just this month Air Senegal has collapsed and Bellview had problems with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authorities. This left many of the delegates hoping to come down either with useless tickets or stranded with no connections. Virgin Air Nigeria will start flying from July 1st into Banjul and that will offer the best connection yet to Gambia because Lagos has got lots of air traffic from the rest of Africa. The tourism industry here hardly uses scheduled airlines and is dependant on Air Charters from UK and other European capitals. If the air connections to Gambia are sorted out, this country stands to gain alot from regional tourism courtesy of the regional powerhouses like Nigeria and Ghana. Further afield they can easily attract tourism business from Southern Africa, South America, Europe all which are within reach. I wish the "Siling Coast of Africa" all the best and promise to be a lifelong ambassador.