IkechiUko, an organiser of Akwaaba African Travel Market, Abuja Jabamah, Accra Weizo and now Banjul Bantaba has disclosed that The Gambia with its brand equity has opportunity to occupy its space as far as tourism is concerned in West Africa.
The travel and tourism guru affirmed that there are six popular events that dominated and have brand equity in West Africa, this he named “Dak’Art in Senegal which is for visual arts; FESPACO in Burkina Faso for movies; PANAFEST for culture in Ghana; AKWAABA, Nigeria for tourism; ROOTS Festival in The Gambia and Carnival Calabar in Nigeria.”
Uko in an interview held in Sindola Safari Lodge, Kanilai during Banjul Bantaba team’s FAM-Trip visit to the lodge noted that The Gambia with its already existing brand equity don’t really need many people from outside West Africa because the country can get its high paying audience from West Africa population which is having over 350,000,000 people. According to him, this is due to the fact that the country “is in a good position to get it right if the country really package its products well.”
In the term of events and reaching the targeted 500,000 number of tourists/visitors to the country, The Gambia still has an opportunity to occupy space because the country already has the brand equity “but just that it needs to repackage it with more similar activities to raise it above its former standard.”
The Banjul Bantaba team led by IkechiUko comprises a team of travel experts, tour operators, travel agents, travel media among other expertise were in the country on a 6-day Fam-Trip.
On their six days Fam-Trip the team covered different events which included training on sustainable tourism by experts; West African stakeholders meeting; boat cruising on river Gambia; sporting activity between locals and visitors; Kunta Kinteh’s Trail/Juffureh tour; visit to Gambia’s best eco lodges; Banjul city tour and as well experienced the night life in The Gambia. All these geared toward reviving the Banjul Bantaba, one of the launched product that encourages more West Africans to visit the Smiling Coast.
Uko described the team’s B2B meeting with the stakeholders as ‘an eye opener’ for his team hence they have never seen some of these quality hotels in The Gambia anywhere in West Africa. “Gambia has so much that are unknown to people, so the B2B environment gave the opportunity to the team to know more about the country. The destination has grown up the quality we saw in the hotel together with the roads have improved, there are shopping malls and now Sindola Safari Lodge also is fantastic and grasses are green compared to the past years.”
IkechiUko, an organiser of Akwaaba African Travel Market, Abuja Jabamah, Accra Weizo and now Banjul Bantaba has disclosed that The Gambia with its brand equity has opportunity to occupy its space as far as tourism is concerned in West Africa.
The travel and tourism guru affirmed that there are six popular events that dominated and have brand equity in West Africa, this he named “Dak’Art in Senegal which is for visual arts; FESPACO in Burkina Faso for movies; PANAFEST for culture in Ghana; AKWAABA, Nigeria for tourism; ROOTS Festival in The Gambia and Carnival Calabar in Nigeria.”
Uko in an interview held in Sindola Safari Lodge, Kanilai during Banjul Bantaba team’s FAM-Trip visit to the lodge noted that The Gambia with its already existing brand equity don’t really need many people from outside West Africa because the country can get its high paying audience from West Africa population which is having over 350,000,000 people. According to him, this is due to the fact that the country “is in a good position to get it right if the country really package its products well.”
In the term of events and reaching the targeted 500,000 number of tourists/visitors to the country, The Gambia still has an opportunity to occupy space because the country already has the brand equity “but just that it needs to repackage it with more similar activities to raise it above its former standard.”
The Banjul Bantaba team led by IkechiUko comprises a team of travel experts, tour operators, travel agents, travel media among other expertise were in the country on a 6-day Fam-Trip.
On their six days Fam-Trip the team covered different events which included training on sustainable tourism by experts; West African stakeholders meeting; boat cruising on river Gambia; sporting activity between locals and visitors; Kunta Kinteh’s Trail/Juffureh tour; visit to Gambia’s best eco lodges; Banjul city tour and as well experienced the night life in The Gambia. All these geared toward reviving the Banjul Bantaba, one of the launched product that encourages more West Africans to visit the Smiling Coast.
Uko described the team’s B2B meeting with the stakeholders as ‘an eye opener’ for his team hence they have never seen some of these quality hotels in The Gambia anywhere in West Africa. “Gambia has so much that are unknown to people, so the B2B environment gave the opportunity to the team to know more about the country. The destination has grown up the quality we saw in the hotel together with the roads have improved, there are shopping malls and now Sindola Safari Lodge also is fantastic and grasses are green compared to the past years.”