Ghana and The Gambia will, by the end of this year, begin a joint tourism promotion and marketing programme. The two countries will also embark on a knowledge exchange programme by which staff of the Ghanaian and Gambian tourism facilities will undertake industrial attachments for on-the-job skills upgrade.
According to the terms of a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the two countries desire to enter into a multiple destination agreement by which a tourist who buys a ticket to visit The Gambia or Ghana will, automatically, visit the other country as one package.
Draft agreement
Details of the draft MoU were spelt out at meetings between officials of the Gambian Tourism and Culture Ministry, the Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Training School and a Ghanaian delegation led by Mr David Nana Anim, the President of the Ghana Tourism Federation (GHATOF). Other members of the Ghanaian delegation were Mr Reuben Kojovi, the Assistant Director of Projects with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, and Mrs Mabel Ashorkor-Adjei of Yehoda Hospitality.
Draft MOU
Briefing newsmen after a week-long visit to Banjul, Nana Anim said the Gambian side expressed the desire to have Ghanaian movie and music celebrities undertake visits to that country.
As part of a cultural exchange programme, drama and dance groups from each country will exchange performance tours.
He said the Gambian tourism operators had put in a request to GHATOF to help them to strengthen their private sector grouping into a vibrant advocacy group that would have a voice in policy making.
Nana Anim said the draft MoU was currently being studied by officials of the two countries and that the final document would be signed by the relevant ministers of state of the two countries.
He said the biggest threat to efforts at any joint Ghana-Gambia tourism co-operation was the absence of a direct flight linking the two countries.
Nana Anim said Gambia Air, which used to fly to Accra, had ceased operation, but added that there were moves in consultation with the Board of Airline Representatives in Ghana to remedy the situation.
Source: Daily Graphic
