Holiday package tourism and the poor in the Gambia

Abstract

This paper analyses the tourism value chain in order to understand and encourage pro-poor growth of the tourist sector in The Gambia. The central finding is that about 14 per cent of the Gambian part of the chain flows directly into the hands of poor people – a much larger pro-poor outcome than the authors expected. This is due to well-developed local linkages in the destination country that allow poor people to access tourist discretionary expenditure – supported by concerted action from civil society and donor organisations. Pathways from tourism to the poor are, in descending order of importance, craft markets, the food supply chain, non-managerial staff in hotels, excursion guides, and taxis. To increase the benefits from tourism to the poor, the paper recommends increasing both the size of the slice that accrues to them and the size of the tourist cake itself.

Notes

²The World Bank is piloting value chain analyses in Ethiopia and Mozambique to examine competitiveness issues and, in the case of Ethiopia, measure what proportion of tourist expenditure accrues at different parts of the tourism value chain. In addition to The Gambia, the ODI has undertaken pro-poor tourism value chain work in Laos and Vietnam (Ashley, 2006a; Mitchell & Le Chi Phuc, 2007).

³GMD = Gambian Dalasi.

⁴Visitor surveys indicate that over half of visitors had come to know about The Gambia through a travel or tour firm brochure and most of the rest through personnel recommendations by friends or family – most frequently on the basis of the friendliness of the people and the clemency of the weather.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jojoh Faal

1Respectively, Research Fellow, Tourism Programme, Rural Policy and Governance Group, ODI (Overseas Development Institute), London; and Research Assistant, Rural Policy and Governance Group, ODI, London. The research on which this paper is based was financed by the Commonwealth Secretariat.