Master Class in Responsible Tourism in The Gambia

It is just over 10 years since Adama Bah invited me to The Gambia for the workshop he had organised at the Bungalow Beach Hotel to find a way forward for the informal sector in a period when the conflict between the taxi drivers and guides, the craft sellers and the juice pressers was boiling over. The conference in October 1999 resulted in the development of ASSET (the Association of Small Scale Enterprises in Tourism) and the DFID funded project which resulted in significant increases in living standards for many of the economically poor producers who are now part of ASSET, a trade association for small producers which has representation alongside the hoteliers and tour operators on the Responsible Tourism Partnership which works with the Gambian Tourism Authority and government to realise Responsible Tourism in The Gambia.

There are only four students here this year from the ICRT