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Momodou
Denmark
11771 Posts |
 Posted - 11 Jun 2007 : 22:41:43
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For those interested in tourism, you can download TAMA Issue Nr. 1 here.
TAMA is the first online newsletter of the Responsible Tourism Partnership (RTP). The RTP hopes to launch a website soon so that you can have access to the good things that are happening in The Gambia to support Responsible Tourism.
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toubab1020
12314 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jun 2007 : 23:53:13
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| Super graphics,very clear print,very well presented,the subject is important,but tourists come to relax and enjoy themselves,governments are more and more interferring with the lives of ordinary people with more and more rules,a happy medium must be reached to ensure that sustainable tourism works,and is not just another way to raise revenue by having this government or that government department in charge of things, OK maybe bringing employment to many people who will work within the new department,but it will not be long before we have a responsible tourism levy or some other form of stealth tax introduced,not necessary,people are not stupid they know what to do without being forced to do things. |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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serenata
Germany
1400 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jun 2007 : 17:15:03
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I tried it, but only got empty pages.   |
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toubab1020
12314 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jun 2007 : 17:20:08
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quote:
Originally posted by serenata
I tried it, but only got empty pages.
Serenata,yes it is there I have just checked,its not in a webpage format its a PDF document you should download Adobe reader to see it,the download is free, but quite big. |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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serenata
Germany
1400 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jun 2007 : 19:08:25
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| Nada. I have the Adobe reader, but it still doesn't show me one single page. Buaaahh! |
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Momodou
Denmark
11771 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jun 2007 : 19:12:07
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| Have patience! There are 13 pages and you should wait a while before they are all downloaded for you depending on your internet connection speed. |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Drammehkangi
Sweden
40 Posts |
Posted - 10 Jul 2007 : 13:23:15
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Toubab, if I got it right, you might be thinking that the alternative forms of tourism that are propagating a divorce from mainstream mass tourism is a governmental issue? Far from the truth. Alternative forms of tourism emanates from civil society, and accademics based on the concept of sustainable development, where the alternative forms of tourism development are derived from.
Yes, tourist are on a destination to relax, but that does not warrant a generalisation that all tourists come for the same purposes.What is understood is that, tourism is about experience and represents enjoyment of non-home existence environment, a geographical distinction for that matter. For instance, there are many places through out the world where the nature, physical enviornment and the entire ecosystem presents a range of quality tourist experiences. Now, in tourism research, this segment is said to be one of the fastest growing sector in tourism, and was promoted with good intentions, because mass tourism charatirised with different forms of enclave development are not meant to benefit host communities.
Economic impact studies consistently find a high level of "leakage" of initial tourist spending, with much of it leaving the host country to pay for profits on investments by transnational hotel chains and tour operators, and for imported goods and services used in the tourism industry. The World Bank estimates this leakage to be 55 per cent for the typical developing country, but it can be substantially higher. There are other impacts such as the degradation of the enviorment, cultural pluralisation and interferance with the ecosytem.
Therefore alternative forms of tourism such as ecotourism are meant to be more sustainable; that is environmentally, economically and socially, as earnings from its activities will stay within host communities. There is therefore a need to clearly establish basic guidelines to help such communities help them sustain growth and protect the immediate environment for generations to come. |
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toubab1020
12314 Posts |
Posted - 10 Jul 2007 : 14:33:16
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quote:
Originally posted by Drammehkangi
Toubab, if I got it right, you might be thinking that the alternative forms of tourism that are propagating a divorce from mainstream mass tourism is a governmental issue?Therefore alternative forms of tourism such as ecotourism are meant to be more sustainable; that is environmentally, economically and socially, as earnings from its activities will stay within host communities. There is therefore a need to clearly establish basic guidelines to help such communities help them sustain growth and protect the immediate environment for generations to come.
Well........I have read your posting twice to try to work out what you are saying,I think that the main drive of your posting is that you feel that locally hosted projects would benefit the country and people to a greater extent to that of large tourism projects,I would agree with that, but as you said such large tourism projects HAVE to have availability of "luxury goods" to make the tourists happy.Locally hosted projects will be unable to have "luxury goods" why because they do not have money to invest in the project despite maybe wanting to,communities in this situation will have to tailor their local hosting to a different section of the tourist market,I have searched around the various Gambia sites,and there are very few that offer local hosting accomodation and holidays those that do fail to disply the price they will charge for this service,EVERYBODY wants to know how much they will have to pay,the big tour operators are able to give this although it is true to say that the initial price you see for a holiday is NOT the price you will pay there are always EXTRAS transfers to resort,extra for a reasonable weight of luggage,fuel surcharges,items like this.I doubt if the farmer on the north bank would be able to put together a package where he would be able to make some money.I hope that I have interpreted your posting correctly. |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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Drammehkangi
Sweden
40 Posts |
Posted - 10 Jul 2007 : 17:39:56
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No , you have not interpreted my point correctly, neither have you seen the point behind the whole idea of tourism development.You wrote, "Locally hosted projects will be unable to have "luxury goods". Touba, the least so to speak, that kind of development is not meant to help any poor country to develop its primary industries that interacts with the industry.Economic growth, social development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities in developing countries and are themselves essential to meeting sustainability objectives.The hospitality and tourism industry includes a broad range of businesses varying considerably in size and scale and has become an umbrella industry for different types of businesses operating within the circuit. You will need to define what you mean by "luxury goods" to fit within acceptable terms of what tourism is all about, as well as to justify the aims and objectives of development in a developing country. If you are on the band wagon of the norther concept of "development", that to "develope" are those that have adopted the Northern industrial way of life, and to be a developing country means to be succeeding in the aspiration of becoming more like the North, you will find that developing countries will never develop untill they are permitted to do so. This concept of development seems to be very typical in developing countries, where one often sees many enclave forms of tourism development that relies a lot on foreign goods and services,(expl. as you said luxury goods), and even making changes in local customs and traditions in the name of developing a tourism product. This northern concept of development means economic development no other social aspirations or cultural values are allowed to get in the way. The definition now goes far beyond just economic criteria; it is now measured in terms of the environment, improved social conditions,and many other issues.
The idea of luxury goods in the industry does not add to the positive effects of job creation and income generation. This is what is reffered to as the multiplier effect of tourism. if we want to depend your model of tourism, "Luxury goods",and that is you are encouraging more foreign goods to further axilarate the leakage factor. Which also means that we will continue to be consumer of foreign goods, that there will be no space to develop our primary industries.
I don't think, people would actually travel to foreign countries in order to experience the same standards and environment they left behind. For example, if you are English on a holiday to The Gmabia, you might be expecting to see something different from that of the UK. You might like to eat DOMODA instead of a typical English dish. The other things you might call luxury goods are open for discussion, and I would definately want to know to enable me further elaborate on the issue. However, I would like to stress that, the benefits of tourism for a poor country is to stimulate private ownership and entrepreneurial skills, and can adapt to changing market demand and supply situations, generate employment, help diversify economic activity and make a significant contribution to exports and trade.
Yaya
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Edited by - Drammehkangi on 10 Jul 2007 21:22:01 |
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toubab1020
12314 Posts |
Posted - 10 Jul 2007 : 22:42:57
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Phew......it seem that I got everything wrong,
DRAMMEHKANGI ........I must say here that I find your postings very difficult to interpret I am not a University Achedemic and have not studied this subject in depth as you appear to have done,I make my postings on my own experiences and observations,when I mentioned luxury goods I should have perhaps qualifed that with something like all the soft living items that are easily available in a westernised country (what you I think refer to as a Northern industrial way of life)Gambian food is very good,but remember that tourists live on different foods to us and although MOST of them will try one or two Gambian dishes I know that their tastes differ from ours. |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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Drammehkangi
Sweden
40 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jul 2007 : 00:51:00
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Yes, right "tourists live on different foods". However, holiday makers naturally need food and beverages during the course of their holiday, and I would like to share with you that typical food and beverages are often the association that comes to people’s minds when they think about a tourism destination. In more innovative forms of marketing a destination, food consumption has been heralded as a main attraction or theme for the tourism sector of many destination. For instace in Scotland, France, Italy and many other parts of Europe, use regional food and wine festivals with local products showcased to pump-prime their tourism sector , yielding business for their accommodation sectors.
Travellers are pulled towards a destination by its offering to suit their needs and desires, and research suggests that once the main criteria for a holiday are satisfied (location, facilities, cost and availability), consumers will make choices based on what has been provided. In numerous instances, gastronomy is vital to tourist experiences, and tasting local food and drinks has become a fashion among certain tourists (Roberts and Hall, 2001).
Food is a social maker which makes distinctions between places. Thats part of the experience a tourist seeks in a foreign country.It is the indigenous people who are supposed to provide such products to the industry through the agricultural produce from the farm lands and gardens in the country. Increasing the amount of local food used in the tourism industry is a way of increasing backward linkages from tourism, involving the local community and therefore, moving toward more diversified and sustainable form tourism development. The Tourism Master Plan of The Gambia (2004) suggests that weak linkages between tourism and other sectors exist in The Gambia, and that there are high propensities to import of foreign goods.Currently, one third of the food and beverage consumption in the industry in The Gambia is imported. That is not good for the agriculture, hurticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries, poultry, vegetable gardening sector.
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Lily
United Kingdom
422 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jul 2007 : 09:37:44
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Fair point. Yes, many tourist do like to eat the local food (well, I do at least) - but far too many also like something familiar - british pubs, English tea, chips etc etc (those, of course from my country).
However, even when I go to my friends' compounds to eat, many goods are imported for them to use - take the case of tomato paste for example. Used by everyone - imported from Europe - yet SO many tomatoes locally grown.
Back to the tourism bit. Sadly, I think too many western people visiting The Gambia today do not want to experience anything local or remotely African. They want sun, cheap drink and more sun. It's the same in Spain and Greece where mass tourism already has a foothold. It's only a few who want the alternatives and they will seek it out whether it's provided or not.
I think the idea of responsible tourism is brilliant. I think it has to be tailored to the needs of the tourists visitng the particular country. So you have to combine the two together in order for MORE people to want to take part.
Of course, this is not a satisfactory answer. But if, like me, you spend time with tourists in and around Hotels you'll know that loads of them simply don't care about the country and its people at all. On the other hand, loads do - but those ones probably already eat domada in compounds - not the Hotel version.... |
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Drammehkangi
Sweden
40 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jul 2007 : 14:49:58
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Contrary to your asertations. To be more objective, I will not refer to my own research works in The Gambia, but please find time and see empirical evidence from,Gamble, 1989; Dieke, 1993; Bah and Godwin, 2001; 2003; Bah, Godwin, Roe, 2002; Bah, Carlisle, Nyang and Sallah 2003; Goodwin 2004; Tourism Master Plan of The Gambia 2004.
The truth is, the industry in The Gambia operates on subjective views rather than engaging on research.
Yeks |
Edited by - Drammehkangi on 11 Jul 2007 14:52:03 |
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Lily
United Kingdom
422 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jul 2007 : 16:28:14
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True. But truth has many variants. Regional food fares in places like Scotland and Normandy can be very successful. On a small scale. It still doesn't get to the main, large numbers of tourists. And, my point is, that the types of tourists coming to The Gambia are rapidly changing. That's not a subjective viewpoint but, sadly, based on clear empirical evidence.
Truth is, I don't know what the answer is. |
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MeMe
United Kingdom
541 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jul 2007 : 17:36:07
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I think there's also the issue of those 'supplying' the tourists with food and drink .... for example, it would seem that they'd rather offer global brand names ie Fanta, Sprite, etc than locally produced soft drinks which are equally good. Could it be that this will allow them a higher mark-up. Maybe they think that the average tourist won't pay the higher price for an 'unknown' brand? The same goes for the dishes on offer in the tourist-orientated restaurants ... I love domada, yassa, benachim, etc and usually eat my fill of them while I'm in the Gambia yet have noticed that these dishes are usually the cheapest option on the 'tourist' menu. So, I would imagine that while these restaurants are catering for the many tourists who prefer to mostly eat only dishes known to them, they are also ensuring that they get a bigger profit.
However, like Toubab1020, I'm no academic so maybe I'm wrong here?! |
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toubab1020
12314 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jul 2007 : 18:45:08
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| I am pleased that I am not alone in not being an achedemic! I agree about drinks, I love ONeJO,and other local drinks but without a nice labeled bottle or can tourists are not going to pay D25 for a glass are they,Uncle John at Una has a long standing enterprise where the tourists go and drink Firewater and palmwine,however Uncle John dosn't strike me as a rich man although he has been doing this for years,I remember him when he was very active and would shin up a palmtree like lightning,things change,poverty dosn't. |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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