The need for formal tourism policy is being increasingly acknowledged. Nowhere is the need more pressing than in cases where economic and environmental forces clash to create social conflicts and industry inefficiencies. Encompassed a complex set of integrated research efforts designed to provide a foundation for policies to ensure the long-term protection and development of our national tourism industry. In addition to providing a tourism perspective on the various approaches employed, it should summarise the major conclusions and recommendations pertaining to tourism. Finally, it should search to extract a number of insights from the study to benefit the future trend..
There is little doubt that we have entered an era in which genuine concern for the sustainability of all forms of development has become a genuine underlying concern. Nowhere is this readily more significant than in the field of tourism. In contrast to the extraction industries where concern for the environment is recognised as a constraint on development activity that must be tolerated, the tourism sector commonly views environmental concerns as both a constraint and an opportunity. While it is true that environmental protection regulations do act to constrain tourism development, they also provide a mechanism by which we can act to ensure the integrity and the quality of the resource base on which tourism so often depends for its success. As such, those responsible for policy formulation and for the operational management of tourism destinations must increasingly seek to understand the complex interplay of the forces that are at work to conserve our natural tourism resources, as well as those that affect their effective deployment in the competitive marketplace.
Unfortunately, a great percentage of current tourism literature tends to take a dimensional approach to destination management; it either addresses tourism management from an essentially environmental perspective or it tends to focus almost exclusively on market-driven concerns.
While insincere expression of support may be paid to the need for balanced development, it is rare to find a reported example where there is a genuine concern for understanding for both the environmental and market issues involved. It is even rarer to find a study where the interface between these two sides of the development becomes an explicit element of the study process itself. However, to gain a broad based knowledge on the environment and the best approaches to the system of marketing, We need to undertake a broad base researche and development. This tasks will have to be taken by the sector responsible for development as I call it "GTDO", (Gambia Tourism Development Organisation ).
The school children on higher grades should debate frequently with prises staked on tourism development and information activities on school grounds and in television or even given tasks with kind of salary to some unemployed high school graduate and teach them ways to make such research and development on the trend of the industry by asking the hotel owners, tour operators, arts and craft sellers, and other interested individuals or groups as well as the general public. Or to the hotel school pupils as part of their studies. However, this will not only help them on a short term only but also in their future individual development and knowledge in various forms of development procedures and research methodologies.
- The Gambia Tourism Development Organ should have comprehensive analysis of the state of the industry. The study should provide a baseline for understanding the implications of existing and future development and human use, and the impact of such on the heritage resources.
2.The study should integrate environmental, social and economic considerations in order to develop management and land use strategies that are sustainable and meet the objectives of the organisation.
In an attempt to ensure that the GTDO (Gambia Tourism Development Organisation) was conducted in a fair and professional manner, the government should appointed independent Task Force whose members were independent of government and who were experienced in various disciplines. Made up of individuals from the academic and private sectors, the Task Force should bring together people with expertise in ecological sciences, tourism, public policy, and management.
Within its overall purpose, the study should have three major objectives:
• to develop a vision and goals for the (GTDO) that integrate ecological, social, and economic values;
• to complete a comprehensive analysis of existing information and to provide direction for future collection and analysis of data to achieve ongoing goals;
• to provide direction on the management of human use and development in a manner that will maintain ecological values and encourage sustainable tourism.
In addition to the foregoing objectives,
• identify areas where existing land use activities are appropriate, areas where development and use have exceeded the ecological or social capacity of the area, and areas where additional activities are possible;
• maintain or enhance the area's tourism potential consistent with the park's ecological integrity objectives;
• fill critical information gaps and support sustainable management and use practices in the future;
• provide a set of key indicators useful for assessing changes in the integrity of the Tourism development organ, and possible thresholds beyond which ecological integrity cannot be maintained;
• reduce existing detrimental environmental effects and prevent/reduce adverse effects of future development, park operations, and other land use activities.
In giving the Task Force the foregoing mandate, the head or the government should stressed the importance of consulting The Gambia public, both in terms of including them in the study process and in respecting their views when formulating final recommendations.
Although the formally appointed Task Force will be ultimate responsibility for managing the study process, but the study process should be explicitly driven by all stakeholder groups having an active and proven interest in ensuring the environmental, economic, and social well-being of the communities. To translate this philosophical commitment into hard reality, the Task Force will have to established a formal Round Table process that include broad base players in the industry. This Round Table will serve as the heart of the consultation, advisory, and analysing processes that will provided the Task Force with the information, ideas, insights, and understanding to be use to formulate its recommendations.
The Task Force should begin by asking the public how they would like to participate in the study and incorporated their ideas into its public involvement process. Interest groups and individuals should be invited to send either written submissions or to make presentations or depositions in person to the Task Force.
The Task Force kept people informed about the study's progress through regular newsletters, public presentations, news releases, television, workshops, and the Internet if possible. All meetings should be open to the public; several sectors held meetings for their members in which the Task Force participated. In recognition of the organisation’s national importance, the Task Force will have to augment the extensive involvement of people in the communities with public meetings in various locations. Due to constraints of time, space, and cost, it will be difficult to achieve the extensive public involvement that would have more fully reflected the views of all citizens across the country.
However, the administrative office can operated a storefront office in towns and villages where the public could learn about the study, discuss concerns, provide comments, or review materials in the study's library. It can also distributed information to people on its mailing list and co-ordinate the public response to specific issues asked. The administrative office in the main towns can consist of a technical specialists supplied by tourism office to assist the Task Force in its work.
Perhaps the single most important element of the information input process will be a formal visioning exercise that will play a key role in defining how the gambian public viewed the future of the industry. Specifically, the result of the visioning process will be a comprehensive statement that will provide an idealise picture on the future . another form of public input to the deliberations of the Task Force is a survey of residents of the city and towns that contribute their views as to which type of human usage (activities, services, and facilities) they considered appropriate within the industry. The survey will have to base on the premise that different types and levels of visitation have substantially different environmental impacts depending on the actual activities and behaviours of visitors. Accordingly, the Appropriate Activities Study will focus very specifically on determining which types of activities should be allowed within industrial areas.
The first step in this process will be to gain a consensus regarding activities and uses that
• should be prohibited due to their negative impact on the ecological integrity of the industry,
• contribute to the educational and interpretative goals of the region,
• should be encouraged in order to meet the commemorative integrity goals of the Parks,
• should be encouraged in order to provide quality park experiences to as many Gambians as possible, and
• provide the greatest overall access to Gambians.
In addition to the previous forms of public input, the Round Table will also benefit from a municipal government survey of for example Kotu, Bakau, Banjul and Brikama residence regarding their views on a number of issues related to the future well-being of the community-and particularly the role of tourism in contributing to that well-being of the natives.
Research and Analysis (Background, Environment, and Tourism)
Although the gathering of public views is an essential characteristic of the GTDO, the Task Force's final recommendations will also draw very heavily on a substantial number of research studies that sought to provide insight and understanding regarding visitor behaviours and their environmental impacts.
Background Studies
A historical analysis. Recognising the importance of understanding the historical context of the complex issues facing those who are responsible for tourism management, the Task Force will for example commission a professional historian to undertake a comprehensive analysis design to answer the question "Why has the face of the tourist industry changed so much. The historical analysis will examined five aspects of the industry’s history, its legislation, departmental and policy frameworks, as well as its corporate culture and its cultural context.
To complement a variety of primary and secondary sources, the researcher will have to interview certain people representing a variety of perspectives and professions. This will have to include park superintendents, politicians, administrators, planners, managers, village elders, hoteliers, developers, outfitters, tour operators, conservationists, historians, and businesspeople.
While the analysis traced some of the industry’s early history, its main focus will be on the period since 1970s.
Governance analysis:
A management framework review. This study will involve a review of current management practices in the industry, as well as other comparable protected areas. The goal will be to determine if practices from other regions might be adapted for use in our industry. The study also will examine past development decisions in the industry, with a view to documenting how developments are currently approve and to determine if the process could be improved. In addition, one component of the study to be undertaken, a comprehensive review of the management framework for research in the industry. Again, the objective will be to document how the industry is currently manage research and how this management process will be enhanced. Finally, this review will prepare a discussion paper on the processes of governance and land management. In particular, it will examine the methods that the industry is currently using to gaining their market shares and protecting the environment.
Benchmarking: Another step prior to the commissioning of studies on specific areas of interest and concern was to document the current status of key indicators that described or captured the "state" of a broad range of environmental and tourism conditions. It is against the measures of these indicators that the effects of recommendations for future action can be assessed. In summary, the GTDO will have to provide an extensive compilation of information describing the current environmental, economic, and social conditions. The study will also describe the regulations, agreements, and legislation that apply to management and situating the industry within its regional, national, and international contexts
Environmental Research and Analysis:
This will emphasise that the environmental component of the sustainable development is the most significant in terms of both resources requirement and the number and complexity of recommendations. From an overview perspective, these study will involve two major undertakings: a Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA) and the development of a Futures Outlook Model. From the standpoint of better understanding the environment/tourism interface, it is important to appreciate the significance of the "cumulative-effects" approach to both scientific and policy research. Most important, the cumulative-effects philosophy demands that policy makers examine tourism development and its impacts (both positive and negative) as a cumulative process in which no development initiative can be considered in isolation from others around it, as well as those that have preceded it.
Tourism/Visitor Research and Analysis:
The tourism outlook project. To better understand how tourism in the region had evolved in the past and might evolve in the future, the Task Force can also commission a consulting firm etc to examine current trends in tourism and to assess how those trends might affect the industry and the region as a whole in the future. Given this mandate, the firm will reviewed the historical developments in tourism and examine factors that influenced the type and number of visitors that come to the country. Then examine current tourism trends from a global, regional, and local perspective.
Visitor behaviour and impact study. This study had as its overall purpose to provide an initial understanding of the nature and severity of the impacts that visitors and their various activities have on the ecological integrity of the nature. The Behavioural Research Project can be succeed in completing two specific subsidies as a first step in a long-term research process. The first of these will be National Tour Association survey, in which the views of tour operators were solicited to understand how their clients view the Gambia and to identify any difficulties they may have encountered during their visit. Second, the Gambia tourism industry survey will obtain the views of local tourism operators regarding visitors using their facilities and identify any concerns they have about the country.
