British Tour Operators React to German Tourist's Letter

-Say 'Jammeh Gov't  Acts Like Scared, Jealous Teenagers'

Dear Editor,

We have just read the article by your German reader yesterday. We would like to add our comments from the UK and hope they will be read by some of the Gambian government officials who care about their own livelihood, even if they don’t care about the people (as it seems from their behaviour of the past few years).

Unlike our German friend, we do know The Gambia very well because we own a small chain of travel agencies in England and Wales. A couple of years ago, we noticed the drop in bookings for The Gambia and asked some of our regular customers why this was. Without any exception, they all cited the actions of the Gambian government as their reasons for not wanting to visit the country. Some said they were afraid to stay in a country where innocent people were picked off the street and disappeared, never to be seen again.

Last year, we took two bookings for Gambia holidays, in spite of trying to do a countrywide promotion. Word had spread across all of our shops. Even people who had been going to The Gambia for many years and said they had friends there refused to go. They said they would not give their money to a country that was “like Zimbawbe”. Because it was affecting our own business, we started to take an interest in the happenings in The Gambia.

When we read about the arrest and sentencing of Mr. and Mrs. Fulton just before Christmas, we decided to remove The Gambia from our list of destinations because it was clear that nobody was safe in that country. In fact, we even went to the expense of reprinting our brochures. Nobody wants to go to a supposedly democratic country where they can be arrested for speaking their minds.

If people are looking for winter sun and nice beaches, we sell them Ghana, where they feel safe and are not afraid of being arrested for no reason. This year, we have sold over 60 package holidays to Ghana, giving that country revenue of over UK£65,000 in the first few months of the season.

Now, somebody else has been arrested for no good reason, except wanting to help other people. We agree with Mr. Dornberger. The Gambian government acts like scared, jealous teenagers, not capable of thinking for themselves, just lashing out at the first chance to get rid of anybody who doesn’t agree with them. It’s pathetic. Most people stop being bullies when they leave school, and even little children know they can learn a lot from people who argue with them.

We’ve found that all our colleagues in the industry in other European countries feel the same as we do. We won’t be selling Gambian holidays, no matter how much the price drops. We won’t suffer, but the poor people of The Gambia will until the government “wakes up and smells the coffee” as you say over there in America, and starts acting like mature grown-ups in the real world.