Let’s take a look at Africa’s smallest country. Until 2020, The Gambia was very popular with Europeans and especially British guests, also Germans liked it much. Tour operators Thomas Cook (until it went bankrupt in 2020) and FTI had very successfully included Africa’s smallest country in their programs, and now there are efforts to bring back the good times and increase occupancy with more guests from Europe.
A closer look at the handsome Tamala Beach Resort on one of The Gambia’s most beautiful beaches shows why this can succeed
The spacious beach resort offers a kilometer-long sandy beach, some of which has a similar color structure to the beaches of Lanzarote, as well as an extraordinarily spacious pool area with numerous swimming areas. Many of the spacious suites offer sea views, others have beautiful gardens, and many even have access to one of the private pools from their own terraces. Several restaurants, a bar, and a fitness center round out the upscale vacationer’s offerings. Own guarded parking area. The rooms are very tastefully decorated and most importantly, they offer plenty of space and always have their own terrace. Internet is very fast everywhere and the price level for food and drinks is European, but reasonable.
In 2020, a difficult time came for the Tamala Beach Resort. The hotel, which was very well utilized and popular until 2020, had also been hit hard by the global pandemic – just like hundreds of thousands of other hotels and accommodation companies around the world.
However, it is apparently thanks to the clever marketing manager Oleg from Latvia, that the hotel did not have to close down. On the contrary, marketing manager Oleg has consistently and successfully transformed the target group and guest structure of the hotel, which was previously focused on the European market.
Also in Africa there are extremely solvent holiday-makers, who remain however usually clearly shorter, like it the Germans, Austrians or Swiss handle. Therefore there are now discussions between airlines, tour operators and hotels, from when there will be direct flights again from London, Frankfurt or Zurich to Banjul. The great advantages of The Gambia, apart from the very friendly population, are the freedom to walk around in The Gambia without masks and corona measures in an unconstrained manner not known for a long time. This is in my eyes really not to be valued highly enough….
The social media were switched to local marketing and promotion campaigns, for example in neighboring Senegal or Nigeria. Suddenly, many more wealthy Africans came to this exquisite beach hotel, which is excellently located and shines with its upscale amenities. In Africa, too, there are extremely wealthy vacationers who, however, usually stay for a much shorter time, as the British, Germans, Austrians or Swiss guests do.
Interview with Mr Modou, a leading staff of the hotel
Now I have an appointment with one of the experienced Tamala staff, Modou. He has been on board since the hotel opened in 2018 and has seen the lively development and change in the guest structure since 2020 with a lot of heart and soul.
Oliver:
“Modou, can you please introduce yourself and your hotel as well?”
Modou:
“My name is Modou Sarr, 33 y.o. and I am the Tamala Beach Resort’s Room Division’s Manager. The Tamala Beach Resort is our leading flagship hotel as one of six REAL hotels. When we newly open we were dealing in 2018 with Thomas Cook Northern Europe and the Uk market and some other European tour operators and the local market. It was going perfectly well until Thomas Cook went bankruptcy. Besides at Low Season we had a lot of guests from FTI… till 2020. But thanks to God we are still maintaining this beautiful resort because the product is great. And now we’ve a very successfully August 2021, what we didn’t expect a few months back…”
Oliver:
“Amazing Modou. How did Tamala Beach Resort get started?”
Modou:
“The hotel always run at 90 to 100% occupancy, even from the first day in 2018. It is the favorite hotel to the European market and the locals. Since we open it was running at a very good occupancy until COVID came in…”
Oliver:
“Then came the fateful year 2020, how was the last year?”
Modou:
“Last year started great and we thought that it would be the best of the seasons we have ever had but the Covid-19 came in and destroyed all our hopes and took our joy away. But we didn’t give up. We fighted .. with good hope for the future….”
Oliver:
“Modou, I see…, how did you act in the crisis year 2020 and 2021?”
Modou:
“We have to be really grateful that the local market is working. Thanks to our marketing team who are doing extremely wonderful job…”
Oliver:
“I can see it, yes! Modou, since then the guest structure has probably changed massively, hasn’t it? But the hotel managed to survive the critical break-even quite well, even in the spring of 2020, didn’t it? To what do you attribute this success?”
Modou:
“The hotel owners have lot of plans for the future. I am sure they will continue to give as much as possible Gambians jobs. At the moment over 220 persons work for The Tamala Beach Resort, in the future even more. For the REAL hotels were working in January 2020 about 700 employees. Yes we start to received bookings from some tour operators but in this unprecedented moments… It’s hard to really sure of what the future holds. Am not sure we would be busy even if we are to have the high season. Tamala is expecting to welcomes back the Europeans at the begin of the high season end of October if everything goes well.”
Oliver:
“Let’s now take a look at the hotel owners’ plans for the future. I’ve heard rumors now that the Europeans will be coming back. When does Tamala Beach Resort expect guests from Germany, Luxembourg, Austria or Switzerland to return?”
Modou:
“Indeed, the hotel owners and managers have lot of plans for the future. Yet we start to receive bookings from some tour operators but in this unprecedented moments it’s hard to really sure of what the future holds. Am not sure we will be busy even if we are to have high season. Tamala is expecting to welcome back the high season end of October if everything goes well.”
Oliver:
“What are your expectations for the Tamala Beach Resort hotel for the years 2025 – 2030?”
Modou:
“I expect a boom decade. Between 2025-30 I believe we will need to build more rooms because the demand for holidays at our nice place will increase significantly…”
Oliver:
“Sounds very good. Good luck for The Gambia, the Tamala Beach Resort and you. Thank you for the interview.”
Conclusion: Gambia holidaymakers bring a lot of money into the country and provide jobs and income
After many conversations with local people, Brighton-based location scout Frank Mueller would also like to explicitly promote The Gambia once again. Mueller, who has been dealing with West Africa for a long time: “The population is really happy about travelers and visitors from UK and Europe. Since there are no raw materials in The Gambia and education is not really convincing either, the hardship in the country could be significantly alleviated if more tourists came to the country.” The expert continues, “At the same time, the security situation is decidedly positive; I have yet to hear of anyone being robbed or even robbed. So it’s time to visit The Gambia, the Smiling Coast of Africa.”
The Gambia in slumber … waiting for the tourist rush.
You can feel that the people are happy when they can get in touch with the world and foreign people are interested in the smallest country in Africa…
So welcome to The Gambia, the ‘Smiling Coast of Africa’ ❤️
Visit the Tamala Beach Resort:
