The Gambia has received a Safe Travels Stamp from the London-based World Travels and Tourism Council (WTTC) for the mandatory guidelines and Protocols adopted by the country for the safe reopening of the Tourism Sector.
In an e-mail to the Gambia Tourism Board, WTTC said it had found the protocols to be compliant with international best practices and therefore granted approval for The Gambia “to use its safe Travels Stamp. The stamp was developed to optimise sector-wide recovery efforts by rebuilding confidence among travellers and ensuring a coordinated approach of the global Travel & Tourism public and private sectors”.
The Gambia Tourism Board can use the stamp for marketing and promotional activities on its website and other materials but it will only be issued to individual establishments after passing an inspection.
News of the Safe Travel Stamp came as the country continued to witness a systematic drop in its Covid-19 transmission rate which is now in single digits. Consequently, the Government has also relaxed many of the measures that were imposed to combat the disease. The night-time curfew which was in place under the State of Public Emergency has ended and markets have been allowed to open as before.
The 14 day quarantine which was announced for all arriving airline passengers is also no longer a requirement. However, arriving passengers are required to show a negative Covid-19 test result taken within 72 hours of departure.
The Safe Travel Stamp also came as the country plans to reopen its tourism industry to coincide with the opening of the extensively refurbished Banjul International airport terminal building.