GCSE Geography | Reducing the Development Gap: Tourism (Development Gap 16)

There are a number of strategies that can be used to reduce the development gap. One such strategy is developing tourism...

LICs and NEEs often have beautiful scenery and sunny climates, making them the perfect holiday destination, and developing tourism is a good way of boosting the economy if a country doesn't have the capital to invest in large-scale manufacturing.

One country that has reduced the development gap through tourism is the Gambia.

The Gambia is the smallest country on the African mainland and is a former British colony. It is surrounded by Senegal, except for a 60 km Atlantic Ocean coastline, with the Gambia river flowing through much of the country. The country has a population of 2.84 million, with 176 people per square kilometre, it is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. The Gambia’s GNI per capita is $830, life expectancy is 62.1 years, and the HDI score is 0.495. The Gambia’s main sources of income are exporting peanuts, fish and cotton, and tourism, which normally accounts for 20% of GNI.

There are three main reasons that people visit the Gambia:

Firstly, it has sandy beaches and daily temperatures ranging between 29°C and 34°C, making it a cheap alternative to beach holidays in Europe. The interesting culture attracts tourists who want to experience the different food, music and crafts, and haggling for locally-made crafts and fresh fruit in the markets. Over 150,000 people visit annually, including 60,000 from the UK. British tourists visit as English is widely spoken, it only takes 6 hours to fly there, and it is dry and sunny during the UK's winter.

Secondly, the Gambia is known for its spectacular variety of birds, such as the pied kingfisher pictured below, attracting many birdwatchers from across Europe.

Thirdly, many African-Americans visit each year to trace their roots as many Africans were taken from the Gambia during the slave trade. The Gambia also has the ruins of one of the British Empire’s key slave forts is a UNESCO heritage site.

Multiplier effect

The multiplier effect is the ‘snowballing’ of economic activity. For example, if new jobs are created in tourism this gives people more money to spend. They will spend this money in local shops and businesses, which in turn creates more money for the business owners. This also means that more workers are needed to supply the goods and work in the shops and therefore more people have jobs. More jobs means even more money!

As a result of the multiplier effect, many people have been able to benefit as a result of tourism in The Gambia. As well as hotel workers, people also work at the airport, and in restaurants and shops visited by the tourists. Since lots of tourists want to experience the culture, local guides can make money from tourism too. People sell fruit and goods on the beach, and tourists use taxis. All of these people have an income as a result of tourism, improving their quality of life as they are able to afford to send their children to school, buy medicines, and buy more nutritious food. This money will be spent in the local economy leading to economic development too.

Disadvantages of relying on tourism

Being so reliant on tourism for income is risky. With so many people reliant on tourism as an income, when tourist numbers decrease it can have a huge impact. The Gambia’s climate is seasonal which means work associated with tourism is often only during their summer months. As a result, in the monsoon season lots of people are without a job. Situations like disease outbreaks or political unrest can hugely reduce tourist numbers.

Disease outbreaks

In 2015 the Ebola crisis had a massive impact on tourism in The Gambia. Although the virus itself did not spread to the country, the tourism industry still took a huge hit. The UN estimated that tourism dropped 60% that year as people were put off from holidaying in west Africa. Many hotels did not open, or only employed half their staff. When the Covid pandemic happened in 2020-21, Gambia’s tourism industry was almost ruined for good.

Political unrest

The Gambia has always been seen as a safe destination for tourists. However, in 2016 tourists were advised not to travel to the Gambia due to the threat of a potential conflict when the old president Jammeh would not step down. Many Gambians fled the country and 25,000 tourists were sent back home. Although the travel ban was lifted quite quickly, there are still concerns that this unrest may have damaged the Gambia’s reputation as a safe destination to travel to.

Economic leakage

Tour operators like Tui, First Choice and Thomas Cook send holidaymakers to the Gambia on package holiday deals. These package holidays make trips easier and cheaper for tourists, however these companies keep a large percentage of the cost of the holiday and meaning that most of the profit returns to the UK (or wherever the tour operator is based) rather the the local area. This is called economic leakage and limits how much money becomes invested locally and slows down the rate of economic development.