Students experience tourism Gambian style
Published 19 February 2013
A trip to the Gambia has given a group of Brighton students the chance to experience first-hand the tourism industry in the developing world, while also strengthening existing links between the university and the West African country.
The 16 students from the International Travel, Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management BAs, the Tourism and International Development MSc and the International Tourism Management MA were joined by 10 Gambian students, each sponsored by the University of Brighton, for the challenging and exciting week-long field trip, which saw them travelling to remote regions, as well as exotic beach locations.
The Gambia is one of the world’s most rapidly developing tourist destinations and the trip, a collaborative initiative between the Centre for Tourism Policy Studies at the School of Sport and Service Management and public and private partners in The Gambia, allowed the students to appreciate the attractions of the country, as well as its difficulties, both practically and logistically. They also had the chance to see for themselves a variety of holiday sites, from the luxury of the five-star Coco Ocean Hotel to the Sandele Eco-retreat where they sampled eco-tourism.
For several years, the school has been involved in contributing to The Gambia strategy for tourism development and its policy advice to the Gambian Ministry of Tourism and Culture led to implementation of the Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute Bill.
Building on this established relationship, the students travelling to Gambia saw multi-faceted, growth tourism in action in a real-life situation. They were then able to draw on this, incorporating input from the Gambian students, to produce niche tourism business proposals, based on their personal observations and cross-cultural interactions with the local people.
Dr Alberto Forte, one of the university’s leaders of the trip, explained its benefits for students: “The real value of the trip came from its bridging of the gap between classroom and field, putting study carried out at home in the UK into a functional context on site. In fact, one of the participating students commented ‘Now I understand why I was sitting for two and a half years in a classroom, just reading and writing. It all makes perfect sense.’”
Module leader and organiser of the Gambian initiative Dr Marina Novelli agreed, adding: “This was far more than a field trip. It was a life-changing experience both for our students and the Gambian participants. The live projects became an inspirational and a great development opportunity for the Kartong Riverside, Sandele Craft Association and Tessito Eco-Camp as recipients of our joint thinking and enthusiasm.”
Anyone who wants to get a flavour of the students’ experiences in Gambia should visit the Greynore 2 building on the Eastbourne campus where photos from the fieldtrip are currently on display in an exhibition entitled Visual Tales.
The exhibition formed the basis of a competition, divided into three categories - Travel, People and Places, and Wildlife – and visitors to the exhibition, which opened last week, were invited to choose the winners by voting for their favourite images.
The winners were announced as being: Wildlife category - Sophia Abo-Goush (The Crab); Travel category - Katrice Summers (The Horse Riders); and People and Places category – Sharon Lim (The Children of Kartong).
Each winner received an Amazon voucher for £25 and a certificate of achievement. In addition, Sharon was voted overall winner and, as a result, she is the lucky recipient of the fantastic first prize of a weekend at Sandele Eco-retreat and Learning Centre in Gambia. She said: “I am very pleased and surprised because I never expected to win this competition. It’s given me the opportunity to show my talent and I’m really looking forward to going back to the ‘Smiling Coast’ of Africa.”
Course leader and organiser of the Gambian fieldtrip Dr Marina Novelli said: “I was delighted to see great photos and what they truly meant to those who submitted them. The title of the event - Visual Tales - was representative of the multiple meaning of the Gambia fieldtrip as a phenomenal learning ‘laboratory’ that our school offers to our undergraduate and postgraduate students.”