Domestic tourism is the tourism of resident visitors within the economic territory of the country they reside in. This type of visit has to be done somewhere away from place you live and work.

Domestic tourism, which is also related to inbound tourism is limited not only to the citizens of the country but all residents  which includes citizens and non-citizens alike. This type of tourism is not very much popular here in the Gambia. Perhaps it might be due to the lack of knowledge of the residents about tourism. Tourism in The Gambia, for the past 40 years has been developed to attract outbound tourists from the west. To encourage domestic tourism in the Gambia, there is a need to redesign the tourism products. What is appealing to visitors might not appeal to the residents hence they are not into adventurism.

Domestic tourism should be encouraged by the government, individuals, institutions, NGOs and others. Promotion of domestic tourism can start through organized events in different tourist areas within the country. Examples of such tourist areas could be Janjanbureh, James Island, Tendaba, Tumani Tenda and other attractive and historical places within The Gambia.

Institutions like banks, communication companies and so on can do this by having weekend breaks for their staff. For concentration and good assimilation, some of the workshops, training and the like can be moved up-country. You can have a day’s excursion to somewhere like Kalagi, to spend the night on the coast. An inland visit or travel will let you know more about the Gambian culture and history.

Domestic tourism needs more publicity. The tourism authorities have more work to do on this. Domestic tourism can never be a substitute to international tourism in The Gambia, but can be helpful during the off tourism season. The domestic tourism market is not very much attractive to local ground operators in terms of its monetary value. Also, the number of tourist they need to do the business is obviously not available. Bear in mind that The Gambia is a very small country. Looking at the population of working Gambians, one realises that they can not really keep the local ground operators in business.

However, tourism operators can start domestic traveling through organizing programs with regional students to The Gambia. A good example of this are students from Senegal, Guinea and  so on coming to The Gambia. They can come for an excursion  their school holidays. This will normally be in the summer – off-season in the Gambia. It is also well worth noting that there are some Gambians who like holidaying abroad during summer.

If domestic tourism is properly organised, it will play an important role in the country’s tourism industry and in The Gambia’s economy in general. Since summer is the off-season, there are not many visitors because most tourists don’t come then. Therefore, most hotels are empty. But with the domestic tourism, some of them can remain in operation without shutting down or making most of their staff redundant.