Image: Students learning about Local Economic Development in The Gambia

On tour students were able to apply their learning on the RTM course with a variety of interactive activities, including class based sessions, workshops, responsible tourism site visits and guest lectures from RTM alumni based and working in The Gambia. Students also worked alongside Gambian students to help develop a responsible tourism walking tour of the capital city of Banjul. They also had the opportunity to join the Ninki Nanka trail, in pursuit of the Ninki Nanka dragon. The Ninki Nanka trail is a new responsible tourism product being developed through an informal with local Gambian stakeholders and input from the RTM team.

The experience is summed up by this student’s testimony:

“The Ninki Nanka tour was an incredible travel and study experience. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to give responsible tourism real-world context and who's open to an immersive, challenging, rewarding adventure… I learned more in one week "on the ground" than I ever thought possible. It was invaluable to see various tourism activities and projects in practice in The Gambia and to understand the challenges facing a developing country, when trying to address issues caused by tourism and to implement responsible tourism. This was enhanced by the special access we enjoyed to some of the inspiring tourism experts, students, business people and communities working so hard to make tourism benefit more people in their country”.

Please contact Davina Stanford d.j.stanford@leedsbeckett.ac.uk if you have any questions about the tour.