The Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts, Mountaga DIAO, listed the urgent challenges to be met to position tourism and handicrafts at the heart of the regional Compact on the blue economy, in a context of global growth in the sector.
The Minister was chairing a two-day workshop devoted to tourism as part of the regional Compact on the Blue Economy, initiated by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), in collaboration with the State of Senegal.
The workshop was organized around the premise that “Senegal is not benefiting enough from the growth in global tourism”.
According to Mr. DIAO, Senegalese tourism is “almost exclusively sea and sun”, but the new global demand is currently very diversified.
“We haven’t been able to meet the new global demand, which is increasingly focused on green tourism, discovery tourism, historical heritage tourism, cultural tourism, tourism that offers a variety of activities, fitness tourism and not just sunbathing and seaside tourism,” said the Minister at the opening of the workshop on Tuesday.
Recalling the transversal nature of tourism and its knock-on effects on the national economy, the Minister underlined the high cost of the destination, which has benefited competitors.
“We have faced stiff competition from many countries closer to the sending countries, such as Turkey, Tunisia, Spain, Greece and Morocco (…), which have been able to offer identical services at lower prices”, he points out.
In addition, the Minister referred to the quality of services, which had “deteriorated significantly, both in terms of equipment due to lack of maintenance, and in terms of quality of service”.
Given the capacity of tourism to attract private investment and the major financial stakes it represents, Mr. DIAO believes that it should be at the heart of the economic and social development issue (…) in a sovereign, just and prosperous Senegal, in line with the vision set out by His Excellency Mr. Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar FAYE, President of the Republic.
This two-day workshop between the Ministry of Tourism and Crafts and the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Cooperation, materializes, according to him, the ambitions of the Senegalese government to establish a pragmatic approach to problem-solving within an efficient administration at the service of the people and communities.
To establish a more attractive and competitive tourism sector in the long term, we need, among other things, to “introduce a different form of authority throughout the country, through the implementation of a new spatial planning policy, institutional reforms and endogenous projects and programs”.
It’s also a question of taking advantage of the opportunity presented by the development of the regional compact on the blue economy, to make an uncompromising diagnosis of the constraints that are holding back the growth of tourism, leading to a detailed analysis of their underlying causes.
From the regulatory and legal framework, to safety and training, not to mention local gastronomy and equipment maintenance, as well as environmental degradation and climatic vulnerability, the challenges are numerous.
Chaired by Minister Mountaga DIAO, the workshop on August 13 and 14 brought together a number of Ministry officials and technicians, as well as experts from UFC/R, to analyze the problem tree and identify the sector’s root causes, with a view to drafting concept notes.