TOURIST ARRIVALS
In 2023, a total of 206,836 Air arrivals, marking a 13% increase from the 182,795 arrivals in 2022. The first quarter of 2023 saw a significant 37% rise compared to the same period in 2022, while the second quarter experienced a growth of 9%. The third quarter had a remarkable 47% increase, and the fourth quarter showed a modest 5% rise. Despite these figures, the total arrivals for 2023 fell short of the expectations set by the GTBoard, as they had anticipated a stronger performance for the year compared to previous years. Traditional Markets (January-December) 2023 recorded 14% compared to 2022 of the same periods. The performance for the traditional market in 2023 has a marginal increase in arrivals compared to 2022.
The same growth was realized in the case of Non-Traditional Markets (January–December) in 2023 which recorded a growth of 12% compared to the same period in 2022.
Air Arrivals from 2012 to 2023
| Nationality | YEAR | |||||||||||
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
| British | 58,029 | 45,866 | 46,802 | 33,288 | 41,532 | 37,250 | 52,102 | 43,839 | 13,554 | 13,068 | 31,511 | 32,957 |
| Swedish | 8,057 | 7,953 | 6,209 | 5856 | 7,423 | 8,565 | 17,569 | 15,700 | 6,160 | 3,235 | 4,486 | 4,517 |
| Danish | 1,660 | 1,448 | 1,765 | 947 | 1,216 | 1,695 | 2,675 | 4,547 | 2,155 | 771 | 1,175 | 1,523 |
| Finnish | 1,896 | 2,624 | 2,696 | 1,687 | 4,264 | 4,631 | 4,287 | 4,674 | 1,723 | 467 | 899 | 935 |
| Norwegian | 1,540 | 1,878 | 2,631 | 1,730 | 1,623 | 1,979 | 2365 | 2,498 | 878 | 779 | 1,597 | 1,712 |
| German | 5,350 | 6,250 | 4,842 | 3,752 | 4,201 | 5,346 | 5,397 | 22,611 | 7,636 | 4,391 | 6,876 | 6,995 |
| Belgian | 5,322 | 5,068 | 4,297 | 3,535 | 5,063 | 7,346 | 8,533 | 8,864 | 3,669 | 2,254 | 5,058 | 6,337 |
| Dutch | 18,699 | 25,517 | 19,497 | 14,340 | 24,260 | 25,770 | 31,509 | 34,723 | 14,909 | 3,960 | 13,932 | 20,861 |
| Spanish | 3,570 | 5,680 | 5,560 | 5,671 | 5,488 | 6,001 | 7,587 | 8,077 | 2515 | 5,595 | 9,619 | 10,087 |
| French | 1,147 | 1,568 | 1,377 | 1,292 | 1,571 | 2,536 | 2,439 | 2,634 | 1,232 | 2,495 | 4,216 | 4,312 |
| American | 3,149 | 3,104 | 3,746 | 3,764 | 3,997 | 4,257 | 5,131 | 6,284 | 3,028 | 8,930 | 11,141 | 11,266 |
| Italian | 412 | 562 | 487 | 364 | 666 | 816 | 1,728 | 1,512 | 985 | 691 | 1,056 | 1,246 |
| Austrian | 402 | 910 | 305 | 312 | 759 | 582 | 720 | 830 | 265 | 284 | 566 | 524 |
| Czechs | 193 | 113 | 2,195 | 5,875 | 4,997 | 418 | 358 | 307 | 208 | 87 | 318 | 312 |
| Polish | 272 | 1,980 | 2,527 | 1,900 | 2,565 | 2,536 | 3,349 | 4,886 | 3,967 | 309 | 2,072 | 4,035 |
| Irish | 2,084 | 1,539 | 668 | 227 | 356 | 534 | 602 | 536 | 209 | 160 | 473 | 537 |
| Nigerian | 5,851 | 7,124 | 4,426 | 4,542 | 3,102 | 3,888 | 5,388 | 6,019 | 1,818 | 3,456 | 5,930 | 5,638 |
| Gambian | 23,252 | 29,175 | 30,204 | 28,532 | 30,544 | 29,322 | 32,652 | 40,484 | 15,751 | 34,615 | 52,876 | 59,206 |
| African | 10,340 | 15,684 | 10,288 | 10,294 | 10,333 | 9,337 | 11,171 | 16,093 | 4,229 | 7,851 | 11,978 | 13,737 |
| Others | 6,098 | 7,156 | 5,200 | 6,652 | 7,166 | 9,266 | 10,620 | 10,527 | 3,752 | 5,137 | 9,938 | 10,671 |
| Russian | 2,961 | 144 | 63 | 121 | 82 | 256 | ||||||
| Chinese | 484 | 276 | 422 | 1,195 | ||||||||
| Saudi Arabian | 42 | 125 | 205 | 130 | ||||||||
| Senegalese | 3,403 | 6,369 | 7,847 | |||||||||
| TOTAL | 157,323 | 171,199 | 155,722 | 134,560 | 161,126 | 162,075 | 209,143 | 235,789 | 89,232 | 102,460 | 182,795 | 206,836 |
| % Growth | - | 9 | -9 | -14 | 20 | 1 | 29 | 13 | -62 | 15 | 78 | 13 |
QUARTERLY ARRIVALS 2023/2022
DATA SOURCE
Data on arriving air passengers are gathered by the GT Board, Gambia Immigration Department, Gambia Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), and Gambia International Airlines (GIA). The GT Board receives data from Securiport which serves as the primary data source. Meanwhile, GIA relies on the load sheet (manifest) from airlines for their data. Naturally, there are discrepancies in the data collected by these different entities. To address these inconsistencies, a committee was established (following UNWTO recommendations) with representation from all the organizations involved in collecting arrival statistics (including the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS), Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG), Gambia Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), and International Monetary Fund (IMF). These organizations convene regularly to harmonize arrival statistics for final reporting.
Land and Sea arrivals are managed by the Immigration Department through various border posts.
1.2: TRADITIONAL AND NON-TRADITIONAL MARKETS
Tourists coming to Destination Gambia are classified either from the Traditional or Non-Traditional Markets.
“Traditional” markets are those countries where The Gambia attracts a huge number of tourists.
Traditional Markets include:
- Britain
- Sweden
- Demark
- Finland
- Norway
- Germany
- Belgium
- Netherlands
- Spain
“Non-traditional” Markets refer to countries that the Gambia is trying to attract more tourists. These markets offer the potential to boost tourism arrivals in Gambia, and if successful, could eventually become traditional markets.
Non-traditional Markets include:
- France
- America
- Austria
- Czech Republic
- Poland
- Ireland
- Nigeria
- Italy
- China
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
The rest of Africa and Gambia are all included in the arrivals as per the UN Tourism recommendation.