The glorious reality of sustainable tourism development

Bulletin number 5: Yeah Man… reggae, composting toilets, and a wild night out

Jo Baddeley, Thomas Cook’s Sustainable Destination Manager, gives a candid view… of how it works in a destination – tourists and all!

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Well, I think the whole of The Gambia could be passively stoned after the reggae beach party last night.   I went with Claire, a friend from the UK, she’d heard about it from quite a few people who sang its praises so off we went.  We had to follow Bakary – Claire’s driver – to find the place, then swap cars as Bakary is quite adept at driving on the beach between sunbeds to get us to the chosen destination for the party,  seemingly this is acceptable practice but I don’t think I would have done it myself.  

The place is a brick built building on the beach with 2 big freezers full of drinks that are looked after by 2 Finnish boys!  No locals really drink though to be honest, but there were a few Europeans getting into the spirit with a Julbrew beer.  At 9.30pm when we arrived it was quiet and we were wondering what all the hype was about, by about 10.30pm it was rammed, the air was absolutely thick with smoke from joints some of which I’ve never seen the like of before…they were huge.  Seemingly, the army don’t come to parties so it’s OK to smoke at a party but you would be arrested if you just smoked it anywhere on the street for example.  I have to say that I now understand why so many people here are so laid back, there must have been 300 people at the party.  It was actually a really good atmosphere and really interesting.

Claire had an interesting moment when needing the loo, there was no door and she had to be guarded by 2 men who helped maintain her privacy bless her.  From there on, I refused any more drinks and found that that was going to be the best way to save my privacy.

It’s been a great weekend too, me and Bryan had a lovely chilled out day at Sandele and Footsteps yesterday, the beach at Sandele was practically deserted apart from a herd of huge cows, one of which got fed up walking with its friends and just turned round and starting heading back in the complete opposite direction.  The cowherder didn’t seem bothered when I pointed this out to him so we stopped worrying about it.  We ordered a diet coke from the girl that came to ask us for drinks, she brought 2 bottles back and for a moment we didn’t think she’d brought a bottle opener.  When Bryan asked for it, she lifted her skirt up and we were both a little shocked and confused…..she was actually picking sticky buds out of her skirt due to having taken a short cut through the undergrowth to get to us and they were all scratching her legs.  She’d already put the bottle opener down for us but we just hadn’t noticed!

Bryan was getting right into the composting toilets and the bird watching, which was actually quite hysterical.  On Saturday night we went to the Ebunjang Eco-Brick Theatre and it looks every bit as amazing  as the picture.  The play was quite long but really interesting,  it depicted the story of the slave trade and was titled ‘Chains of Inspiration’ – it was an excellent interpretation of history and really makes you think about how people were treated as commodites all those years ago.  I did have a mild panic though when they came out with rope around their necks which tied them together , if one of them had fallen over I’m sure they’d have decapitated someone.  They also had real machetes on the stage when they were ‘play-fighting’.  It was all very cultural though so Bryan has had quite an introduction to sustainability in the last 48 hours bless him!

Real work:   I’ve started the Switch Off Save Big appointments now, the initial visits to help the hotels save energy and water were done in the summer and I’m going in to try and put some action plans together and find out what the hotels have done since then.  I have to say I’ve been really surprised by some of them, the Atlantic has already made about ten changes and are willing to do even more, the Kairaba got started straight after my visit, the Sunset Beach were also really positive, we had a small issue with the maintenance man’s filing capabilities but we sorted that out, and the Senegambia Hotel has put a green team together who are all going to be working on initiatives within their department of the hotel.  I’m so impressed.  I just need to make sure now that they all collate their results and that we record and monitor everything properly.  I wish I could stay and do it all with them but soon I’ll be coming back and hopefully Daouda will take over for me and keep them all motivated. 

I also went to meet the paper recycling project, there are so many ideas of how to involve the hotels and their guests, we’re going to put our heads together and come up with a plan to take to the GHA – it would be great to be able to minimise the waste to landfill even further but to give customers a chance to buy back their own rubbish through recycled paper gifts. 

Today I’m off to do a couple of Travelife audits for other hotels just to give them an idea of how they’re doing against the criteria.  Quite looking forward to seeing some new places and undoubtedly learning about some fantastic intiatives that will suprise me as always.

Final bulletin next week…

Says Jo:
As part of my six week stint in the Gambia this winter I’ve been working together with The Travel Foundation, Sandele Eco-Lodge and Rupert & Lynne (our craft experts) to promote a brand of jewellery, crafts and textiles that will be recognised by customers for its committment to natural products and to a fair working ethic for the producers involved.

During the last 12 months everyone has been working very hard here in the destination to develop new innovative designs and products that will meet all customer’s needs and pockets.  The 8th December was agreed as the launch date of the ‘Guaranteed Gambian’ products and we were generously offered promotional space at the beautiful Gaya Art Cafe.  A range of buyers and other interested parties were invited to the event, resulting in some fabulous feedback and interest for orders.  Following the launch, myself and Rupert met with Anna from Top Shop who has shops at three popular hotels, she has become our first Guaranteed Gambian customer and is placing orders for all of our items within the catalogue.

For many of the producers of our crafts, this is going to be the first time that they’ve ever had any kind of real employment and opportunity to make a decent living from tourism.

The respect that will come from having this opportunity is something that I can’t even put a value on for them…instead of bumstering their wares on the streets they now have 3 confirmed outlets for their work.  With next year’s work focussing on marketing and building brand awareness of Guaranteed Gambian I know that the producers will really feel very proud to be part of it and to say that their work is sold under this label.

It guarantees a fair wage for their products and the time that they have put into making them.  The story boards of the producers will help to tell the story to the customer and bring life to the brand as well as awareness raising of sustainability as a whole.  We’ll be able to fully report on stats this time next year to demonstrate the difference this has made to the income of the producers.

I remember when I met a marabou (fortune teller) here the first time I came to do H&S 5 years ago, he told me that I would always come back to the Gambia and that I would bring wealth to people of the destination, I never believed a word of it, as far as I was concerned I was doing a one off trip there and never knew that I’d even come back.  As soon as we got the Top Shop agreement it struck me that this could be exactly what he was referring to all that time ago!  Scary that someone can know these things so far ahead of time

Of everything that I’ve done so far in this job, this is probably the highlight and the most amazing achievement yet.  There’s a lot of special people working on this project here and it’s such priviledge to be part of it.  I just wanted to share the good news!

Jo Baddeley is the Sustainable Destinations Manager at Thomas Cook UK and Ireland and has been in the role for almost four years.  She recently graduated from Leeds University with a Masters Degree in Responsible Tourism and was highly commended for her personal contribution to sustainability at World Travel Market in 2010.

Jo is passionate about bringing sustainability to life in destinations for customers, suppliers, local people and Thomas Cook’s own employees.  Making it part of an improved customer experience is the best way to get people involved.  Some of Jo’s favourite overseas initiatives have come about as a response to the Travel Foundation’s ‘Make Holidays Greener’ week and include ongoing children’s activities and promotion of new local products and events.

The opportunity to travel, to spend time with people and to develop an understanding of the flavour of different destinations are the highlights of the job.  Jo hopes to continue to encourage more and more people to become involved with sustainability and to enjoy the many benefits it brings.

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