The glorious reality of sustainable tourism development – final episode

 I can’t believe the time has gone so fast

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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I can’t believe that the time has gone so fast and that I’ll be flying back to the UK a week today (it’s Wednesday evening as I type this).  So much has been achieved but there is still so much more to do, I’m not quite ready to leave but I know I have to, it’s going to be a bit of a manic last week I feel.

There have been a few jolly moments over Christmas….we had a bit of a Christmas bar crawl with the guests last week, in the first bar the speakers were playing up and the band were sounding slightly off key, despite Ian, one of our reps, telling them that it was probably a loose wire that could be easily fixed on the spot.  They continued on regardless while guests were wondering how long we were going to subject them to it for! 

Lamin, one of our other reps came to check a few things with Bryan before making his welcome announcement. 

Two Olympic Holidays guests had joined us and he wanted to welcome them as well and to find out what time we were staying until.   We were happy to  give a mention  to Olympic Holidays and told Lamin we’d be in the bar until 2115, it was about 2020 by then, we  also suggested that people pay for their drinks as they go as the billing system the week before became quite difficult for the bar staff and delayed the bus going to its next venue. 

Literally 20 seconds later, Lamin took the mike, announced a warm welcome to bar crawl on behalf of Thomas Cook and ‘Direct’ Holidays and told everyone that we’d be in the bar until 2200 and to all pay for their drinks right at the end!  We couldn’t believe it, and the look on the guests faces when they thought they’d have to listen to Celine Dion interpretations until 10pm was priceless.  Chinese whispers eat your heart out.

Emma, who works in the office lives in the Senegambia Hotel, there was a huge commotion right outside her room last week, she cautiously opened the door to see what was going on, only to find that a monkey had fallen through the false ceiling in the corridor and was running around trying to find its way out!  Much of the false ceiling was on the floor, no photo of the monkey unfortunately but it must have been rather on the large side looking at the damage to the ceiling!  Not sure if it met any guests on its way out!  It could only happen here I’m sure!

We all had a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, me and Bryan got a bit drunk on Christmas Eve to be fair, we went out for a nice meal to a nice restaurant, had a few drinks in there, paid the bill and then the owner came over, ordered more wine….I went to the loo….came back….a new glass of wine, I disposed of some of the wine when she wasn’t looking…..more wine came as I was obviously drinking so quickly and loving the vintage!! 

In the end, after Bryan was subjected to an improtu lap dance and I was kissed on the lips by another woman we left.   Such was the disbelief of the events of the night that we had to go for another drink, at 0300 we called it a night and by 9am the next day I wished I’d called it a night a lot earlier when I woke up with a  headache !

2 anadins, a litre of water and another couple of hours in bed made all the difference .  Myself and Bryan then met up at the restaurant  to sort out the Christmas Dinner for the reps. 

Most of the organisation had been planned however we got there at 1500 to find no tables, no chairs, no sign on the stairs telling people not to go up there due to a private party, no sign of anyone doing anything about any of the 3 previously mentioned issues.  Reps were due at 1630, by 1600 we started to mildly panic and Bryan toyed with the idea of going somewhere else, by 1615 we had tables, chairs, tablecloths and an F&B manager who decided he’d organise everything in a painfully slow manner for us.

At about 1629 I got changed behind the bar from my shorts and t-shirt into my Christmas dress and we let the reps in! By 2030 I was in bed and totally worn out, but it was lovely and chilled out overlooking the beach.

Roll on New Year!

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.

Find out more about sustainable tourism  HERE