ECONOMY-SENEGAL: Tourism Blues as Hotels Operate Below Capacity

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Chris Simpson

CAP SKIRRING, Senegal, Feb 3 2003 (IPS) - Hotel boss Ibrahima Diawara had hoped for a good season in Cap Skirring. His hotel, Le Savana Cap, is part of a long-established chain in Senegal, targeting business clients and tourists.

Diawara had anticipated an increase in bookings, with more charter flights coming from France and Italy. But the hotel is running at well below capacity.

”This week we have 24 guests and 70 staff,” explains Diawara. ”We are a business. If things continue like that, we can’t rule out closing the hotel. I dare not things of what the consequences of that would be for our staff.”

Until 30 years ago, Cap Skirring was barely a village. Then the French tourism giant, Club Mediterranée (Club Med) set up in the far south-western corner of Senegal. Cap Skirring has since been marketed as a premier West African tourist resort, offering beach holidays to thousands of visitors from western Europe.

The Gambia, just to the north, depends mainly on a British, German and Scandinavian clientele. Cap Skirring, at the far western end of Senegal’s southern region, Casamance, receives charter flights from France and Italy. The modest airport plays a crucial role, enabling visitors to bypass the rest of Casamance and ensuring that Cap Skirring remains a privileged enclave, largely untouched by the 20-year civil war still being fought in the south.

The continuing conflict between the government and the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) means that most embassies in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, advise their nationals to keep out of the south.

The U.S. Embassy ”advises U.S. citizens to defer travel to the Casamance region”, pointing out that "though there has been a decrease in fighting between Casamance separatists and the Senegalese military, violent sporadic attacks by the separatists continue on Senegalese military personnel and civilians, resulting in death”.

The French Foreign Ministry exempts Cap Skirring from its warning, but makes it clear travel in Casamance is not advised.

Diawara says the French government is out of step with the reality in Casamance and should offer less alarmist advice.

”No one can say anywhere is 100 percent safe,” says Diawara. ”But we know which areas are secure. My advice to tourists would be: come to Casamance, but be sensible.”

Diawara says the tourist industry outside Cap Skirring has fallen into a sharp decline. For example, the Savana chain has closed two of its main hotels in the provincial capital, Ziguinchor, 70 kilometres east of Cap Skirring.

Ziguinchor used to be a major tourism centre, with tour groups passing through en route to Cap Skirring. But Diawara says that type of tourism has fallen off because of security concerns.

At the crafts market in Ziguinchor, ‘Maxime’, a local vendor, says he had had only a handful of customers through. ”We used to get busloads, but people are scared to come here and if they do, they rapidly move on to Cap Skirring,” he says.

Maxime says it is now impossible to make a living. ”I’ve worked here for six years. I am not married, but obviously my family expects me to bring money in and it’s not easy,” he says.

Sculptor Charly Fall has been in the same line of work for 26 years, making masks and building up collections from the past. ”My grandfather did this, so did my father,” says Fall. ”I have also trained a lot of young sculptors. This region is not as well known as it should be, but we have very rich traditions.”

”But now it is as if we were under an embargo,” warns Fall. ”We just have to open things up, to show the world that Casamance is safe.”

The collapse of the tourist industry in Zigunichor and other parts of Casamance has inevitably led to a migration of guides and vendors to the coast. Abdou Faty’s family is still in Ziguinchor, but he makes a living in Cap Skirring.

”I am a citizen here and I want to work here. But it’s difficult. There is nothing to do in Ziguinchor, so I have to try my luck elsewhere. I would prefer to be here rather than Cap Skirring, but I don’t have a choice,” he says.

But most employment opportunities in Cap Skirring depend on a six-month tourism season, extending from November to May. The head of the village, Ngalla Baye, says hotels have a responsibility to stay open all year round.

”There is no reason for the hotels to close,” argues Baye. ”They could and should be open throughout the year.”

Baye complains about the poor amenities for the population in Cap Skirring, particularly the lack of a reliable water supply. He says that organisations like Club Med should do for the local community. Baye himself worked for Club Med as an electrician, while son is a manager there.

Guides like Faty say Cub Med and the other top-range hotels try to clamp down on any tourist activity outside their perimetres. ”The tourists staying in the hotels end up as prisoners in a golden cage,” argues Faty. ”They are told to eat at the hotel, shop at the hotel boutique and are warned not to have contact with people like us. The security guards keep us off their beaches. We are constantly having problems with the police.”

Faty points to a leaflet distributed in Cap Skirring, warning tourists of the hazards of unlicensed excursions and fake tour operators. ”We are being unfairly criminalised,” argues Faty. ”We propose, we do not impose. We are not mosquitoes who attack, we are flies that will go away. We surely have the right to approach people.”

But Christian Jacquot, who runs the La Paillotte hotel, says there is no attempt to restrict guests. ”It’s crazy to say guests are confined. Go out in the village of Cap Skirring, tour the nightclubs and you’ll find lots of Club Med clients enjoying themselves. There is sometimes too much jealousy in this business. Tourism is a chain: if the big guys are doing well, so will the smaller enterprises,” he explains.

Jacquot, whose father and grandfather were also in the hotel business, is president of the hoteliers’ association in Casamance. He acknowledges that the tourism industry faces heavy social responsibilities but needs outside help to reverse the decline.

”Tourism is the only real activity here which gives employment and it is only for six months a year,” says Jacquot. ”Cap Skirring is safe, but I have to say we owe that to the military presence in the area. We need the troops here. But I think it’s time the French government and others reviewed the guidelines. I’m not saying: ‘come here, everything is great .’ but I do think we can extend the radius of what is considered safe, opening up new areas.”

Fellow hotelier Diawara says the decline in tourism obviously has severe knock-on effects for the whole local economy in Cap Skirring, hitting fishermen, market traders and everyone else. ”But what can we do? When there are no profits, there is no dividend and we cannot change that,” he says.