Institute of Travel and Tourism of The Gambia and Western Hospitality Institute to sign MOU

ON TUESDAY, August 5, the Institute of Travel and Tourism of The Gambia (ITTOG) and Western Hospitality Institute (WHI) in Montego Bay, St James will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) virtually for institutional collaboration, in a partnership launch at 8 a.m. Jamaica time, and 1 p.m. in The Gambia. The Zoom meeting ID is 82311316692, while the passcode is WHI.

Professor Pierre Gomez, the minister of higher education in The Gambia, is the keynote speaker, while Dr Cecil Cornwall, founding president and chairman of WHI, and Sheikh Tejan Nyang, head of school, ITTOG, will also speak.

Under the theme of ‘Bridging continents through education, culture and collaboration’, this partnership is a direct outcome of the strategic engagements held during a side meeting, ‘From Shared Roots to a Shared Future: Africa and the Caribbean Unite’, of the recent 49th CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

Held inside the Half-Moon Conference Centre in Montego Bay, the initiative was spearheaded by NTT Global Destinations, a Nigeria-based tourism and cultural strategy company; co-sponsored by the African Export-Import Bank, and JN Bank, one of Jamaica’s premier financial institutions; and promoted by Motherland Connect.

The essence of the MOU is that ITTOG and WHI “are desirous of strengthening and promoting organisational excellence, best practices and good governance, to enhance present and future productivity and growth through institutional capacity-building and the instrumentality of best practice for various players along the tourism supply chain, with a view to improving and enhancing the tourist industry in The Gambia and Jamaica”.

The two parties, after due consideration of their common objectives, have agreed to collaborate with a view to conducting curriculum design, consultancy projects, research, institutional capacity building, training programmes and exchange visits.

The parties will agree: to jointly organise and carry out training programmes; to jointly work on institutional capacity-building; to allow the institution lecturers to partake as resource persons in the delivery of tourism and hospitality training programmes; to collaboratively develop, and deliver projects and training programmes with a view to improving tourism and hospitality services in The Gambia and Jamaica; and to collaborate in specific consultancy projects nationally and internationally.

A section of the MOU says, “This MOU shall be for five years duration from the date first executed and, without prejudice to the fact that this MOU may be renewable at the expiration of the term herein created, with terms and conditions acceptable to the parties.”

In a post-event interview, Nyang said he was invited to the Africa-Caribbean Forum by Elizabeth Agboola, CEO of NTT Global destinations, the event producer, in his capacity as head of school for the Institute of Travel & Tourism of the Gambia and as a public speaker.

“The essence of my attendance was to contribute towards how important it was to establish a linkage between tourism stakeholders and the people of Jamaica to link once more in unity as one people through tourism and culture,” he said.

“I only wish we had more of these forums to know about each other and to exchange ideas that would bring better understanding between our two people … . There are many ways to forge trade links between the two countries. We need to establish what each and every country has that the other does not have in the various areas to move in supporting each other through trade, education, culture, among other sectors that would be beneficial to all of us,” he said.

ITTOG is a ‘company limited by guarantee’ with no shared capital. Prior to this incorporation in 2013, it was first formed in 2008 as a company. It was established through links with South Nottingham College, now Central College Nottingham, in the UK.

WHI is internationally accredited by the Accrediting Services of International School Colleges and Universities, having earned premier status, the highest category of accreditation, and is locally registered to the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ) for programme re-accreditation in transition for resubmission under the UCJ guidelines.

In responding to a question about what inspired him to agree to an MOU with ITTOG, Dr Cornwall said, “Western Hospitality Institute is about building relationships, and I have always wanted to establish a connection with our African brothers and sisters using the route of education and training.

“I was inspired when I heard the interview with Mr Nyang on the Jamaica radio station where he was seeking partnership with Jamaican institutions. I immediately called my contact onsite to make the connection to take him out to dinner the same night, where we discussed areas in which we can collaborate to establish a partnership. He was easy to work with, hence the partnership through the MOU was easy to establish.”

And, more than anything else, what is he hoping to achieve from this historic agreement? “A lasting and fruitful relationship that will serve to expand on its best and next practices, and be inclusive for educational institutions to model and use in establishing fruitful partnerships for all stakeholders to benefit. Also, I want to ensure that the end users of this product, who are our students, become great ambassadors in selling the services of this programme, based on their experiences,” Dr Cornwall said.