Integrated tourist zones (ZTI)

Paper

Integrated tourist zones (IZT)

Description

The ambition of the Emerging Senegal Plan for the tourism sector is to place Senegal in the top 5 tourist countries in Africa, by increasing the number of tourists to more than 3 million per year by 2023. The Tourism component is declined through two flagship projects: “Development of three to six Integrated Tourist Zones” and “Micro-tourism development sector plan”.

The major objective of the “Integrated Tourist Zones” (IZT) flagship project is to strengthen the position of tourism as an engine of growth, exports and jobs. More specifically, it is:

Develop a seaside offering in Pointe Séréne for the mid-range and in Joal for the high-end;
Develop the business and “city trip” offering in Dakar;
Redevelop the Saly Portudal resort with the development of domestic business tourism;
Revitalize cultural or “discovery” tourism in Saint Louis and Gorée;
Develop the Niokolo-Koba National Park and develop an ecotourism, adventure and Safari offer.

To achieve these objectives, the five (05) main levers are:

Improving the quality of hotel, reception and transport infrastructure;
The expansion of cultural and entertainment product offerings, etc. ;
The development of local travel agencies and the attraction of international tour operators;
The deployment of training plans for tourism professions and its related activities;
Promotion of the destination and visibility of the Senegal offer.

From an operational point of view, the project to build the Pointe Sarene tourist resort constitutes the first initiative undertaken in this framework, alongside actions to upgrade existing sites such as Saly Portudal and Cap Skiring.

Furthermore, since February 19, 2015, the President of the Republic of Senegal, Macky Sall, declared Casamance a “tourist zone of national priority” with in particular the total exemption from tax and social charges for ten years for all tourism professionals. sector established there.