Ninki Nanka Encounters

Ninki Nanka Encounters is a small, new Gambian charity, supported by a UK community interest company (CIC), working towards the responsible development of the Ninki Nanka Trail as a community-based tourist destination. We work on projects with communities, tourism businesses and local government to develop experiences, products and community-based tourism designed to create inspiring, cultural interaction between tourists and local people, and use tourism to create livelihood opportunities for host communities along The River Gambia. Our activities also include responsible tourism education, preserving Ninki Nanka stories and intangible heritage, conservation and experiential and cultural immersion tours for small educational and special interest groups. Ninki Nanka Encounters is a charitable foundation based in The Gambia founded in 2020 by Lucy McCombes and Adama Bah. For several years prior to this Adama and Lucy have led on exploring the feasibility of the Ninki Nanka Trail through an informal partnership between the Gambia Tourism Board, Leeds Beckett University, the ITTOG (Institute of Travel and Tourism of The Gambia), ASSERT (non-profit Association of Small-Scale Enterprises in Responsible Tourism), Gambia River Excursions and other partners committed to the idea of the trail and responsible tourism. Since early 2019 the development of the trail was more formalised through funding from the International Trade Centre to support communities and other partners to take the development of the Ninki Nanka Trail products/ destination further.