A gorgeous African country is known not only for its sunny climate and exotic food – but as a hotspot for female pensioners seeking young lovers.
A sea of bleached blonde old age pensioners (OAPs) have been seen flocking to The Gambia last weekend, eagerly arriving at Banjul International Airport.
The West African country has been a target for older, wealthy European women over the past few decades as they turn up looking to hook up with younger men.
The Gambia has gained a reputation as having an open sex market with the practice of female OAPs seeking men becoming so common that they have been nicknamed “bumsters,” reports The Sun – and they can be spotted on every beach and across bars and restaurants along the Senegambia Strip.
Sex tourism has reportedly become so rife across the nation that it is now dubbed ‘The Gran-bia’ as the sheer number of women seeking romance has increased rapidly.
Two years ago, The Gambia Tourist Board issued a plea begging the OAPs to look elsewhere for young lovers in an attempt to rebrand their image. However, the problem has since got worse.
Abubacarr Camara, director of the country’s office of tourism, said: “What we want is quality tourists.
“We want tourists that come to enjoy the country and the culture, but not tourists who come for sex,” reports The Sun.
Women are reportedly flocking from far and wide for a toyboy with visitors reportedly from Sweden, Russia, Germany, Holland and the UK.
With prostitution being officially illegal in The Gambia, European women are paying for love by other means. They often foot the bill for their lovers while they are there, showering them with gifts – some of them being financial presents. Due to the indirect way of paying the men, arrests are rarely made.
Some women visiting the country make it out of the one-week-love-affair and have ended up falling in love.
Heidi Hepworth, A British woman who has nine children, told the Sun how she converted to Islam so she could marry her Gambian fiancé Mamadou Salieu Jallow, 14 years her junior, back in 2018.
She said: “No-one imagined this would last but we love each other and are making plans to marry. I’ve never been happier.”
