Local tour operators are being encouraged to invite tourists to visit the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) heritage sites in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) as the Corporation indicated its interest in tourism.

Tour operators were on Saturday given a tour of the Albion/Port Mourant Estate with the aim of showcasing what it has to offer.
They were all impressed and have promised to promote the heritage package. The Corporation is now promoting cultural and sugar heritage tourism as it focuses on tourism.
Commercial Manager Rama Persaud told operators that this does not mean GuySuCo was moving away from its core business, but rather it was developing an additional stream of income.
“In our transition, we believe that we have a product in our culture and our history, so we want to expose it and we can benefit from it bringing in some revenue which we badly need.”
In 1976, the Government of Guyana nationalised and merged the sugar estates operated by Booker Sugar Estates Limited and Jessels Holdings to form the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc, also known as GuySuCo. The main business of GuySuCo currently, is the cultivation of sugar cane and the production of sugar.
GuySuCo is currently undergoing a dynamic transition; the key objective is to create a resilient and sustainable business.
According to Persaud, local tour operators in the past indicated interest in bringing tourists to the Estate.
“If there are other operators that we have not invited, we will be extending an invitation to them because we want all the tour operators to ensure that everyone can see what we have to offer and expose as much visitors as possible,” she said, revealing that the new product was being offered immediately.
“We are ready even in the underdeveloped state; we are ready to take on tours,” she said.

On Saturday, the field laboratory, which included the nursery and insectary, visited along with a section of the cultivation area where visitors experienced travelling in the cultivation canals in a punt pulled by oxen – the traditional way of taking harvesters to the field.
One point of interest was the remains of an old re-circulation Dutch pump. This was one of two sites where tourists took photographs. The other was at the GuySuCo Training School at Port Mourant, where a 1924 Rolls Royce was on display.
The tour also included visits to the famous Albion Community Centre where the first One-Day International (ODI) cricket match in the Caribbean was played on March 16, 1977. The Albion sugar factory was also featured on the historical tour.
Raphael Ades of Dagron Tours International said his company has been promoting tours to the Essequibo, but the one to Berbice seemed very interesting.
“We are thinking of expanding and maybe coming into the sugar belt and see if we can attract people to come here. We can bring a lot of people once you have the right product. The factory is a giant. Hopefully, something will come out of this trip and we will be able to bring people here to visit and help GuySuCo in one way and also help the tourism business in another way,” he explained.
Another tour operator, Salvador DeCaires, who is the Product Development Specialist with Wilderness Explorers, said they were looking for new products and new itineraries.
DeCaires is of the opinion that Albion has a lot to offer to tourist. However, the time it takes to get to the location is of concern to him.
“If I were offering this to our clients, the itinerary that I would write up would be an overnight itinerary. I think it will be too difficult and tiring for them to do it in one day,” DeCaires explained.
However, Estate Manager Threbowan Shiwpersaud was unavailable to the media when a request was made to him for his input on the new product GuySuCo was offering.