Enhanced hospitality sector critical for tourism development – Gaskin

Minister with responsibility for tourism, Dominic Gaskin, told media operatives in order to advance the tourism sector, the hospitality sector needs critical enhancement to deliver the high level of international service tourists are accustomed to.
The Minister’s comments came on the heels of the closing of the Organisation of American States (OAS) Ministerial Tourism Conference at the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown.
Minister Gaskin said Guyana was able to tap into the experiences of the other countries participating in the Conference and it was able to raise its profile within the regional tourism fraternity as host country.
“Guyana benefited a lot from being the host. It raised our profile as a tourism country in the Region; also the discussions, presentations were very relevant to

our situation as a budding, emerging tourism destination. A lot of the experiences of the other member of states in tourism were of particular interest to Guyana. We don’t need to make lot of mistakes that have already being made so those experiences help us avoid some of the pitfalls and to hone our tourism product and the way we market it and to whom we market it,” he said.
“We do need to do a lot of training in the hospitality sector because tourism is a service sector and we in Guyana don’t have a long established track record in the services sector. It is something we have to learn and the hospitality sector is fairly specific and a lot of international visitors are accustomed of high level service,” he noted.
Additionally, Minister Gaskin noted that tourism is a service sector and Guyana does not have a record of accomplishment in the sector, hence the need to aggressively address that. He explained that tourism operators need to be cognizant of the fact and work to address the level of service delivered within the sector.
He explained if the level of service is not offered then the reviews would be in keeping with that ultimately deterring other visitors from coming.
Gaskin told reporters that one of the major challenges is bridging the gap between the coast and the tourism destinations. He noted that the high cost of visiting, particularly the hinterland destinations, is a deterring factor for many tourists and locals. In that regard, he related that they have to work towards increasing the demand for the product so that travelling there would become more affordable.
“We really need to increase the demand for that particular product to the extent that we can benefit from the economy of scale so that visiting the hinterland regions is more affordable not to just the international tourist but also for domestic tourism. We would like Guyanese to see the beauty of our own country and be able to be tourism ambassadors and to be able to speak to visitors to persuade them to visit,” Gaskin said.