GTA develops business support documents for tourism sector

In recognising the need for support during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) has created a series of documents to guide the operational and resource development of businesses.

In a release, the tourism body theorised that travellers would pay more attention now to health and hygiene while choosing less-crowded destinations. For this, tourism enterprises would need to align their services to suit this new paradigm.
“The Guyana Tourism Authority acknowledges that a number of small and medium-sized tourism enterprises are in need of necessary support to further develop their capacity within the sector. We know that multi-stakeholder collaboration is more important now more than ever to continuously strengthen the quality of service provided, which will, by extension, improve Guyana’s tourism offerings.”
In this light, three documents were created to serve as Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in keeping with the new norm.
The first is the Sustainability Policy and Documentation Best Practices, which was designed for managers and operators across the various tourism categories who have responsibility for sustainability and operations.
“As a guideline, it will aid in the improvement of the sustainability standards within companies as well as implementing GTA’s new regulations and guidelines. It has also been compiled to minimise risks and negative impacts by using documented systems to implement, measure, monitor, and disseminate environmental and social performance, both within organisations and the broader community,” the release said.
The second is the Community Ecolodge Operations Manual, intended to be used by Government officers, planners, industry players and community leaders as a guide to ensure Community Based Tourism (CBT) is developed.
It aims “to ensure that the level of service promised to guests is properly and consistently delivered, that customer ratings are monitored and that the staff is equipped with the relevant skills and resources to deliver excellent customer service, which will contribute to a complete experience. The recommendations outlined are practical and based on best practices derived from the case studies.”
Lastly, a Tourism Business Toolkit was created as a business support tool to assist micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in the tourism sector in establishing and operationalising their tourism business.
“Hoteliers, lodges and resort managers, tour guides and outfitters as well as tour operators and destination marketing companies can all benefit from this toolkit. The toolkit, to be disseminated via Eblast to registered members of the tourism sector and our partners, is organised into three sections: before you receive your guests, during your guest’s trip [and] after the guest departs.”
The Authority identified that an assortment of diverse tools – including general operational procedures, risk management and emergency procedures, booking and cancellation forms among others – are readily available within this guide.
The GTA continues to serve as a semi-autonomous governmental organisation responsible for developing and promoting sustainable tourism in Guyana through collaboration with sister agencies and the Private Sector in order to maximise local socio-economic and conservation outcomes and improve the travellers’ experience.
This initiative comes just a few weeks after local tourism authorities came together to address constraints occasioned by COVID-19 and how to keep the sector alive.