The Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) on Monday launched its tourism licensing portal, which now digitises and takes its licensing services online.
Director of the GTA, Kamrul Baksh at the launch explained that the agency has recently embarked on a process digitising all of its services to ensure that they are more accessible.
Guyana Tourism Authority Director Kamrul Baksh
“It is a conscious effort to ensure that the services of the Guyana Tourism Authority reach the sector, we are trying to bring all of our services even more accessible, readily available to the sector and this platform, that is the Tourism Business Licensing Portal which will be housed on our website, persons will be access this service quite easily,” he stated at the launch held at the Herdmanston Lodge, Georgetown.
The online licensing portal will allow persons to regulate their businesses through simple steps depending on the type of facility/business and the services offered.
“We are making one of our core service digitalised…you can access all your documents, upload your documents and you could actually make the payments on this portal here, we’ve partnered with mobile money Guyana, so you don’t have to come into the office to make the payment, particularly for the far-flung areas, the hinterland regions,” Baksh said.
He added that this process will drastically reduce the cost of doing business with the GTA.
“We recognise that a lot of persons want to become compliant with the Authority, our licensing department, we’ve spared no effort to get to the stakeholders, to provide the information and to do all of the facilitation necessary so that all the segments of the industry and its standard continues to rise,” Baksh stated.
The GTA Director said that the GTA will also be digitalising other services in the near future as this platform cannot be a “standalone”.
“The GTA also will also embark on launching the business support services initiative which will be more than just saying that these are the requirements but actually going in very granular details, what are the specific requirements, helping you with the business templates that are necessary and covering a portion of the cost to getting a facility, so we’re extending our arm even further for persons to become licensed.”
“On the horizon we’re on the note of digitising training, we have done some face to face but to formalise and to give structure to the training we will launch our training portal in a matter of weeks as well so that persons, who may not be able to come to the banqueting hall or the training centre will be able to access these services via the training platform that we will launch,” he further explained.
According to Baksh, once this process is completed it will make training even more affordable and accessible to all corners of the tourism and hospitality sector of Guyana.
Speaking during the launch, President of Visit Rupununi Melanie Mc Turk noted that digitising the services of the GTA is exactly what the sector has been calling for.
“If you’re in the hinterland and trying to get your tourism site registered then you [know] that it is not only an arduous process of backwards and forwards but also an incredibly expensive one, requiring people to travel over great distances multiple times, so the addition of a service like this which allows person now to be able to submit, initiate the process, follow the process and do all those submissions online is certainly something that is very, very welcomed.”
She added that this takes the tourism sector into a new era of growth, development and efficiency.
Meanwhile, Salaudeen Nasrudeen, who is the lead developer of the Tourism Business Licensing Portal, encouraged persons to utilise the platform and give feedback so that they can be able to develop it to function in the best way possible.
