Sport Tourism to be included in National Tourism Policy – Rodrigues

Sport Tourism will form parts of Guyana’s National Tourism Policy, to be completed later this year, according to Tourism Industry and Commerce Minister Susan Rodrigues.
The Minister made the revelation earlier this week at the Guyana Cup Post Position Draw at the Ac Marriott Hotel in Ogle, where she highlighted the success of other sport tourism products as her Minister puts the Guyana Cup on their radar.
The Minister articulated, “Tourism is really about an ecosystem. It’s an industry withing itself, it creates jobs, it stimulates investment, it encourages entrepreneurship and these are incredibly essential elements for the growth of any country and any economy. So, tourism is really a main driver of that economic activity.”
“Sports Tourism, in particular you would’ve been seeing, is an emerging sector. So, we are working on the National Tourism Policy which will be completed before the end of this year and Sports Tourism is a major component of that policy and strategy,” sha added.
Touching other forms of Tourism that her Ministry has ventured into, Rodrigues explained, “We are, of course, a destination that promotes eco and sustainable tourism. We are also expanding in MICE [Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Expositions] tourism and you’d be incredibly surprised to know that this year, we have 18 international conferences that are taking place in Guyana; 12 of which have been held already and attracted more than 10,000 attendees.”
Circling back to their efforts in Sport Tourism, the Minister stated, “We just completed the successful holding, for the first time, of the GT Challenge; a sporting event that people doubted we would be able to pull off in such a short time and it was successfully hosted and many of you saw how well received it was.”
“The Guyana Cup, the Ministry of Tourism, we’re paying attention and we want to work with this event that has really earned its place on our calendar of events and definitely Nasrudeen [Mohamed], the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce will be working with you and will be supporting you in the years to come on how we can elevate this product even more and make sure that it becomes the premier horseracing sporting event for the Caribbean,” Rodrigues went on to assure.