Stakeholders working to push domestic tourism in Guyana

As efforts continue to push Guyana as an eco-tourism destination, local stakeholders are simultaneously working to promote domestic tourism.

Affordability and accessibility continue to be among the major hindrances to exploring many of the country’s mostly untapped hinterland region but this is something authorities are working to change.
In fact, Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Lieutenant Colonel (ret’d) Egbert Field, recently told reporters that his agency is currently in discussions and working along with counterparts in the tourism sector to ensure that more Guyanese get the opportunity to see their country first before visiting others.
“We have step up a team and they are working together [with the tourism sector] to look at the increase in domestic tourism and having Guyanese moving around Guyana more regularly. So we’re working with them. We’ve had a meeting and we’ve put out a document together, and this is all towards helping domestic tourism,” Field stated.
Currently, tourism is Guyana’s third largest export sector, bringing some $30.1 billion into the economy in 2018.
Recognising this industry is the major money earner in many of Guyana’s neighbours in the region, the GCAA Director General underscored the importance of building the industry here.
“So we’re working closely with the tourism department ‘cause we also recognise that it’s not just to bring in tourists from overseas but also the local residents – some of whom have never gone to Kaieteur or Annai but find themselves in New York and Toronto, and can’t answer the question what Lethem looks like,” he posited.
The development of domestic tourism is something, Business Minister Haimraj Rajkumar, who has responsibility for Tourism, has been pushing since his appointment earlier this year. In fact, he believes that in order for the country to be successfully marketed abroad, it first needs to be promoted locally.
“I do believe that citizens of Guyana can act as ambassadors of our country and help sell our tourism product. But when you look carefully, you find that people spend (their) vacations in other countries rather than in Guyana, and many of those persons would have hardly visited a place in another county (other) than (the one) which they live in,” Minister Rajkumar pointed out at a reception hosted by stakeholders in the tourism sector back in June.
However, he noted that for the initiative of promoting Guyana’s tourism to succeed, a collaborative approach is needed.
“I think we, as stakeholders in this sector, should put our heads together and somehow try to encourage local tourism; tourism that our citizens can be able to afford – a destination that can be affordable and a destination that can be easily accessible; so that when they leave and go to another destination, they will be able to sell the things we have. It’s highly unlikely for someone to sell the things that they don’t know about, and it’s somewhat shameful to know that you know about Manhattan and (all those places) abroad, but you cannot sell Fort Island, you can’t sell Sloth Island,” the Minister posited.
He said Guyana’s brand of tourism product is different from anything that is being offered by its Caribbean neighbours; that is, the usual sand, sun and sea.
“We have something different, and we have an opportunity to create a different package and product. But even though it’s different, we must be able to package it in such a manner that it becomes desirable, so that people would want to be part of this. We must be able to put our energies together to become one of the leading sustainable tourism destinations,” he noted.
The Business Minister, further clarified that in order for the tourism industry to move forward, it is necessary to analyse and see where its strengths and weaknesses are so that it can be capitalised on and developed.
Already, Guyana is making its mark in sustainable tourism, having been named the ‘Best in Sustainable Tourism’ at LATA Achievement Awards back in June, taking place during ‘Experience Latin America’, Europe’s largest B2B travel conference focused on the Latin America region.