Tourism Recovery Committee established to cushion COVID-19 impact

The Department of Tourism has forged a new collaboration with the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), and the Small Business Bureau to form a Tourism Recovery Action Committee (TRAC) in addressing the devastation on the sector by the impact of COVID-19.

In a statement, the Department said the Committee was established after analysing the negatives facing the tourism industry locally and globally. Guyana was just beginning to witness a positive record from its tourism industry when the pandemic struck. Now there are zero travels, suffocating the industry.
Spearheading the Committee will be caretaker Business Minister Haimraj Rajkumar, and a meeting will be convened this week to finalise immediate actions. Participation from the public and private sectors is welcomed, along with input from municipal and regional entities and international organisations.
According to the release, TRAC “will be recommending research-based solutions and define viable strategies for the tourism sector in Guyana through a process of multi-agency and multi-stakeholder collaboration aimed at accelerating recovery from the adverse economic and other impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In the next year, the Committee will work to stimulate tourism through assistance from specialists and advisors.
“These advisory sub- committees will be exploring and proposing solutions in areas such as safety and sanitation, strategic marketing, tech-innovation, international partnerships, finance and resource mobilisation, communications management, ports and frontiers, product resilience, research and data collection,” the Association noted.
Newly-appointed Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), Carla James, had indicated last month that in these challenging times, they are preparing for the rebound and improving the quality of services offered to return stronger. At that time, she predicted that Guyana’s domestic market is expected to recover as soon as the pandemic is over.
“We do have to, in this moment, do what we can to prepare for the future. It is a difficult time, and a lot of businesses would be extending the partial lockdown. It is understandable that they have to make hard decisions regarding keeping employees and staying in business. But at the same time, I think it does present an opportunity to improve the products and services that we currently offer; and in part of preparing for that future, we know that the local domestic market is the market that is going to recover first,” James was quoted as saying.
Back in April, the GTA had ventured into partnership with local tourism promotion company Tourism Guyana via a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to showcase what the country has to offer for both locals and international travellers.