THE first in a series of regional tourism workshops to be held over the next several months kicked off on Friday, at Bartica/Potaro, Region Seven.
The workshop was held in the boardroom of the regional administration office, began at 14:00 hrs and attracted some 30 participants.
Director-General of the Department of Tourism within the Ministry of Business, Donald Sinclair, who on Thursday briefed the media on plans for the rolling out of the workshops and related activities, said the workshops are being held in accordance with the Ministry of Business policy of spreading the planning of tourism to all regions of Guyana, through its Department of Tourism.
The aim of these regional tourism workshops, the director-general said, is to decentralise the planning of tourism to all the regions of Guyana, as a means of having the regional authorities more involved in tourism planning.
In other words, it is an effort to decentralise tourism planning, rather than have it all happening in Georgetown – either from the Department of Tourism or the Guyana Tourism Authority.
The workshop held at Bartica will be replicated in all the other regions, Mr Sinclair said, pointing out that the objectives are to enhance stakeholders’ understanding of the role that tourism can play in the development of the region; identify in each region, the visitor hotspots that serve, or can serve as the basis for a viable visitor industry; as well as elaborate the lines of action needed to strengthen tourism business, based upon those hotspots identified.
Sinclair said the Department of Tourism believes that these planning workshops will be most meaningful were they to have the participation of regional administration decision-makers.
These are the chairman and regional administrative officer; representatives of the banking and security sectors; owners/managers of key tourism establishments and services such as hotels, houses, restaurants, transportation services, places of entertainment, events, organisers; and persons in sports and culture.
It is anticipated that coming out of the workshops, there will be an agreed list of tourism hotspots for Region Seven; that there will be clearly established and defined roles for each key stakeholder, as well as ‘lines of action’ with time frames for developing tourism, based upon those hotspots.

Best Kept Village (BKV) Competition
Launched last month at the Ministry of Business in Georgetown, this initiative was the brainchild of the Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin, who has delegated the director-general to come up with details about the competition.
Following last month’s launch, all regions were invited to select their participating villages. Entries will be entertained in three categories: small, medium and large.
A high level of interest was shown in this competition, as was evident from the queries and phone calls from prospective sponsors.
The purpose of the initiative is to restore and enhance pride in village and community; nurture a passion for a clean, pleasing and healthy village environment and strengthen cooperation and partnerships within the village with the aim of improving village environments.
There will be three categories in which to enter: Small Village – population under 1,000; Medium-Sized Village – population between 1,000 and 5,000 and Large Village – population over 5,000.
Specific responsibility for getting the villages ready will rest with the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) in each region and residents through self-help.
The director-general stressed that the “Best Kept Village Competition” offers to sponsors, high visibility and abundant corporate social responsibility opportunity by way of their financial contributions to the prize pool.
Judges will be paying close attention to a number of areas in the competition.
These are absence of litter and unsightly refuse dumps; condition of playing fields, schoolyards, public spaces and signboards; condition of public and private buildings, gardens and other open spaces; condition of churchyards and places of worship, schools, cemeteries and monuments; condition of public halls, sports facilities, and community buildings; cleanliness of public conveniences; state of trenches, drains and canals; condition of commercial and business premises, including advertisement and other signs; initiatives in train to care the environment; and efforts in progress to create welcoming and visitor-friendly attitudes in residents.
All administrative regions have signalled their intention of participating in the Best Kept Village Competition, with Region Seven submitting the largest number of Villages (13) in the Small Village category, followed by Region Two with seven in the same category and Region Nine with five.
In the medium category, Region Three had the highest number of submissions with eight villages participating, followed by Region Seven with four entries.