– Gov’t plugs more $$$ into sector for 2019

FROM G$123M in 2014 to over G$300M in 2019 speaks volumes of the government’s faith in the tourism sector, a trend which, all things being equal, is likely to continue well into the future.

The figure at reference is monies that have been allocated to the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) in the last four years, and according to Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin, who holds responsibility for tourism, the sector has long been providing a healthy means of income for Guyanese of every walk of life, including its youths.

He told the National Assembly when the 2019 Budget debates kicked off on Monday that in addition to the over G$300M budgeted for the GTA, the Ministry of Business’ Department of Tourism will also benefit from a budgetary allocation of G$93M, which figure was arrived at from visitor arrivals data.

Last year, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan had noted during the 2018 Budget presentation that visitor arrivals for 2017 had peaked at 170,322 between January and September, and that that was a 5.7 per cent increase on figures for the same period in 2016.

And as Minister Gaskin told the National Assembly on Monday, from all indications, the figures will continue to rise, with visitor arrivals as of September this year indicating a 17% increase when compared to the same period in 2017.

Just October this year, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) reported during the State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC) held in The Bahamas that Guyana has recorded the highest growth in the tourism sector in the Caribbean region during the first half of 2018.

Guyana, which has the distinction of being the only English-speaking country in all of South America, was reported to have recorded an 18.3 per cent growth, followed by Belize with 17.1 per cent, and The Cayman islands with 15.9 per cent.

Pointing to the wealth of opportunities the sector affords Guyanese, Minister Gaskin said:
“Our government realises the importance of this sector and its capacity to create and sustain employment.”

GOOD NEWS FOR GUYANA
He said the rising figures “is good news for Guyana”, since visitors bring money into the country’s economy. “Visitors have to eat, sleep and travel around the town or the country,” he said, “and each of these activities costs money and employs Guyanese people. Tourists also shop and enjoy local entertainment.”

Noting that an additional 30,000 visitors to these shores roughly translates to US$15M circulating in Guyana this year alone, Minister Gaskin said that this figure eclipses last year’s sum, if one were to assume that the average visitor spent around US$500. “And if we look at the figures in their totality, tourism will bring in around US$150M this year to be spent in our economy,” he told both sides of the House.

What is even more favourable to the economy, he said, is that the figure does not include airfares or the taxes applied to airfares. “These taxes alone will bring in around US$15M this year,” he noted.

Gaskin told parliamentarians that the APNU+AFC administration recognises the need for the country’s tourism product to match the visitor arrivals, and that even more important is the opportunities that tourism “can create in traditionally disadvantaged areas such as the hinterland where our indigenous population lives.”

Gaskin told the National Assembly that the main thrust of the government’s tourism drive is to develop sustainable tourism in each of our ten administrative regions, a process that involves stakeholder engagement to point out their tourism hotspots. “What we are seeking to achieve is to make tourism a means of improving lives in communities where tourism takes place by making the communities the main beneficiaries of the visitor flows that they attract,” the minister said.

He said that almost each administrative region has identified flagship tourism projects, and formed tourism committees. And according to him, the GTA will be working with the committees to support them in developing their projects.