GUYANA National Bureau of Standards (GNBS), in collaboration with the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), on Thursday conducted a workshop on ‘Promoting Competitiveness in the Tourism Sector’.

GTA Director, Mr. Indranauth Haralsingh (Second left) and CROSQ Project Manager, Dr. Michael Seepersaud, share a light moment. Sitting at the head table also are Ms. Triena Butts of THAG and Ms. Gail Henry of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation

The one-day session, to raise stakeholders awareness on the importance and benefits of standards, was held in the Rupununi Room of Hotel Tower, Main Street, Georgetown.

In welcoming the gathering, Head of GNBS Information Services, Ms. Evadnie Benfield observed that, over the last 10 years, tourism has been earmarked as one of the sectors with great potential for foreign exchange earnings.

“As the Guyana destination has a unique non-traditional product to offer its visitors, of great significance is that the Guyana tourism industry has the potential to contribute significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and increase the job creation rate within the tourism industry, thus boosting our economy,” she posted.

Acknowledging that Guyana as a tourist destination offers mainly nature tourism, Benfield said: “With this thrust has come the need for standards governing the operation of interior lodges and other forms of accommodation conducting tours and much more.”

However, she stated that, as a fledgling industry, it has its fair share of challenges.

“To meet these challenges and allow the tourism industry to play its role as an engine of growth in the Guyana economy, the policy makers and other key stakeholders must focus its efforts on increasing the competitiveness of the industry through the implementation of standards,” Benfield advised.

Towards this objective, she said GNBS has collaborated with stakeholders and, through its tourism technical committee, produced benchmarks which govern the sector.

Benfield said those include the Guyana Code of Practice for Assessment, licensing, registration, classification and grading of accommodation sector; GCP 17 – Code of Practice for Quality in restaurant service and GCP 18 – Code of Practice for tour operators and tour guides.

Crafting
She disclosed that the crafting of other specifications for Bed and Breakfast facilities is in progress.

“Standards promote competition and improve the quality of service offered customers,” Benfield maintained.

She said standards also reduce waste of materials, cut operational costs, increase productivity, reduce unnecessary duplication and ensure interchangeability.

“Standards also ensure public safety and quality assurance,” Benfield added, especially such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 which are management system types.

She encouraged stakeholders, among them hotel and tour operators, to implement those applicable to tourism in their operations.

“We would also encourage the implementation of one or both of the management systems in the operations of these entities,” Benfield recommended, pointing out that they are very beneficial in also streamlining the efficiency of such companies.

She said GNBS can provide the requisite service and stands ready to offer the technical assistance to establishments that are desirous of participating and implementing the international standards.

Benfield declared there is nothing to prevent stakeholders in tourism from following likewise and she exhorted more companies to see the need for the implementation in their establishments.

“It can take you a far way. It can give you the prestige that you are looking for and make you grow tall amongst your counterparts, whether it is in the region or internationally,” she assured.

Benfield said GNBS looks forwards to the continued support and cooperation of all stakeholders as it strives to encourage and promote standardisation in all sectors of the economy.

CROSQ Project Manager, Dr. Michael Seepersaud reiterated that tourism is and will be a very important part of Guyana’s economy.

Underscoring the importance of implementing standards, he said yesterday’s activity falls under the Inter-American Development Bank/Multilateral Investment Fund (IDB/MIF) Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) project, entitled ‘Promoting SMEs Competitiveness through Regional Standards’.

INSTRUMENT
Seepersaud explained: “The standard is a voluntary instrument to help you and the regulation is what you must comply with.”

He noted that implementing standards will increase competitiveness and enable successful competition in the market place.

“There are also technical regulations, so that you may actually take a standard and make it into a technical regulation or a mandatory standard,” Seepersaud offered.

Director of Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), Mr. Indranauth Haralsingh, in his presentation on ‘Tourism Regulations’, remarked that the workshop is very timely and relevant and comes at a crucial time when they are grappling with a world financial crisis; when tourism arrivals in the region is predicted to decline; when the Government of Guyana has implemented a National Competitiveness Strategy and when the regulations have been promulgated, gazetted and are now law.

He reminded that the tourism industry/sector is very competitive and visitors’ expectations are very high and demanding.

“We must be able to meet and/or exceed their expectations at all time…,” Haralsingh insisted, affirming that standards and regulations will help them compete in the areas of quality, service, cleanliness, operations, safety etc.

He said;“We must deliver consistency in standards and regulations and quality. The tourism regulations will help the industry to be competitive and raise the bar on standards and excellence.”

Haralsingh provided a synopsis of the tourism regulations in Guyana which are mandatory for the industry to convey the benefits which can accrue to the businesses.

“The passing of the regulations is a great achievement for the tourism industry. Indeed, it is a milestone that we have achieved,” he stated.

Presentations were also made by representative of Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), Ms. Gail Henry, on ‘Regional Policy Guidelines for Tourism Standards from the Caribbean Regional Sustainable Tourism Policy Framework; Ms. Triena Butts of Tourism and Hospitality Association (THAG) on ‘The Importance and Use of Standards in the Tourism Sector and Mr. Elton Patram, on ‘The Standards Development Process.’

At the close, it was hoped that participants would have been:
* sensitised to the importance of standards in their business;

* familiar with the standards development process and their role in that process;

* aware of the role of the tourism sector to Guyana’s economy and its contribution to the future development of the sector as a result of the implementation of standards and

* sensitised to the Regional Policy Guidelines for Tourism Standards from the Caribbean Regional Tourism Policy Framework.