– GTA Director
THE Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce and the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) is committed to capacity building and institutional strengthening and to this end, several staff members of GTA recently benefited from training programmes and opportunities to develop their skills, contributing to the development of the tourism industry.

In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Director of GTA, Mr. Indranauth Haralsingh disclosed that three of his staff members participated in regional sessions and those are:

* Ms. Anarie Shiwram, Product Development Officer/Tourism Officer participated in the regional consultation on the development of the sports tourism sector with emphasis on Small and Medium Enterprises on December 14 and 15, 2009 organised by the CARICOM Secretariat at the Solutions Centre, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados and;

* Mr. Lokeraj Rupnarain, Information Technology (IT) Officer and Web Administrator/Tourism Officer attended a regional training workshop on tourism survey management, statistical data collection, analysis, and the estimation of visitor spending from December 7 to 11, 2009 at the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) office in Barbados, and;

* Ms. Carla James-Chandra, Stats Research/Tourism Officer, who participated in an OAS (Organisation of American States) workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Caribbean tourism industry from September 14 to 16, 2009 at the Coco Palm Hotel, Rodney Bay, St. Lucia.

Haralsingh reiterated that the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce and GTA is committed to staff development, capacity building and institutional strengthening of the local tourism body.

He said the GTA has a total of 12 staff and it is only through training, resource development and capacity building that the few personnel “can be very effective and deliver value for money”.

“And it is only when we have a small team of highly efficient and productive people that we can get more for every tourism dollar that is spent, and we believe in that,” he added.

“This year what we have done, we have sent staff to various training programmes and opportunities, where they can make a contribution, where they can learn; and where we can be in a better position to help in tourism,” he outlined.

He said training is in keeping with its commitment to ensure that staff is well-trained and able to offer the best service in all areas relating to the tourism product.

He said the body also ‘cross train’ staff so that in the event of the absence of another employee, he or she can fit in that position.

TOURISM SURVEY MANAGEMENT
Haralsingh noted that building capacity in the area of tourism survey management is very important for any industry especially the tourism industry in Guyana since it is a fledgling destination and don’t have a huge budget.

“It is only when you do research and surveys that you can have the facts and the information to make the best decisions to spend the limited dollars available and what we are trying to do is to ensure that decisions we make are research based,” he explained.

He said Rupnarain’s participation at the workshop helps to build GTA’s capacity to conduct surveys of all types in Guyana.

The GTA Director stressed that currently, the Guyana National Bureau of Statistics is conducting an exit survey at the airport which has still not been analysed.

“For almost two years they have been doing this and they have not been doing the analysis so Guyana and us, cannot benefit from the collection of data so far,” he stated.

He insisted that there is a need to strengthen their capabilities in research and related activities to calculate the size and the growth of the tourism industry in the country.

He also stated that tourism contribution to things like GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and employment within the sector can be determined as well as occupancy rates for accommodation establishments.

Haralsingh said when the exit survey is completed, surveys at local events in Guyana will be done and the information will be shared with event organisers to help plan events in a better way and have important feedback.

Haralsingh said as a result of the training programme, GTA has boosted its ability to conduct industry surveys such as tourism outlook to find out people’s level of confidence in the tourism industry, and track investments in the sector both local and foreign.

“We also need to capture visitors’ length of stay and by doing that we can encourage persons to stay longer or to build on events and other attractions and itineries to encourage persons to stay longer…,” he said.

He said, too, that things like visitors spending, travel motivation, booking behaviour and other pertinent information can be captured through surveys with their capacity to now conduct tourism survey management, statistical data collection, and analysis.

SPORTS TOURISM
Alluding to sports tourism, he maintained that a lot of potential exists for this not only in Guyana but in the Caribbean as a whole hence it is a very important sector.

He disclosed that almost one per cent of all visitors to Guyana come here for sports and that trend is growing.

Additionally, he stated that sports tourism worldwide basically accounts for about three percent of world trade and Guyana and other CTO member countries need to take more advantage of the potentials offered by this industry.

“And so that is why they conducted this consultation on the development of sports tourism sector in the Caribbean,” the GTA Director said.

He also reminded that the region has had a lot of success stories in hosting major international sport events such as World Cup Cricket 2007, World Junior Championship in Jamaica and Under-17 World Cup Football which was held in Trinidad and come next year, it will be hosting the mega ICC 20/20 tournament.

“Basically, sports tourism has a lot of potential and the meeting also addressed our readiness and preparedness to host events; and dealt with issues effecting our region and our respective countries in promoting sports tourism,” he stated.

Also, he observed that there are a lot of investments in sports tourism in Guyana and the region, and it was realised that many of the facilities are ‘under utilised”.

“It means that we will have to plan, organise and host more major events so that we can get better return in our investments,” Haralsingh emphasised.

He mentioned that sports tourism brings in a lot of revenue to Guyana and the region with the potential in the areas of cricket, football, tennis, swimming, golf, horseracing, boxing, cycling, motor racing, basketball, volleyball, athletics, rugby and hockey.

He said many of these sport disciplines have a lot of opportunities here but traditionally cricket brings in a lot of visitors.

“But all these other events can be better organised on a calendar, annually, so that we can attract more visitors to Guyana,” the GTA Director insisted.

Of importance, too, is that athletes worldwide seek warmer environments as training grounds and the Caribbean is suitable for all-year-round events, he noted.

“We need to take advantage, and also I think the Government of Guyana is on the right track in terms of building capacity and creating this by facilitating an enabling environment for sports tourism development or sports development generally,” he expressed.

He said other issues touched on were funding, international standards, best practice in sports tourism, training, the need to establish legislative, regulatory and administrative arrangements to facilitate the growth of the industry, and the need for public private sector partnership.

“Once you have a vibrant public private sector partnership, it would help to boost our ability to host games and to develop sports and to attract more visitors to the region,” he stated.

Other areas looked at included capacity building and human resource development; product and infrastructural development; and marketing and promotion of sporting events.

“Sports tourism also has a lot of opportunities for investors and partnership because it is not only recreation but it is a huge global business,” he stressed.

SOCIAL CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Turning to the workshop on promoting corporate social responsibility, Haralsingh underscored the critical role played by corporate society in organising and sponsoring events.

Haralsingh stated that in Guyana, the success of almost any major event depends on corporate social responsibility.

“…appealing to our corporations and business people to give back and help and you know without sponsorship and this collaborative effort and partnership with the private sector, you would not get as much success and development in almost any field especially in tourism, and we know that tourism is mainly private sector driven,” he stressed.

He said the attendance of James-Chandra would help in approaches and strategies, and most importantly to “deliver more value for each tourism dollar received as budgetary allocation”.

He said evident to this, is the cactus garden in the Botanical Gardens in the city as well as the recent seawall enhancement project with the inclusion of the private sector among other activities.

In addition to that, this year the ministry and GTA sent two other officers to the Second International Suriname Tourism Fair – SURIFAIR 2009 which was held last October in Paramaribo – GTA: Tourism Office, Mr. Marcus Thompson and Senior Tourism Officer, Ms. Kemie Williams, giving them the opportunity to develop their skills and interact with players in the industry.

Haralsingh reminded that only last month Tourism Awareness Month was held under the theme “Promoting Quality and Sustainable Tourism in Guyana” with major focus on training where over 500 persons in the industry benefited including frontline workers.

“We are committed to human resource development, and we believe that quality staff will produce and promote quality tourism,” he pointed out.

“It is part of our commitment to train both others and also in house so that we can build our capacity,” the GTA Director reassured.