The announcement by the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce and the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) about their commitment 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 is a progressive step in moving the tourism industry forward.

For Guyana the tourism industry is a relatively new industry but it has developed fairly rapidly mainly due to the facilitating environment created by the government and the confidence, drive, drive and initiative by the local private sector.

What is important about Guyana’s tourism is that it offers a unique package different from the traditional blue water and white sandy beaches with its adventure/eco-tourism brand of tourism.

According to Director of GTA, Mr. Indranauth Haralsingh: “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 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 also disclosed that the body ‘cross train’ staff so that in the event of the absence of another employee, he or she can fit in that position.

The GTA Director certainly has his fingers on the right buttons because the tourism industry definitely needs well trained personnel because it is a highly specialised field in which there is no room for mediocrity.

A very important aspect of the tourism business is the capacity to do surveys because it is one of the most competitive industries in the global market and the ability to analyse it and offer a product to meet demand is crucial.

In this regard Mr. Haraldsingh was spot on when he 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 also touched on a sports tourism which is indeed a growing brand of the industry and one in which this country has tremendous potential.

Alluding to this area of 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.

On this note he pointed to the region’s successful 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.

For example the City of Kamloops has made the Tournament Capital Programme one of its main objectives in their strategic plan.  With close to $50 million invested in new and renovated sports facilities, Kamloops is a proven location for hosting tournaments and events.  Available facilities include: Hillside Stadium, a 135,000 sq. ft multi-sport facility which includes; the Canada Games Aquatic Centre, a 200 meter, six lane indoor track, specialty designed jumps and throws area, 15,000 sq. ft of gymnastics space, three hardwood courts for basketball, volleyball, badminton and other court activities, 8,000 sq. ft of public fitness rooms, and 3,000 sq. ft of public meeting rooms space for athletic condtioning and training.

Kamloops has 45 tennis courts, seven sports arenas including an Olympic-sized hockey rink, a WHL hockey team (Kamloops Blazers) that plays in a 6,400 seat arena, three indoor swimming pools, a National Standards Baseball Stadium and nine diamonds, plus an International caliber mountain-bike park.

Almost $50,000 in grants annually helps to make these tournaments possible, which created an economic spin-off of $11.1 million in the local economy for 2008.

So our budding tourism industry has a lot of potential to tap into and with the right stewardship we could certainly make the local tourist industry grow into one of our major economic pillars in the near future.