Guyana’s tourism industry has enormous potential especially in view of the fact that our tourism product has the unique characteristic of the adventure and ecotourism flavour because of large and diverse flora and fauna, mighty rivers, waterfalls including the famous Kaieteur, mountains, pristine forests and of course extremely delicious and attractive cuisines.
With the right kinds of investment and management of this industry, which is in relative infancy here, in a fairly short period of time it could burgeon into a major sector of the national economy rivaling the traditional sectors.
The government has been doing its part by working feverishly to improve infrastructure in all corners of this country. This is no easy task because of scarce financial resources and the fact that when this government took office in 1992 the entire infrastructure network including roads, bridges, sea defence, schools, hospitals etc was in a virtual state of collapse,
Infrastructure is a key support component of the tourism industry as absence of efficient and reliable transportation and communication facilities is a disincentive to attracting tourists.
Since 1992, while it would be conceded that much more has to be achieved in this regard, undoubtedly the government has an impressive record on the improvement of infrastructure throughout this country.
All our major roadways have been refurbished or new ones built like the East Bank Demerara four-lane one, new bridges have been constructed, the establishment of the Guyana/Suriname ferry service, refurbishing of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, expansion and upgrading the Ogle Aerodrome into a municipal airport etc. And in recent years two extremely important and crucial projects have been completed-the Takutu Bridge along the Guyana/Brazil border and the Berbice River Bridge. In this year’s budget provisions have been made to further improve infrastructure.
Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Manniram Prashad in his presentation to the current debate on the National Budget alluded to some of the achievements of the growing local tourism industry.
Turning to tourism, he posited that 2009 was a successful and eventful year for tourism in Guyana, as the ministry embarked on a strategy of “realising our potential”.
Because tourism has been growing and expanding, and has seen excellent return investments, he declared, “I believe that tourism is the industry of the future for Guyana.”
He said in 2009, Guyana saw a record- breaking year for arrivals with a nine per cent increase over arrivals in 2008, and according to a Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) report, only four countries – Guyana, Cuba, Jamaica and Saba – have registered an increase for the year 2009, with Guyana recording the highest percentage.
He announced that this year’s January was the best January ever, with an encouraging 14 per cent increase in arrivals.
He insisted that Guyana is now a more popular and known tourist destination as a result of excellent and effective marketing promotions in the international arena, and Guyana has been attending international trade shows, and also hosting familiarisation tours.
He said Guyana was granted approved destination status by China in September 2009, allowing Chinese tourists to travel to Guyana “providing an excellent avenue to boost arrivals and investment in Guyana”.
He also alluded to domestic tourism which he said is critical to the success of any destination, and 2009 was an record year for domestic tourism promotions as thousands of Guyanese travelled to various destinations within Guyana.
He also outlined that 2009 was an excellent year in which greater diversification and tourism expansion in key areas were achieved, such as bird watching, eco tourism, adventure tourism, wildlife, community-based tourism, agro tourism, sports fishing, sports tourism, yachting and cruise.
He said in excess of 500 persons were trained in the hospitality industry in 2009, adding, “We plan to train over 1000 persons in the hospitality industry in 2010.”
So the prospects and future of our local tourism industry look extremely good and encouraging and through the continued private/public sectors partnership it could emerge as a major sector of our economy and as a major player on the global tourist market which is a huge one and if tapped into could bring handsome dividends for this country.
In 2008, there were over 922 million international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 1.9% as compared to 2007. International tourism receipts grew to US$944 billion (euro 642 billion) in 2008, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 1.8% on 2007. When the export value of international passenger transport receipts is accounted for, total receipts in 2008 reached a record of US$1.1 trillion, or over US$3 billion a day. The World Tourism Organization reports the following countries as the top ten tourism earners for the year 2008. It is noticeable that most of them are on the European continent, but the United States continues to be the top earner.