Government is encouraging more investment in eco-lodges in order to meet the demands of Guyana’s growing tourism industry which has seen consistent growth over the last 15-18 years.
Head of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) Geoff Da Silva in an interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA) said that since Guyana is promoting eco tourism and the sector is attracting an increasing number of visitors, adequate accommodation is required to cater for them.
“Guyana is about eco tourism and because of this visitors want to go into the interior of the country … so we have to increase the number of rooms,” Da Silva said.
He explained that people want the sector to grow rapidly but it has its own characteristics and peculiarities and if it expands too fast and the absorptive capacity for investments is lacking it could have a negative impact.
Though Guyana has some eco lodges of which it is proud, new efforts are being made to pursue investors in this area. “We are very proud of Baganara, Rockview, Arrowpoint among others …but we need more of them to grow the industry,” he said.
Go-Invest is currently working with an American company operating out of Georgia which is building an eco lodge in Guyana and another investor from Dominica which also has interest in this regard.
The Go-Invest Head highlighted Suriname as one of the countries that has great experience in that area thus Guyana may be able to benefit from that country’s expertise.
However, in terms of the hotel industry Guyana has seen significant expansion in that sector which now boasts 1000 good quality rooms.
Emphasising the expansion in the hotel industry the Go-Invest Head said that though the new emphasis is to attract more investment projects for eco lodges in the interior at the same time there is also significant growth in the industry in the urban area.
Da Silva said that in 2006 the agency worked with over 60 projects in tourism as a result of new investments in addition to expansion of projects or upgrading and change of property ownership in the industry.
The entity is currently working on proposals for hotels in Lethem by both Guyanese and foreign investors.
Da Silva noted that there was not enough accommodation for visitors during the Rupununi Rodeo in April, hence the renewed emphasis in attracting more investment in this area.