-in quest to make Guyana the ultimate wedding destination
IMAGINE Guyana as a premier wedding destination and honeymoon haven.
This is the ideal that organizers and contributors to ‘Wedding Expo’ are envisaging as they launched the event, now in its third consecutive year, Friday at Roraima Duke Lodge in scenic Kingston, here in the city. The nuptial specialty exhibition, as many of us know, was designed to enable the showcasing of all the various services associated with weddings, which are not just limited to the engagement and honeymoon stages, but also includes issues pertaining to the acquisition of homes, household items and vehicles.
As Roraima Holdings CEO, Gerry Gouveia opined, Guyana generally has not been friendly to persons looking to come home and get married. 
Noting that weddings are big business in other Caribbean countries, Gouveia suggests that anyone looking to get married should have as part of their wedding plans attending a ‘Wedding Expo’ such as the one Roraima puts on annually.
And, since June is the month in which weddings are traditionally held, the company has always striven to hold its exposition in order to facilitate the June brides and grooms. 
Stressing that organizing weddings is an economic activity that Guyana needs to cash into and promote, Gouveia said that his ‘wedding exposition’ has been seeing phenomenal growth since its startup in 2009, as evinced by the number of patrons it has attracted over the years.   
Wedding Expo 2009 and 2010 have together succeeded in attracting about 12,000 persons, with close to 7,000 or thereabout in attendance in the latter year.
Attendees at this year’s event will not only be treated to loads of information and  glamorous fashion shows, but will also be eligible to win random, fabulous door prizes.
President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Mr. Komal Ramnauth praised the initiative, saying that it is important to be supportive of it.
To press the point, he not only cited the number of benefits to be derived from planning a wedding and working in the wedding industry in general, but also the success stories of caterers, photographers and other service professionals whose incomes were expanded by as much as 300 per cent after marketing their skills at the exposition. 
Like Ramnaught, Private Sector Commission (PSC) Executive Director, Mr. Roubinder Rambarran opined that this year’s event would be even bigger than in previous years, and lauded it as being “a magnificent show… wonderful initiative… [and’ “good idea,” as he sought to encourage persons to come out and see for themselves what’s in store rather than having to go looking through the Yellow Pages when the time arises.
As Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) representative, Ms.Tomeka Singh observed,  Guyana’s tourism product is so multi-faceted, that one of the many niches that could be developed is weddings, in that the country could be successfully marketed as a wedding destination and honeymoon haven.
Singh noted that a few years ago, many persons didn’t know where to get caterers, invitations and other products when having a wedding, but that trends are now changing with the advent of the Wedding Expo. 
The event,  which will be hosted at Duke Lodge from March 25 to 27, will be free of cost and open to the public as usual.