… crew currently filming in Guyana
AS Guyana becomes more popular as an ecotourism destination, another film team, this time from Icon Films, is currently in Guyana filming for a two-hour documentary which focuses on animals.
The team,  contracted by ‘Animal Planet’, follows closely behind a British Broadcasting Corporation team (BBC) which was in Guyana recently filming for a 10-part series entitled ‘Retracing the Steps of Sir Walter Raleigh’.
Minister of Tourism, Industry, and Commerce Manniram Prashad, Monday, met with the Icon team at the ministry.
“More people are becoming interested in our wildlife and our ecotourism in Guyana as a destination of choice, and that is why we have all these film crews, all these important international organizations sending people down to Guyana to explore and discover Guyana,” he said.
The two-hour documentary will be aired across North America to about 94 million households.
Minister Prashad said that the documentary provides huge exposure for Guyana since an advertisement of this nature would cost close to US$1M.
He added that it also provides a huge boost to the tourism sector in Guyana as it serves to attract people to these shores.
After spending almost five weeks in Guyana, the team has almost completed its filming expedition which took them to several parts of the country.
Television presenter Jeremy Wade said he had wanted to visit Guyana for over five years, and he is now pleased that he was able to do so. Unlike Wade, who is visiting for the first time, Assistant Producer Daniel Heurtas is on his second visit here, after visiting with the BBC to film ‘Lost land of the Jaguar.’
The team visited the Essequibo River, Rewa, Kaieteur Falls and the Dadanawa Ranch in Region Nine.
Guyana is now ranked alongside Peru as one of the top birding destinations in the world and is one of the places that tourists consider when they want to visit an eco-friendly country to do birding, sport fishing, or to look at some of the giant animals that live here.
Icon Films is an independent production company based in the United Kingdom which produces programmes for the BBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet, and Discovery Channel. (GINA)