According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), tourists are the people who “travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited”. Tourism is mainly popular as a global leisure activity.
Tourism is a vital source of income for many countries and it generates income through the consumption of goods and services by tourists, the taxes levied on businesses in the tourism industry, and the opportunity for employment in the service industries associated with tourism.
Some of the services offered by these industries include transportation services such as cruise ships and taxis; accommodation services such as hotels, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues, and other hospitality industry services such as spas and resorts.
Tourism requires having some amount of disposable income, time off from work and other responsibilities, proper transportation and accommodation facilities and legal clearance for travelling. More than all, sufficient health condition during the course of travel is required.
There are some countries which have legal restrictions on travelling abroad.
Any projections of growth in tourism serve as an indication of the relative influence that each country will exercise in the future.
Tourism products have become one of the most traded items on the internet with the advent of e-commerce. Tourism products and services have been made available through intermediaries, apart from direct selling.
Space tourism is expected to be launched in the first quarter of the 21st century and the technological improvement is likely to make it possible for air-ship hotels, based either on solar-powered airplanes or large dirigibles.
There is also an underwater hotel project, such as Hydropolis in Duba.
From the year 2000 onwards, there was stagnation for almost three years in the World Tourism industry. But now, again, there has been an exponential growth over the past few years and this boom is expected to continue until another decade.
According to preliminary findings presented by the WTO in January 2007, international tourist arrivals reached an all-time record of 842 million in 2006–an increase of 4.5 percent over 2005.
Tourism growth has occurred in all world regions but was strongest in Africa (+8.1%) and the Asia-Pacific region (+7.6%).
Based on the above facts and figures, it is abundantly clear that tourism is a huge industry and has the potential of contributing significantly to the transformation of the economies of poor countries.
The current government, being cognizant of this, has been pushing tourism aggressively and today our tourism sector is in its budding stage and about to take off.
What is special about our tourism prospects is that we have the unique tourism product of eco/adventure tourism.
And very encouraging too, is the fact that our country has been receiving increasing attention on the world stage as a tourist destination. Only recently, a BBC crew was here to produce a documentary on our rich biodiversity.
Currently, Destination Guyana is being given another major boost as a France-based production company, Bo Travail, is currently in Guyana filming part of a television magazine documentary series called “Echappees Belles.”
According to the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), the documentary will certainly help to promote ‘Destination Guyana’ in France, which is an emerging market, one that the GTA is looking to tap into.
So certainly things are happening in the tourism sector and this will only bring benefits for our country as a whole, apart from the local tourism industry.