THE continued increase in arrivals to Guyana is testimony to the success of marketing campaigns and investor confidence in the destination. This was revealed by the Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) Indranauth Haralsingh when he provided an update on the latest arrival figures.
“We have recorded a 16.3% year to date in arrivals over last year’s similar period. For the month of July there has been an 11.5% increase over last year’s. And when the final figures are calculated, I am optimistic that we will be over 20% increase in arrivals, overall,” Haralsingh explained.
The GTA Director noted too that more activities and events are being staged to coincide with the increase in arrivals as more persons come to the destination; activities such as GuyExpo, Berbice Expo, Building Expo and Wakenaam Nite are all designed to attract visitors and locals to Guyana.
He said, “A lot is happening; more people are traveling and coming out and there are a lot of activities and events to cater for this, communities are also benefiting. We are expecting this year to be a record year for tourist arrivals; there are events still to come in October to December.”
The overall increase in arrivals is good for Guyana and testimony to the good work that the Ministry of Tourism and the GTA have been doing, as well as evidence of the return on investments from documentaries and articles that have been written about Guyana.
Haralsingh also lauded the private sector for doing their part in promoting Guyana, locally and internationally.
The increase in arrivals,  during this period,  can also been attributed to the increase in airlift; Delta has increased flight to three times weekly  and Ezjet now flies daily  from Canada as of July 17, 2012.