THE Ministry of Tourism will be strategically targeting the Guyanese Diaspora and the European markets in a bid to attract more tourists to these beautiful shores.
The Diaspora has been identified as an area of much promise and every effort will be made to capitalise on the opportunities available through aggressive promotion of local festivals and other major events.
Tourism Minister, Cathy Hughes told the Guyana Chronicle that her ministry is also looking to create new events on the Tourism Calendar.

“If we create events, then we will get people who will come, we have been able to and we can even target more Guyanese in the Diaspora.”
She believes many will come to Guyana because of family connections, particularly since a large number has not visited Guyana in decades.
At a recent APNU+AFC victory rally in Brooklyn, New York, Minister Hughes said the Government team that attended the occasion was swarmed by thousands of Guyanese. Many of them inquired about the local tourism product, and how they can return and invest in Guyana.
Quite a number of persons who would have left Guyana in the past 20 years have not yet been able to experience the tourism products the country enjoys today.
DIASPORA TARGET

“We have great resorts in the interior, Rupununi areas; we have a lot more tourism products that our visitors can come and enjoy. So, definitely, we want to continue to push the Diaspora,” the Tourism Minister said.
But she noted that the focus will be wider. “We recognise that there are some European markets that hold a lot of potential. Here we are talking about things such as bird watching (Guyana has over 500 species of birds); the Rupununi Savannahs; Iwokrama, that whole area of flora and fauna; the Rodeo, the biodiversity, the canopy walkway. These are aspects of our tourism product that a visitor would want to come and experience, and we just have to market it.”
Minister Hughes, who has been in the tourism sector for the past 20 years, is of the view that this country has not been able to put ‘Destination Guyana’ out into the regional and international markets.
Traditionally, Guyana’s target market has been the Diaspora. And the Minister believes that given the local investment in tourism, and the fact that there are hotels, resorts, tour companies and other services that go with tourism, more emphasis has to be placed on attracting more people to Guyana, and to promote Guyana more aggressively around the world.
“We still have a scenario where, in many parts of the world, people do not know that Guyana exists; they think Guyana is Ghana.”

‘We recognise that there are some European markets that hold a lot of potential. Here we are talking about things such as bird watching (Guyana has over 500 species of birds); the Rupununi Savannahs; Iwokrama, that whole area of flora and fauna; the Rodeo, the biodiversity, the canopy walkway. These are aspects of our tourism product that a visitor would want to come and experience and we just have to market it’ — Tourism Minister

By Tajeram Mohabir