Nine years after the launch of the Guyana Wedding tourism extravaganza ‘Wedding Expo’, organisers of the affair which carry the tag line ‘magnificent beginnings’ said they are optimistic of the push the event will create in wedding tourism even as legislations are making accommodations for such development.

Roraima Airways Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Captain Gerry Gouveia said recently that 2017 – the United Nations year dedicated internationally to Sustainable Tourism Development – marks the ninth anniversary for Wedding Expo and is one with a difference for Guyana’s tourism industry with weddings becoming a major attraction.
“This is actually nine years and it looks like only yesterday. Yesterday when we first saw the Wedding Expo in Jamaica, when we first conceptualized it in Guyana, we did not expect what happened,” Captain Gouveia told a gathering at the launch of the festival of blooming love.
He said in Jamaica, the picture the Roraima family saw was a Christian wedding, but when the festival was introduced to Guyana, it brought a multi-cultural flair that is unique to Guyana.
“When we saw Wedding Expo in Jamaica, it was Christian weddings, it was white dresses. When we came here and launched Wedding Expo, it surprised even us that wedding expo became an amazing spectacle of colours, of religions, of music and dance and cultures, and it really brought together in one place a diversity an amazing wedding differences in all our peoples here in Guyana, it’s amazing.”
“Wedding expo keeps growing from strength to strength. One of the most spectacular things about wedding expo is the creation of opportunities for small businesses. Wedding expo provides the platform for small businesses to showcase themselves and then the people who want to get married that will come here … are able to come in one place to plan their wedding.
He watched wedding expo grow from year to year and it is now formally one of the items on the Calendar of Events in Guyana. Now with flights linking Guyana to Cuba and St. Vincent and the Grenadines citizens in those countries have expressed interest in participating in the festival as scouts for the prospect of hosting weddings in Guyana.
“It is one of the items that is formally supported by the government of Guyana and I would say that the Ministry of Tourism and Business is fully supportive of Wedding expo last year. Wedding Expo is one of those activities that help promote Guyana as well. You’re also going to see a lot of the Cubans that are coming to Guyana every week on our flights out of Havana they’re going to be here as well scouting our wedding tourism to satisfy the wedding market as well in Cuba. We hope to see a lot more of the region looking at our wedding market as well,” Captain Gouveia pointed out.
He said too that the local private sector now has collaboration with the private sector in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Guyana for stronger integration in business and tourism.
“We are going to be linking St. Vincent and Guyana with our Dynamic Flights and our flights out of Havana as well. And we are going to be linking the people from St. Vincent into Guyana with our Wedding Expo.”
Guyana is now becoming promoted as a ‘Wedding Tourism’ destination with Wedding Expo being a catalyst to promote wedding tourism which has been a huge business in the industry in the Dominican Republic, St. Lucia and some other Caribbean countries, it is a huge business.
“They call them destination weddings… and those countries accommodate young people wanting to get married. Here in Guyana our legislation was a deter. If you want to come to get married in Guyana, you had to be here two weeks, and you had to go through all kinds of hoops and loops.”
Government’s decision to make adjustments to legislation will give lovers options to make Guyana their perfect wedding paradise destination, and open windows of opportunity for wedding professionals.
In 2016 Roraima Duke Lodge hosted quite a few international weddings, one being that of a hindu family which attracted over 250 foreign guests. These tourists checked in at hotels, went on tours to Kaieteur among other places, and ate in restaurants at all times.
“If we could duplicate that a hundred times a year think about the amount of employment it would create…. I am happy to say that it’s only this year I read that the government is now committed to changing that legislation. And I believe for the first time, we are now going to be able to actively market Guyana as a wedding destination,” Gouveia said.
The exhibition receives strong support from the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), the revived Tourism Board and the Ministry of Business, and Gouveia said he is “very very optimistic about tourism development in Guyana and where wedding tourism fits into this. Wedding tourism this year is going to be very very dynamic… we are going to see a lot more weddings coming to Guyana this year and wedding tourism is gonna be on,” Gouveia pointed out.