TWO local food businesses have joined hands to boost the local tourism sector through their offerings of wine and creole food served with a unique twist.

On Friday, local food business Backyard Cafe and Wine Company, WineDaysGY organised a joint ‘horse cart’ tour of Georgetown for a few locals. Through this tour, the group of primarily young people enjoyed some wine while sightseeing in Georgetown and visiting other local businesses.

Though the venture aimed to promote work of the two businesses, co-owner of winedays Michelle Howard highlighted that the venture was crafted to boost the domestic tourism sector.
“This is what we want in terms of Guyana moving forward with business — they need to be creative and we need to show the world that Guyana is a world-class place with amazing food, scenery and hospitality,” Howard said.

Additionally, Howard mentioned that another aim is to boost other local businesses so they too can garner more support by persons becoming aware of what they offer. “It’s all about collaboration; businesses need to collaborate, we need to learn to live and share with each other, that’s the only way we are going to see the sacrifice of all this hard work. That is the future in business,” the businesswoman opined.

She also related that it is through this collaboration that the local tourism industry will truly be developed. Through the tour, the organisers let the tourists support local small businesses and stopped at other established businesses along the route. Owner of Backyard Cafe, Delvern Adams, highlighted that in endeavouring to support local businesses, the two groups wanted to show the authentic services offered. As such, they did not reach out to the businesses — like Creme Select Ice Creams and Demico house — beforehand.

“We want everybody to be equal on the board; tourists walk in- same treatment, locals walk in- same treatment,” he stressed, while asserting that the local tourism sector needs quality service at all times. Both WineDaysGY and Backyard Cafe are local entrepreneurial businesses that have been created by remigrants. Through these businesses, the Guyanese entrepreneurs are hoping to serve up unique bits and pieces of Guyana and Guyanese culture.