-GTA director forecasts 500,000 visitors by 2025

GUYANA’s tourism industry is placed third among the country’s top export earners behind gold and rice, raking in some US$143 million.

The Government of Guyana conservatively estimates that the average visitor spends US$500 per visit, said Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority GTA, Brian Mullis in an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Friday.

“This means that with estimated arrivals figure of 286,000 for 2018, tourism generates at least US$143 million in direct economic benefits in Guyana,” he said, adding that Guyana is well positioned to attract 500,000 visitors by 2025 – best case scenario, or by 2030 if average annual growth was to remain static.

Mullis believes that either way, the future of the tourism sector in Guyana is bright since the sector has been growing since 2009. For the period January to November 2018, visitor arrivals to Guyana increased by 16.88 per cent compared to 2017.

Mullis said the increase includes an increase of 1.19 per cent in diaspora visitation; 11.66 per cent in leisure vacation travel for November 2018 versus 2017; increases within all of Guyana’s core source markets with the United States of America (USA) recording 7.8 per cent, Canada 2.01 per cent, United Kingdom (UK) 10.04 per cent, and Germany 2.92 per cent from January to November 2018 versus 2017.

Guyana also recorded a marked increase of 15.73 per cent in travel from Cuba for shopping and for processing U.S. visas for November 2018 versus 2017.

The GTA director estimated that a typical visitor from Cuba stays four to six days and spends US$2,000 to US$3,000 per visit on purchases, lodging, food and other necessities, resulting in US$85 million being generated annually for Guyana’s GDP from Cubans alone.
As part of an effort to capitalise on those figures, increase visitation and promote Guyana as an emerging and sustainable destination, GTA has enlisted Concept Farm, a boutique strategic advertising agency based in Long Island City, New York, to develop a living integrated marketing and communications strategy and action plan for the destination.

From their work in tourism and their expertise and depth of their people, Concept Farm has the right credentials, knowledge and experience to develop a new strategy for Guyana and build the capacity of the Destination Marketing team to evolve it over time, said Mullis in a recent statement.