…wins prestigious LATA’s award

GUYANA has received the Latin American Travel Association’s (LATA’s) “Best in Sustainable Tourism” award.

The country was awarded during LATA’s “Experience Latin America” conference in London, England- Europe’s largest Business to Business (B2B) travel conference, the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) said in a statement.

Now in its 9th edition, the LATA Achievement Awards recognise destinations, individuals and/or companies with exemplary case studies of tourism or those that have made an exceptional contribution to the development of sustainable travel to Latin America.
Guyana was voted for by an expert judging panel which included Derek Moore, Chairman of the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO); Barbara Kolosinska, Managing Director of C&M Recruitment; Aneil Bedi, Founder of Brand Agents; Quinn Meyer, Founder of Crees Manu and LATA committee member; and Danny Callaghan, General Manager of LATA.

The judging committee selected Guyana as the winner of this award for its impressive sustainable tourism practices and community-led tourism framework which promotes job creation, helps preserve local traditions and customs, promotes low-carbon lifestyles and provides a livelihood for indigenous communities.

“The LATA Achievement Awards celebrate and reward initiatives and efforts made by the tourism industry to bring the Latin American region closer to Europe,” said the GTA.
The announcement was made on June 10, 2019 at London’s Chelsea Football Club with UK Guyana representative, Kate McWilliams of Lotus UK, collecting the award on behalf of Guyana.

“Guyana has expended considerable effort in recent years not only to develop an eco-friendly tourism product, but also to incorporate sustainable tourism best practice into all aspects of its tourism strategy, policy, planning and programming,” said Director of the GTA, Brian Mullis, adding that Guyana is committed to maximising the positive socio-economic and conservation outcomes from tourism. He said it is a tremendous honour for Guyana to receive the award in recognition of all the work that was done. It was only in March that Guyana was recognised as the world’s number one eco-tourism destination and one of the top ten sustainable destinations by the Green Destination Foundation at ITB Berlin.
The global recognition is promoting the tourism sector to take things to the next level and further advance its sustainable tourism efforts.