–as means of diversifying industry into a World Heritage Site

THE Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is pushing to make the sugar industry part of the country’s Cultural and Heritage Tourism, in keeping with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)-led World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme.

In a press statement issued over the weekend, the company said it’s treating this proposed ‘Sugar Tourism’ of theirs as a new line of business, in that it has already been integrated into its 2019 – 2021 Strategic Plan, and has as one of its strategic goals “to create and deliver more value from products and services”.

It goes on to say that with the transitioning of the sugar industry, “the programme is designed to institutionalise ‘Sugar Tourism’ into the business, and allows for relevant structures, systems and operational guidelines to be developed and implemented, towards the achievement of specific goals and objectives.”

RATIONALE

As the company reasons, “Sugar has played an integral role in Guyana’s evolution and development, in areas of economics, social, politics and culture for over 350 years. The dynamics of the country were either shaped, or influenced in one way or another, by the sugar industry.”

Noting that the transition has been centuries in the making, starting with slavery and indentureship, followed by nationalisation, privatisation and now public ownership, GuySuCo says, “As the industry transitions, the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. has a responsibility to preserve and develop innovative ways of transferring knowledge on sugar and its history, and to effectively tell the story of sugar in Guyana…”

Noting that the programme is being developed in conformity with UNESCO’s as well as Guyana’s own guidelines, GuySuCo says Cultural Heritage Sugar Tourism in the Guyana Context “will refer to the experience of places, artifacts and activities that authentically represent the stories and people from the sugar industry in Guyana, both past and present…” and include irreplaceable historic, cultural and natural resources in the sugar industry both past and current.

LOCATIONS, ATTRACTIONS

In terms of locations, the company says it has already identified the Albion, Uitvlugt and Blairmont Estates, as well as the La Bonne Intention (LBI) Head Office Compound to be used as dual sites, meaning that they will serve as production or profit and service centres, as well as tourism sites.

Tour routes are currently being developed at the foregoing locations, with some of the attractions being the sugar factory at the Albion Estate; the old sugar mill at the GuySuCo Training Centre at Port Mourant; the ancient drainage pumps at Albion, Chesney, Nigg and Ankerville; the Butcher Canal, which was first dug manually by slaves; outstations or ‘pumping stations’ at Brotherson, Vriendschapp, the Torani Canal and a 1924 Rolls Royce that’s still in working condition.

Attractions at the Uitvlugt Estate will include: “A manual crane which was used in the 1700s to ship sugar and return goods to the Estate Stores; animal-drawn punts; Sea-face sluices which were installed since the 1800s; and the factory itself, which was built in the early 1900s.

Blairmont, it says, “also has unique attractions such as the integration of sugarcane cultivations with cattle ranching; a railway that transports sugar from the factory to the wharf, and the structure that was used to transport cane via punts across the Berbice River, from Providence on the East Bank of Berbice, to the Blairmont factory on the West Bank of Berbice.”

The company says in closing that it is “currently exploring opportunities for funding and other support from international organisations and universities, in areas of anthropology, archeology, history, cultural and heritage tourism, etc, to conduct an inventory of tangible and intangible assets relative to the culture and heritage of the sugar industry, and design and construct a ‘Sugar Museum’ and a ‘Sugar Heritage Park’ at one of its former locations, possibly at the old factory at the former Leonora Estate.”