By Margaret Burke
GUYANA possesses almost everything a tourist can come looking for. President David Granger described it this way, “… a big, beautiful and bountiful country,” adding: “…what would you expect of a country which is larger than any Caribbean island with a variegated landscape, including coastlands, highlands, grasslands, islands in the Essequibo River – bigger than the British Virgin Islands – wetlands, waterfalls lakes and rainforest; a country which is divided by a 1,000-kilometre-long river?

“Where would you encounter some of the world’s largest and rarest species of ants, armadillos, bats, caimans, monkeys, rodents, snakes, spiders, storks, toads, turtles and vultures? How could you explain to a visitor that the species of birds, bees, butterflies, fish and frogs are too numerous to count?” Noting, “Our forest, like a limitless sea of broccoli, is the habitat of some of the world’s unique species of flora and fauna.”

A proud record
Therefore, the Government of Guyana is proud of its tourism record thus far. Even before coming into office in 2015, the APNU+AFC coalition had stated on their platform, the need for a good and growing tourism sector. Improvement in air transport, the construction and rehabilitation of roads, boathouses and other necessities were in the pipeline. But the government would be the first to admit that while much has been achieved, there is still some distance to go.

The Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) records showed that for 2013, visitors who came on pleasure trips to Guyana numbered 124,618. The following year, 123,434 people came for the same reason. By 2015, there was a shift in the numbers; however, by 2018, the country received over 286,000 persons as visitors for the same reason.

Mullis said that tourism has become the second-largest export sector in the country after gold and ahead of rice. He noted approximately 7.8 per cent of Guyana’s overall GDP is realised from the travel and tourism sector.

Jobs created
President Granger explained that the increase in tourism would simultaneously bring about an increase in businesses, where many would benefit as a result of the job market opening up.

Mullis supported this view by also stating, “[Tourism] drives directly, an approximate 8,500 jobs, that’s direct employment, and in terms of indirect and induced employment, it’s a total of 22,000 jobs as estimated by the world travel and tourism council.”

Hon Minister of Business, Mr Haimraj Rajkumar, further disclosed that though tourism is relatively new to Guyana, with the efforts of the government and the GTA, the tourism sector has been experiencing some encouraging signals.

“Interestingly, more people are becoming interested in coming here, and as alluded to by the director, we received over 286,000 persons visiting us in 2018, and this represents a 15.9 per cent increase from 2017, and from January to May this year (2019), there was a 9.2 per cent increase in visitation over the corresponding period of 2018,” Minister Rajkumar disclosed.

Eco-tourism market
Last year Guyana was awarded the number one place as the “Best Ecotourism Destination” in the world. This was a newly created category, which was only added in that year. The ceremony was hosted by the Global Travel Fair, held on March 7, 2019. It was the Sustainable Top 100 Destinations Awards fair, which was held in Berlin, Germany.

Meanwhile, President David Granger has iterated that such a sector must be effectively managed if the country is to reap the benefits of the tourism industry.
“Guyana’s luxuriant biodiversity is the base of a potentially competitive, world-class ecotourism industry. Our country needs a strong tourism industry, one that is more than a weekend excursion or a fishing expedition,” he stated.
He noted that the time will soon come when Guyana would be “obliged to end its love affair with the six sisters: bauxite, diamonds, gold, rice, sugar and timber.” Describing them as faithful servants of the country over the years, he remarked, “International markets always change and dinosaurs, no matter how huge, must adapt or die.”
President Granger stated that Guyana will continue to support tourism development by improving aerodromes, bridges, ferries, highways and stellings. He said that the government is right now unlocking the country’s eco-tourism potential by improving communications in the hinterland and to the hinterland, where ecotourism product is largely located and to which access is mainly by air and river so far.

Fourth largest economic industry

Globally, tourism is the fourth largest economic industry and one of the fastest-growing. It also possesses a heavy social side to it, where there is mostly a high level of interaction, along with the exchange of goods, services and money. Studies refer to it as “the equilibrium of the three pillars of sustainability [that] becomes important in the principles of sustainable tourism – economics (profit), environment (planet) and social (people).”

It is essentially about the movement of people from one place to another, mainly for pleasure. It can be within the country (domestic tourism) or travelling outside of a country. One way or another, people sometimes do much more than have fun. Sometimes it is also about doing their own on-the-ground feasibility studies – having a first-hand look into economic ventures that could be of economic benefit to them.