‘Destination Health’ will be the new norm

– GTA Head says Guyana stands to benefit

By Lisa Hamilton

WHEN it is safe for Guyana to reopen it ports to international travel, how well the country performed at keeping its cases low; how well it has boosted its sanitiSation standards and to what extent it can offer tourists a less crowded get-away, will influence the level of influx to the country.

Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) Director Brian Mullis told this newspaper on Monday that he believes that Guyana already meets the latter criterion to be amongst the countries to benefit from a resumption of tourist-related travel when the time comes.

Mullis first explained that most destinations around the world are predicting that even after the global coast is clear, many persons will remain hesitant to travel internationally for at least three months, depending on the length of the crisis. He said that countries around the world have begun to prepare for increased domestic travel for when individual countries are free of the virus and Guyana can expect the same for persons who customarily travel, but their options have been limited internally. However, gradually, as international travel for tourism purposes increase, Mullis said that one expects that there will still be a very noticeable presence of health-related screening for the virus.

“If we’re looking into the future, in terms of what the new norm of travel and tourism will be, I think there will be much more significant testing prior to people taking international flights. That, combined with medical screening of arriving passengers and departing passengers, is going to be how things are operated moving forward,” he anticipates. This means, however, that how efficient Guyana’s health and port authorities are able to conduct screenings and assure visitors of sanitary conditions will determine how eager persons are to travel to this country.

He said: “‘Destination Health’ is going to become part of the new norm, so when more people are thinking about travelling internationally, they are going to be looking at those destinations that had the least amount of cases of the virus and those that are implementing more rigorous health, hygiene, safety and sanitisation standards.”

Added to this, having experienced the deadly effects of the virus, the director expects that tourists will not be too keen to vacation in countries that are densely populated or countries which were hard-hit by the pandemic. World Atlas lists some of the world’s most visited countries as France, Spain, the United States, China, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom —– countries which have had hundreds of thousands of cases of COVID-19 and grim death tolls.

Arguably, Guyana’s population is much smaller, but to date, in the Caribbean Region and South America, it is not amongst those with the highest figures in deaths or cases.

“Crowded tourism destinations are going to become less popular; some will fall out of favour. Increasingly, more people are going to seek out less travelled destinations that are free from crowds, perceived to be safe, that are clean and optimally ‘green’ and pristine. Sustainability is going to become more important, which gives Guyana a strategic advantage,” the GTA Director said.

“I think demand for tourism related to cruise [sic], packaged holidays involving large groups, it is anticipated that those areas of travel and tourism are likely to decline significantly. We don’t cater to large- scale tourism in Guyana per se, so it will be of no impact here. We cater predominantly to small groups and private travel experiences and most people are anticipating that that is going to become even more popular than they are now.”

Guyana’s strongest international tourism markets are its nature and adventure-based travel market. Mullis said that tourists who fall within these groups are mostly likely to be the first to travel after a crisis when its relatively safe. However, to ensure that Guyana’s tourism industry eventually benefits,  he said that tourism-related businesses must [be] given a lifeline at this time when international travel has ceased and businesses internally are closed.

The GTA expects feedback from the Ministry of Finance by mid-week on five measures it stated are most critical to business survival and sustainability. It called for the waiving of VAT, PAYE, NIS payments or an extension of the timelines by six months; VAT exemption and waived taxes on the travel and tourism sector with immediate effect for a minimum of 12 months, or until the economic situation returns to normalcy; direct disbursements to businesses to cover employment costs, and/or unemployment payments to qualified travel and tourism employees and no-interest loans, loan guarantees, and loan forgiveness for tourism businesses as a stimulus.

It is pleased to see positive movement already from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and some banks. However, according to a survey conducted by the GTA, about 45 to 50 per cent of businesses will not be able to maintain basic overhead expenses for over a month beginning from April. Guyana was expecting 336,000 visitors before the crisis and Mullis said that this figure has now been recalculated downwards to 164,000. He estimates that $98.4B has been lost to Guyana’s economy due to the impact.

He said: “I think when people think of travel and tourism they think about, maybe I don’t stay at hotels, or I don’t go on guided tourism experiences. But, do they travel via domestic transport? Do they use cab or bus services? Do they ever dine out at our local restaurants? Do they go to local bars? When you start looking at travel and tourism holistically, those are all the aspects of it. Then you have the secondary level of all the food producers, construction, all those things support the travel and tourism sector and when people start to look at that interconnected nature of our economy, they can start to see that tourism touches those other sectors that are also important in the country.”

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