– says Tourism Minister

MINISTER of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond, said that improving internet connectivity in remote communities can boost tourism in those areas and move the industry into a new frontier.

The Tourism Minister made those remarks at a recent launch of a connectivity project to provide satellite and broadband connectivity to rural and hinterland areas in the country.

During her remarks, Walrond told the gathering that the government wants improved connectivity in the hinterland regions with tourism products to enhance their marketability, among other things.

This came on the heels of the Minister’s visit to Costa Rica where she noted that, though she visited a very remote eco-lodge there, she was connected and could continue her work there.

Walrond stated that that is the type of product that is needed in Guyana, “Our tourists they all have busy lives as I did and I didn’t have to be separated from my work and the anxiety that that brings, but I can be under a waterfall and enjoy the scenery and still be able to be connected.”

As such, she added that she wants Guyana to have better connectivity in places like Regions Eight and Nine so that tourists can stay connected while in those remote communities.

With this, the Minister indicated that tourism can be boosted, and the country can even host ‘digital nomads’ who would usually travel to different countries on extended stays as they can continue their work remotely.

She remarked, “That is what we want… Could you imagine that you have a tourist who spends, on average, $1,000 a day having an extended stay of six weeks because he or she is working in that village. Do you imagine the benefit that can come to those villages.”

To this end, she stated that the Government of Guyana will support whatever initiatives that can aid in this process even as she commended the connectivity project which GTT Inc. launched in collaboration with WANSat Networks Inc.