by Naomi Parris
WITH the aim of keeping tourism alive, the Ministry of Business, through its Department of Tourism, last Thursday May 14, held a Zoominar under the theme, ‘Lockdown not shutdown, keeping tourism alive in the current crisis.’

The virtual event was a collaborative effort between the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and the Organisation of American States (OAS), through its Department of Culture and Tourism. The event saw over 70 tourism professionals attending from public and private sector agencies mainly in the Caribbean, South America, including Guyana, the UK and the USA. The zoominar was chaired by Director-General in the Department of Tourism, Mr. Donald Sinclair, while Minister of Business, Mr. Haimraj Rajkumar delivered the lead statement.

According to Sinclair, “The zoominar initiative was an effort to make available to the tourism sector in Guyana, especially the regional service providers, the latest tourism intelligence relating to best practices, resilience strategies, marketing and product-management responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

He added that the zoominar was also intended to update participants on the impact of the virus in Guyana and the measures being implemented to contain its spread. There was also focus on the likely scenarios regarding the resumption of flights to Guyana and the need for employment of appropriate health and safety measures to accompany the eventual re-opening of the tourism industry.

He stated that during the zoominar much attention was directed to the likely phases of industry recovery, with several presentations proposing that the domestic tourism market would be the one best favoured to re-start earliest, followed by a mixed bag that included travellers from the diaspora, adventure-seekers and visitors from nearby regional source markets.

Sinclair added that while the meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) market was expected to show sluggish recovery, Guyana is still expected to benefit once borders are re-opened to business-related travel, driven by oil exploration.
He further stated that most importantly there was a general recognition that tourism in Guyana (and indeed globally) was entering a new phase that required different measures and strategies to steer the industry to full recovery amidst the ogoning severe impacts of the pandemic.

Arising from the rich store of tourism information, recommendations and strategies offered by the Zoominar, Sinclair noted that the Department of Tourism in the Ministry of Business has already begun to work towards the creation of an entity that would coordinate the inputs from a wide cross-section of national and international agencies, with a view to accelerating the recovery and strengthening of the tourism sector in Guyana.

“Going forward, partnerships will be a critical modus operandi since full recovery requires leveraging resources from both local and international agencies. Once the required approvals are granted, this new entity will be formally convened and will begin the urgent task of driving the recovery of the industry in Guyana,” he explained.