Last week the Tourism and Hospitality Association (THAG) President, Ms Renata Chuck-A-Sang in her report to the 16th Annual General Meeting of the organization, expressed regret that Guyana suffered from an over-inflated negative perception of crime spiralling out of control. She was reported as telling her audience: “We who live here may know and feel differently, but this perception continues to be fuelled by our newspapers that feature incidents of violence on their front pages, with no attempt to balance their reporting. This kind of reporting is seen every day, especially by the millions in the diaspora.” She went on to say that the good stories which happened often went unnoticed, and that this “negative perception is fast becoming a reality.”
The THAG President adverted to the British, Canadian and US advisories which followed the Lusignan and Bartica killings, and said that her organization had met with the British High Commission seeking a review of theirs. That advisory, she went on, had directly targeted members’ resorts in the Essequibo River, and had been particularly damaging. However, she told the meeting, the association had been successful in its intervention.