In the weeks leading up to Carifesta, the divider on the East Coast highway going towards the Kitty byways was festooned with marigolds and other ornamental plants. Who put them down and whether they were intended to bloom for Carifesta is unclear. What was very clear in the following weeks was that none of these plants were tended to. The marigolds on the divider in front of the Russian embassy shrivelled up and died, the punishing heat and aridity of August/September put paid to their chances of survival. The November rains may just rescue some of the perennials that are still hanging on.
It goes without saying that the landscaping was patently not well managed. If the plants had flourished they would have indeed been a sight for sore eyes and would have brightened up an area that is often horribly scarred by the dumping of garbage on the opposite side by the weekend revellers. The beautifying of cities with a variety of plants along dividers, parapets, in parks and in open spaces is something which of course the city council could have taken on if only it had the wherewithal and the level of discipline needed for the task.
Given the continued emphasis on tourism by the state, one would have also thought that the greening and beautifying of the city would be an eminently suitable task for a body like the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), particularly for Carifesta. It is not known whether this will ever be one of its tasks but it could certainly take it on considering the amount of energy it and its subject ministry needlessly expended in feuding with the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) on a magazine to promote Guyana.
It may be recalled that the Ministry of Tourism and the GTA indicated to THAG that they were withdrawing their support for the guide that has been printed for many years by THAG because they were not happy with it and wanted to commission their own. Cynics might have immediately said that this was an attempt to give a job to someone with close ties to those in authority. Thankfully, following a most unseemly public row better sense prevailed and THAG will continue to print its magazine and the GTA will desist.
It boggles the mind that amidst the very limited resources available from the state to promote tourism, despite its holding up of it as a high-growth industry, it could contemplate the wasting of money on a separate guide instead of harmonizing its efforts with THAG and growing the opportunities for multi-destination and niche tourism here.
What could the GTA and the ministry be thinking? One would assume that in the same manner that the private sector is generally conceived to be the engine of growth, that THAG would be seen as the driver with the government providing the enabling environment and whatever outlays could be afforded for promotion; not haranguing over why two guides should be printed in these very depressed circumstances.
One would have thought that nurturing the marigolds that were sown on the dividers would have been the type of task that the GTA should take on board. The whole city and its environs could do with properly maintained landscaping. Tourists complain bitterly about the drab look of Georgetown, the forest-like plots where there should be well-manicured gardens and the foul smell that emanates from many parts of the city where fetid garbage decomposes and stagnant water in unclean drains is a norm.
A ministry official gave as one of the reasons for dissatisfaction with the THAG guide its inclusion of a caged animal. That is certainly a valid point. If one is promoting eco-tourism and conservation-based tourism one must certainly not be seen to be promoting the wildlife trade or punishing animals. But we have those contradictions precisely because the GTA and the PPP/C ministries for the last 16 years have not carefully thought out where they would like to go with tourism. It is clearly not sand and sun. It is definitely more nature tours and the rich biodiversity that Guyana has to offer. Where is the position paper of the GTA on outlawing the wildlife trade? Where is the position paper of the GTA on turning Guyana into one large birding destination? Where is the position paper on filling up the hotel rooms that were so recklessly opened up for cricket world cup? These are the tasks that the GTA and the ministry should be working on feverishly for next year’s budget so that they could be properly funded. Enough time has been wasted with bickering over tour guides etc. Now is the time to get down to the nuts and bolts of really moving the tourism industry along.
