Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to a recent article regarding the development of the Marriott Hotel and its impact to boost tourism, appearing in the Sunday Times on the 23rd of September 2012 (“CJIA expansion, Marriott Hotel will significantly boost tourism”). I am a foreign national, who travels to Guyana regularly to visit my wife’s family. I am a healthcare worker, and I was born and raised in the United States. Being a foreigner to this country, I was very pleased to see the attention that has been given to increase the tourist-friendly aspects of this wonderful nation. In coming to Guyana for the first time several years ago, never in my life have I seen so much ingenuity, so much drive, and so much entrepreneurial spirit. I was very much impressed to see the way that the Guyanese people contribute their part to the local economy by running businesses out of their homes, by selling goods in the public market, and by providing services day-in and day-out, like the many service workers of this country. So when I heard that the Marriott Hotel was looking to break ground in Guyana and open the door to tourists, I could not have been more pleased.
The opening of Guyana’s borders to tourists holds the potential to open a new era of development in this country. At present, Guyana is virtually unknown to the citizens of the developed world. They do not see the many hardships that are present in daily life in this country, mainly because they do not have a window into this society. Allow me to explain why opening the country to tourism is one of the best things that can happen on so many levels.
When tourists begin to come to this beautiful Caribbean nation, they will boost the economy, in much of the same way that has happened in your neighbouring country of Barbados. Foreign nationals will also be able to finally see first-hand the limitless potential to invest in so many areas of this budding nation. It is said that “no man is an island”, and so it is true with the economy of Guyana. Largely unknown to most of the citizens of the Western world, Guyana has been cut off not because of immigration policy, but because foreign nationals have no familiar foothold upon which they can land when they arrive here in Guyana. Until Americans, Canadians, and Europeans have the safety, the familiarity, and the comfort of an established and well-known hotel brand, they will not venture to this unknown and unfamiliar part of the world.
I urge you to recognize that opening a hotel establishment that foreign nationals are familiar with will open Guyana to the great flow of economic prosperity that comes with the tourist dollar. It will not end, however, in the opening of one simple hotel chain; rather, it must be supported by the efforts of government to increase and maintain the safety and security of tourists while in this country, and it will ultimately rely upon the support of the Guyanese people and businesses to make sure that foreign nationals feel safe in your country through low crime rates, clean streets, and the development of other businesses that will support tourism such as upscale restaurants, vacation resort venues, and traditional cultural entertainment. All of this can contribute to the prosperity of the Guyanese people.
Open the gates to tourism in this country, so that all feel welcomed here and so that the citizenry of Guyana can benefit from the tremendous prosperity that tourism can offer.
Yours faithfully,
J D Weinstein
