Currently in its 18th year of offering what it describes as “quality nature and adventure experiences”, Wilderness Explorer exudes an unbridled optimism about the future of the country’s tourism industry.
Director Shaw Mc Grath is convinced that the work put in by local tour operators in recent years has paid off. He believes that in recent years Guyana has attracted increasing attention as an eco-tourism destination and that things can only get better.
McGrath talks with animated enthusiasm about the work which the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) and the United States Agency for Development (USAID) funded Guyana Trade and Investment Support (GTIS) have done along with local tour operators to support the external marketing of the local tourism industry and the government’s “changed attitude to tourism” since the early nineties. “There used to be a time when we were fighting a losing battle,” McGrath says.
The former THAG official also told the Stabroek Business that whereas there was a time when the image of Guyana was under siege internationally, that is now changing. “The numbers had been shrinking; now they are growing,” McGrath says.
Not everyone shares McGrath’s enthusiasm about Guyana’s tourism industry, but that does not matter to him. When some of the issues that had been raised elsewhere about the dearth of infrastructure at the Kaieteur Falls area were pointed out, McGrath took the side of those who contend that the allure of the country’s principal tourist attraction reposes in its unspoilt beauty. He is not an advocate of overcrowding the area with what one might call creature comforts.
That is probably because Wilderness Explorer, the local tour operator of which he is a director has thrived on the natural environment which it offers. McGrath singles out the Rupununi as one of those destinations that has given Wilderness Explorer the popularity that it has. Tourists, he says, are becoming increasingly enamored with the savannahs, rainforests and its birding prospects. Apart from being the most popular region for tourism, the Rupununi possesses the best infrastructure, Mc Grath told Stabroek Business.
When we spoke with McGrath and another Wilderness official Teri O’Brien, the company was hosting several groups of visitors to Guyana at various interior locations. The company’s interior adventure packages have made it popular with visitors to Guyana and despite the fact that tours have been offered to far-flung regions of Guyana there remains plenty of hidden, unknown places still to be discovered by the intrepid traveller.
Over time, Wilderness Explorer has responded to what the company says has been a desire by its customers to both “travel with us again” or to see more than just Guyana. What the company has done is to use its experience in the industry to develop similar tours in neighbouring countries in South America and in the Caribbean. O’Brien says that Wilderness Explorer offers itineraries that combine French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Brazil and Venezuela. The company says that the islands of the Caribbean are easy to combine with flights from Europe and North America.
What has also made Wilderness a sought-after company by its adventure-oriented customers is what it says are the “mutually beneficial relationships” that it has developed with the Amerindian communities. McGrath says that the company has been able to help areas like the Macushi village of Surama develop its tourism product. Surama apart, Wilderness’s “favourite places to see” include the Iwokrama Canopy Walkway and Atta Rainforest Lodge located in the Iwokrama forest, Rock View Lodge at Annai and various other sites in the Rupununi. Wilderness tours offer opportunities ranging from bird-watching and wildlife watching to fishing and boat trips.
McGrath is satisfied that the success of Wilderness Explorer reflects the steady growth of the local tourism industry. He believes that the success of the company is rooted in the fact that over time it has cemented relationships with Amerindian communities and that those relationships have lent their tours an invaluable authenticity. Wilderness’s attractive full-colour brochure “cautions” visitors not to expect “a slick and packaged tourism product”. Instead it offers a guarantee that its guests “will enjoy a genuine, unpretentious experience of seeing (Amerindian) village life first hand and viewing the forest through the eyes of the indigenous people.
