The Guyana Tourism Autho-rity (GTA) is anticipating a record number of visitors here for Christmas and an overall record breaking 20% increase in tourist arrivals by year end as it has already surpassed the arrivals recorded over the corresponding period last year.
GTA Director Indranauth Haralsingh said as of October the agency recorded a 17.7% increase in tourist arrivals over the 2011 figure. “We are very happy to report that we have had record arrivals so far for the year, … we have had 148,628 visitors compared with 126,313 up to the end of October,” he told a media briefing on Tuesday.
He did not say how many of these were returning Guyanese.
According to a Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) press release, Haralsingh also said that Guyana is again leading the 34-member Caribbean Tou-rism Organisation grouping in terms of percentage increase in arrivals, a feat it had achieved in 2010.
Except for May, Guyana has been experiencing record-breaking months up to October, marking what may be the best year ever since it started recording visitor arrivals in 1995.
Most of the tourists are from the United States, which has contributed 57 per cent of the visitors to the country, Haralsingh said, revealing that overall the Caribbean accounted for 21 per cent, Canada 14 per cent, Europe 5 per cent.
The GTA head attributes this increase to a number of strategies the agency has been employing in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, the private sector and other stakeholders to promote Guyana as a popular tourist destination.
“We attribute this increase in arrivals, to the re-discover home initiative where we are proactively and aggressively encouraging Guyanese living abroad to come back home to spend time in Guyana for their vacation or leisure, to retire to invest or to volunteer and the response has been terrific so far,” he said.
“The growing popularity of Guyana (as a) destination for wildlife and for eco-tourism (and) business,” has also drawn visitors.
According to Haralsingh, lower airfares, new direct routes from Miami, Canada, New York and Trinidad and Tobago to Guyana, the successful hosting of tourism events, concerts and celebrity entertainers throughout the year and worldwide efforts to promote Guyana have also had a positive impact on the industry.
He is anticipating a record number of visitors in December as persons capitalise on the tourism package being offered during the Christmas holiday, along with the Christmas concerts, extended four-day Main Street Lime and nostalgia for the unique Guyanese Christmas.
