In the Cayman Islands, where I once lived, a part of the culture there, as in Guyana where I grew up, is a toy called ‘gigs’ (our word for it is ‘tops’). Once very popular with young boys, gigs faded away as tourism development came to the Cayman Islands in the 1960s, so that by the time I was there it had virtually disappeared from the country. But then, a few years ago, one of the older heads, a serious gigs man in his youth, began appearing in public spinning his beautifully made toys, and in short order Mr Duncan and his gigs had been added to the Department of Tourism list of things that visitors would encounter on their holiday.
As Guyana embarks on its own specific tourism path, that Cayman tidbit serves to illustrate the reality that every successful tourism operator knows: a thriving tourism attraction is actually a package made up a number of things almost all of which are technically outside the ambit of the operator but all of which are critical for that business to prosper. Consider, for example, that significant visitor numbers are generated in a destination only when it enjoys sustained and affordable airlift; a range of good restaurants and stores; a clean environment with efficient utilities offering clean water and effective sanitation; electricity and modern electronic communication; absence of crime or unrest in the society; a variety of good original entertainment, and attractive shopping. All of those factors are in play in every location where tourism is working. Notice that all of the items contained in that list are missing or deficient in Guyana, and, in particular, that all of them relate to aspects of the society over which the tourism operator has no control but which directly affect his/her involvement in the economy. It makes for perilous business indeed.
The background here is that the relatively quick rise of the tourism industry in the Caribbean is a direct consequence of government and private sector investors, recognizing these factors at play, and combining to stimulate, or sometimes create them as essential parts of the successful tourism package. Early on, many of the islands eagerly granted taxation relief for tourism plant investors; many, with large hotels nearing completion, were offering substantial financial inducements to international carriers to provide scheduled flights from North America and Europe. Improved hotel and condo accommodation standards were being propelled by strict enforcement of building code regulations, and governments were offering free training classes for persons entering tourism in the developing service industries.
The message was clearly heard in the 1950s for the Cayman Islands embarking on its tourism push but unable to attract airlines because of its relatively low number of hotel beds; that situation was remedied by a government and private sector expansion drive which generated in 10 years the 5,000 beds that would then attract American carriers. Around the Caribbean, close attention was being paid to the standard of sanitation, guaranteed electricity supply, and efficient telephone service; the visitor was coming to a clean environment, where he could watch television at night in air-conditioned comfort, and phone home whenever he felt like it without having to book a call days ahead.
But it didn’t end there. The builders of the model in the region had the foresight to see that while the majority of the visitors coming to virtually every Caribbean island were coming principally for the sea and the sun and the sand, a major part of the pull, particularly for repeat visitors, was the life experience in this different culture, with different foods, different music, different architecture, different dress, even different toys. Indeed, governments in the region have long recognized the value of those vital cogs in the tourism wheel and have put in place, in their various planning departments, programmes and regulations aimed at ensuring the continuance of these things and then to actively market them with the visitor in mind.
Jamaica, for example, takes great pains to promote its music, food, Rasta culture, and art (latterly, even its athletes) in sustained campaigns overseas. When ska music came out, they sent the Dragonaires on a 6-city tour of North America in free shows to promote it. In Barbados, the tradition of tiny chattel houses, brilliantly painted, in clean-swept yards, is an encouraged feature of the country’s landscape and a naturally favourite subject for vacationing photographers. In Curaçao, the influence of early settlers remains vivid in the Dutch-influenced designs in many buildings lending a European flavour to the sunny island. In Grand Cayman, the intricately restored Pedro Castle, site of the country’s first major stone structure, stands overlooking the sea once patrolled by pirates. Trinidad is trading heavily and very successfully on luring the world to its annual carnival revelry featuring pulsating music and elaborate costumes, and Barbados runs its similar Cropover as part of a calendar that offers at least one cultural event in every month of the year.
Sooner, rather than later, for us to succeed in tourism, Guyana will have to widen its support for the parts of the package that go beyond merely location. Some of this is already in train with additional new airline services about to begin, two new festivals, and more attention being given to historic sites such as Fort Island, but some problems remain. The bedraggled condition of our city, our inability to contain street crime, and our shortage of high-class restaurants are at the top of any fix list. Tragic, too, is the stark deterioration in our once beautiful capital now dotted with derelict buildings and vacant lots overgrown with grass. Particularly distressing is the number of once-elegant two-storey wooden houses being replaced by a series of towering four-storey concrete rectangles, each virtually identical to its other, and dominating the skyline at every turn. There is the economic reality – that a wooden building is more expensive to build and to maintain – but the other reality is that the path we are currently on will change Georgetown, once one of the most beautiful cities in the Caribbean, to one of the ugliest. We have a stunning natural landscape and a unique world in our interior, but for our tourism industry to achieve significant numbers we have to get the entire package right; as it stands now too many pieces are deficient or missing entirely. We get excited about our wonderful tourism attractions – the Iwokramas, the Baganaras, the Suramas, the Rockviews – but the locations alone are not enough. If we are in the business of tourism, we have to provide the entire package or the tourists will simply go to where they can find it.
