International tour operators visiting Guyana never fail to leave these shores without commenting on the underachievement of the country’s tourism sector. They do so by showering fulsome praises on the quality of our tourism product whilst listing a million reasons why it is not one of the favoured destinations among international travellers.
It happened again last week when a group of tour operators from Europe and Scandinavia came here to check out the tourism product and once again marvelled at the dichotomy between what they saw during their visits to the various interior destinations and the underdevelopment of the tourism sector.
It is of course no secret that the visitor arrival statistics published by the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) are profoundly misleading insofar as they are sparse, devoid of key explanations and inclusive of persons who arrive here for any number of reasons.
Earlier this year, for example, the GTA declared 2014 to have been the best year ever for visitor arrivals, tendering as its only supporting piece of evidence the fact that there had been an increase of 13 per cent.
In spite of pronouncements on the virtues of the tourism industry and plans to sell the product, official words have clearly not been matched by actions. Moreover, not infrequently, there is evidence of excursions into downright propaganda regarding the state of the tourism industry.
The point that was persistently made by the delegation of tour operators who visited Guyana recently had to do with investing in tourism and by that they meant, mostly, investing in marketing the country’s tourism product abroad. Successive governments have shown little interest in doing so on a sustainable basis.
With regard to GuyExpo and in addition to local celebrations like Mashramani, what appears to have been an inclination towards hosting events that might conceivably attract visitors to Guyana has not worked mostly because of an absence of effective planning. This has been the result, largely, of an absence of institutions and a scarcity of skills with which to efficiently undertake such assignments.
The point has been made time and again previously that the Guyana Tourism Authority may have a role to play in the tourism matrix but clearly lacks the capacity to properly plan and execute an overarching international plan for marketing Guyana abroad.
If credit is due to those local tour operators who were instrumental in bringing the visiting officials to Guyana it has to be said that as far as responding to their recommendations (for marketing Guyana abroad) are concerned it is the government rather than the private sector that must play the lead role. We note, particularly, the call by the visitors for an integrated approach to the planning and execution of tour packages that embrace several countries in South America including Guyana, Suriname, Brazil and French Guiana. In this regard we note with interest the announcement made by Air Services Ltd last week that it will be seeking to popularize tours to destinations in Region Nine and that in this regard it is hoping to tap into the Brazilian market.
Much of the problem with the local tourism industry reposes in its smallness, its limited revenue-earning record and, by extension, its lack of an effective sectorial lobby.
Many of the operators persist diligently, albeit at modest operating levels, seemingly satisfied with their returns and rarely if ever commenting publicly on the frustrations of the sector, primarily the paucity of robust and sustained official support in marketing the country’s tourism product abroad. Unless all of that as well as the prevailing indifference to the tourism sector can change, we continue to be, as far as the viability of the sector is concerned, on a hiding to nothing.
