Even as local tour operators seek to structure their entities to attract a greater share of the visitor market in the hemisphere the idea of Guyana’s greater involvement in a more integrated approach to marketing the tourism product in South America is being mooted by international industry experts.
Last week, in the course of a familiarization tour of Guyana that could further broaden the sector’s access to the international market, Managing Director of Finland’s Adventura Travel Agency Tero Norvio told Stabroek Business that there is room for enhanced cooperation among Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana to market a common tourism package.
“It is much better to work with each other than to work against each other… Many tourists when they travel prefer to do a combination of countries instead of one, so working together will be beneficial to all,” he said.
Coming from the head of one of Finland’s largest and best known adventure travel companies the pronouncement is a wake-up call to Guyana which, over the years, has done little collaborative work with other countries in the hemisphere in an effort to create multi-destination tourism packages, despite the fact that the idea has been mooted before.
At a briefing to wrap up a ten-day familiarization visit here by a group of international tour operators, Norvio said that Finns are customarily granted six weeks’ vacation and some of them “would definitely come to Guyana and are likely to visit other countries too at the same time.”
The familiarization tour was organized by Wilderness Explorers Managing Director Tony Thorne in collaboration with Caribbean Airlines, Guyana Tourism Authority and the Tourism Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) among others. Four tour operators, Explore Worldwide, Journey Latin America, Tourismus Schiegg and Aventura participated in the visit.
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Pointing out that the global tourism industry had become increasingly competitive and that the product was becoming more and more difficult to sell, Norvio said the visit to Guyana had better equipped participants with the information and experience necessary to sell the local product. “I can tell my customers that I have been there and seen the beautiful birds, the magnificent waterfall, the giant otter, the anteater and visited the lodges. That is the best way to sell the product,” Norvio said.
Alluding to what is widely believed to be the primary problem facing the local tourism industry the Finnish tour executive said that while Guyana possesses eco-tourism attractions that rival those of any country in the world there is need to undertake “more aggressive marketing and easy access to Guyana”. He described the local tourism product as “unique and exciting,” pointing out that that was what visitors are looking for.
A number of visitors from Finland travel to Costa Rica, Belize and Brazil, Norvia said and there is no reason why some of those travellers could not find their way to Guyana.
The call by the visiting tour operators for a sharper focus on marketing Guyana abroad echoes sentiments expressed by local tour operators who contend that financing costly tourism marketing initiatives overseas is the financial responsibility of government.
Meanwhile, Dion Inniss, Caribbean Airlines Sales Executive for Guyana and Suriname said that the region’s longest serving international airline was happy to partner with Wilderness Explorers in bringing the tour operators to Guyana. Recently, in one of its many demonstrations of commitment to serving the Guyana travel sector and helping to push the country’s tourism product the airline added a fourth straight flight from United Kingdom to Trinidad and Tobago with a connection to Guyana.
Beginning 2004 Wilderness Explorers has been hosting tour operators from the United States of America and Europe to “experience Guyana.”
Thorne said, “It is one of the most cost effective ways of doing our marketing as we expose our product to tour operators. They are our partners and distribution channel in selling our product. As small companies we have a small reach on the international market. It is only by partnering with them we can get clients and that type of partnership is very important.”
The local tourism executive said Guyana has “a small product” and it is encouraging other communities to get involved in helping us to attract greater numbers of tourists.
During the visit Guyana’s tourism product also came in for considerable praise from Senior Operations Manager of Explore Worldwide Yvonne Ramsay though she said that its weakness reposed in its limited marketing.
Ann Kreutzer of Germany’s Tourismus Schiegg said although Guyana is branded, she was taken aback by the variety of birds she has seen during her visit here. Bird watching is an aspect of tourism which the local industry has been seeking to popularize.
Some of the places that the tour operators visited were Surama Eco Lodge, Rock View Lodge, Atta Lodge, Caiman House, Karanambu Lodge, Iwokrama Rainforest and Kaieteur Falls.
