The Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) on Friday launched its Experiential Tourism initiative, which aims to enable tourists to participate directly in activities at three destinations.
While the tours cannot be conducted until the National COVID-19 Task Force gives the green light, the GTA has launched the project in anticipation of travel to Guyana properly resuming.
At the launch, held at the Whirl Wind Village at the National Exhibition Centre, Sophia, it was explained that the experiential project will allow tourists the chance to fully indulge in the livelihood of the persons living in the indigenous villages and educate themselves not just in theory, but practically, and thus preserving the history of Guyanese culture, some of which is not taught in schools.
The tours to be launched include a tour of Indigenous villages Moraikobai and Wakapau as well as a seven-curry tour. The tours will be presentations of culture that will let participants better understand the way of life of the peoples living in Guyana. A glimpse of what the tours will entail was presented during the launch.
According to the Deputy Toshao of Moraikobai village in Region Five, Remington Adrian, the tour in his village starts at Mahaicony. Visitors will be given a three-hour ride along the serene river, then they will have a village tour filled with activities, including canoe rides and the making of cassava bread. An exploration of the story of the Arawak girl who lived along the river bank before being transformed into the first Canje Pheasant – the nation’s national bird – in the area, after being exchanged by her family to a man for gold, will be part of the tour. A presentation of the full story was told at the launch. It was accompanied by a painting of the national bird done by Rosetta Fredericks.
This was also done for the Wakapau village tour. Region Two Toshao Howard Cornelius disclosed that this tour includes a visit to Para Island and a telling of the island’s history. The story tells about a father’s revenge for his daughter after she was swallowed by the Para, a fish which his daughter caught that grew to become a magnificent whale. The girl disobeys her father and feeds and is swallowed by the whale. Her father purposely gets swallowed as well, in an attempt to save her. The girl dies and after the father was able to gut the whole whale, he died three days later. Other activities will include participating in coffee processing and trekking, which is how the villagers typically travel.
There is also the seven-curry tour which will be a Georgetown tour and will have persons participating in the making of seven-curry, a traditionally Indian cuisine. This tour was developed by Singing Chef Adventures co-founders Jessica Hatfield and Eon John. According to Jessica, participants will tour the Bourda Market, where they will purchase the ingredients for the curries and then visit the Indi curry powder factory and observe Guyanese curry making before heading to the well-known Tony’s Pouri Place and then to the pergola where they will make the curries and be serenaded by the singing chef. Additionally they will get to pick the lotus or water lily leaves which are used to serve the Curries.
The Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Waldron, GTA Director Carla James, Project Development Manager Kumar Baksh, and the president of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana, Mitra Ramkumar were all elated about the project’s development and launch.
