Seemingly mindful of the fact that Guyana’s visitor arrival bona fides needs to keep pace with what, these days, is an enhanced external interest in Guyana, the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) earlier this week issued a lengthy media statement in which it sets out the suite of conveniences and attractions that it continues to put in place in order to keep pace with the demands of both visitors as well as ordinary Guyanese seeking a taste of the tourism amenities that the country has to offer. In taking account of the visitor demands of the Caribbean Cricket League (CCL) season, among the various other short-stay consumer demands, the GTA provided information on its collaboration with owners of the thirty three (33) properties which, as of August this year, were officially entered into the GTA’s Cricket Carnival Bed & Breakfast Property database and whose owners and managers have benefitted from “a series of training initiatives” designed to enhance their service delivery in various critical areas including First Aid and CPR Delivery.
The release says that the Tourism Authority has partnered with Courts Business Solutions to provide what it describes as “tailored support to the property owners.” On August 18, the GTA staged “an introductory session for the proprietors of the facilities”, which the release said was designed “to ensure they know, fully, the opportunities available to support and improve their business ventures.” Meanwhile, the GTA has disclosed in its release that up to this time one hundred and forty eight (148) tourism accommodation establishments, tour operators and tour guides have received their official GTA licenses. The list of recipients includes twelve (12) tourism accommodation establishments, ten (10) interior Lodges and Resorts, thirty one (31 Tour Operators and seventy six (76) Tour Guides. The GTA will be delivering a free Tour Guide Licensing Clinic throughout September.
In gearing itself for responding to the demands of the sector that lie ahead, the GTA said in its release that it has also been involved in other areas of training that are critical to the sector’s service delivery regime including Virtual Food Safety Training, “led by Yvon Bertrand of the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO)”. An exercise which the Authority’s release says, is part of the GTA’s Train the Trainer programme which provides participants “with the necessary skills and knowledge to deliver similar training sessions to tourism-focused communities”. Meanwhile, in pursuit of its efforts to consistently meet the quality standards anticipated by ‘consumers’ in the tourism and hospitality sectors, that GTA release alludes to its Quality Service Training undertaking with twenty eight (28) service providers attached to the Balance Catering Service and seventeen (17) persons from R. Singh’s Catering Service. The GTA release said that “participants were guided through areas such as “the importance of customer service, proper etiquette and hospitality techniques” aimed at ensuring “that all incoming travelers receive the highest quality of customer service consistent with local and international standards.”
Meanwhile, according to the GTA’s release, the state agency has already completed First Aid and CPR training with twenty eight (28) Bed and Breakfast Owners, which was ‘led’ by Melisa Alstrom, an experienced trainer attached to the Guyana Training College for International Skills. The release adds that the First Aid and CPR training exercises entailed “both practical and theoretical methods,” and that that the exercises were designed to enable participants to respond to “emergency situations.” Meanwhile, the GTA release also addressed the collaborative staging of a Tour Guide and Inter-pretive Training exercise at Iwokrama as part of what it says is the Tourism Authority’s “partnership with the Environmental Consultants under the Guyana Conservation Initiative”.
Beyond its involvement in training exercises linked directly to the delivery of tourism-related services, the GTA, according to its media release, has also been collaborating with the Guyana Energy Authority in rolling out a Renewable Energy Workshop that focused on “on improving sustainability in the tourism and hospitality sector through renewable energy and energy-efficient practices.” The release says that the exercise targeted Tour Guides, Tour Operators and Accommodation Managers and that the overall exercise was guided by overarching remarks made during the forum by remarks made by senior officials of the Energy Authority.
