Seemingly mindful of the fact that Guyana’s visitor arrival bona fides needs to keep pace with what, these days, in an enhanced external interest in Guyana, the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) earlier this week issued a lengthy media statement which set out the suite of conveniences and attractions which 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 GCA provides information on its collaboration with the 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 also discloses 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 fully know the opportunities available to support and improve their business ventures.”
Meanwhile the GTA has stated 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. It will also be delivering a free tour guide licensing clinic throughout September.
In gearing itself up for responding to the demands of the sector that lie ahead, the GTA says 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, it says, 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, the 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. It explained that “participants were guided through areas such as the importance of customer service, proper etiquette and hospitality techniques” aimed at ensuring “that all incoming travellers receive the highest quality of customer service consistent with local and international standards.”
Further, according to the release, the state agency has already completed First Aid and CPR training with twenty-eight (28) bed and breakfast owners, which exercise was led by Melisa Alstrom, an experienced trainer attached to the Guyana Training College for International Skills. It noted 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.”
