Newly appointed Minister with responsibility for Tourism, Haimraj Rajkumar says among his plans for the sector will be encouraging Guyanese to travel and become more au fait with their country.
Responding to questions at a recent press conference, the Minister disagreed that the high cost of domestic travel is a deterrent. He believes that Guyanese can afford local travel.
“I believe our citizens are capable of enjoying a holiday in Guyana, regardless if its Kaieteur [Falls] or in the Corentyne or in the Essequibo Coast, I think our standard of living of our citizens have risen to a threshold that our people can enjoy holidays in our country,” the Minister told reporters.
Rajkumar said the issue is that Guyanese do not embrace the importance of taking vacations. As such, he will spend time during his term in office to encourage persons to travel to various parts of Guyana and become ambassadors for their country.
“The difficulty I believe is we have to sensitise persons in our community about the importance of taking vacation, the Minister said.
He added that “there is a lot of persons in our country, in our society who doesn’t see that taking a vacation is very important and I intend to through the Ministry, try to raise that awareness.”
As it relates to the business sector, the Minister said he will push for more utilization of local goods. He will also be working with manufacturers to improve their products.
“I would like to encourage our manufacturers, our entrepreneurs to manufacture things of high quality so that Guyanese consumers can feel some amount of pride in purchasing and consuming our products,” he noted.
Rajkumar was sworn in as Minister of Business on May 2, also taking up the responsibility for tourism.
Rajkumar was appointed Minister of Business following the resignation of former Minister Dominic Gaskin. Gaskin was among four Ministers who were forced to resign due to their dual citizenship status.
