In a quest to understand the national impact and contribution tourism makes towards the economy, tourism entities are conducting an assessment of the industry.
This assessment, according to Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), Kamrul Baksh will give insights into areas where tourism products can be developed and will assist with accessing support for improvements.
According to Baksh, who was part of the team that launched several new tourism products in Region Nine this week, expanding tourism products is a priority for sustaining the economy.
“Expanding the product has been a priority for the Tourism Authority and what we have been doing is to strengthen the regional authorities, the regional RDMO’s so that they can lead the project management and development here.
“The regional destination marketing and management body has been leading that and we will support until this project becomes very, very sustainable,” Baksh said.
The Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) last week held its first members meeting for the year at the Herdmanston Lodge during which they focused on methodologies for gathering industry data, including Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contributions.
A press release from THAG noted that representatives from the Bureau of Statistics, Ivor Coates and Keeona McKay, highlighted that accurate documentation of data that properly represents the sector’s contributions can assist with meaningful advocacy in that area.
“We want to work on getting an assessment done on the adventure market so while we have so much undiscovered gems and we feel that they have a lot of potential,” Baksh said.
This assessment requires tourism businesses to submit data to the bureau which will then, through a confidential management system, produce statistics to support positive impacts the sector has on the country’s growing economy. This information is crucial for advocating for concessions and other support.
A key factor for tourism development is funding and Baksh said proposals to get support are optimised by the GTA and it will continue to “look for pockets to support [tourism] enterprise.”
