The provisions in the country’s 2014 budget for the tourism sector do not reflect the various official public pronouncements regarding government’s commitment to moving the industry to “an enhanced level of prominence,” Chief Executive Officer of Roraima Airways and former Head of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana, Gerry Gouveia told Stabroek Business in an interview on Wednesday.
Frankly I’m disappointed and I would be very surprised if my disappointment isn’t shared by other operators in the sector,” Gouveia said.
The entire sector is still waiting for government to invest meaningfully in a marketing initiative designed to aggressively promote Guyana around the world as a viable visitor destination. This is not the first time I’m making this comment. It is for the private sector to invest in creating the tourism infrastructure to cause thevisitors to .have a worthwhile stay once they get here. On the other hand it is for government to invest the larger sums in creating global awareness of Guyana as a visitor destination, Gouveia said.
Asked to elaborate on his envisioned official initiative to market Guyana abroad, Gouveia said that apart from a carefully designed marketing plan he believed that the execution could cost as much as US$5 million. “I know that it sounds like a lot of money but we need to look at the returns that we can get from that kind of investment. If we are serious about tourism – and we say we are – we simply must find a way of bringing an end to the gradual, incremental attention that the sector is receiving,” Gouveia told Stabroek Business.
And the Roraima Airways Chief Executive Officer told Stabroek Business that the Guyana Tourism Authority “is long overdue for a comprehensive overhaul. Until we start committing real resources to the GTA to cause it to function at a level that positions it to manage an expanding sector… the institution will continue to reflect the underdevelopment of the sector.
Gouveia told Stabroek Business that while the completion of the Ogle International Airport and the commencement of flights from the region to Ogle “amount to a significant boost for visitor arrivals”, Guyana continues to have challenges linked to attracting major airlines to Guyana from North America and Europe. “Once we begin to target visitor markets in Europe and North America seriously we are definitely going to have to attract a major international airline to Guyana,” Gouveia said.
Meanwhile, Gouveia said that efforts to boost the tourism sector must be attended by initiatives designed to enhance training in the aviation sector. “I believe that recent events in the aviation sector point to the need to enhance training for staff at the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority and in my view there is need for ongoing security-oriented training and sensitization centred around airports,” Gouveia said.
