A week away from the experimental first ever Guyana Festival, the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) appears to be brimming with confidence that the event will be a considerable success.
When Stabroek Business spoke with the GTA’s Communications Officer Chevon Singh earlier in the week she was unequivocal in her view that the Festival would accomplish its objectives.
The focus of the event is on upping the visitor arrival numbers. That is where the GTA’s Communications Officer expects the event to shine. She says that enough overseas marketing has been done through the various communications channels including the country’s diplomatic missions abroad.
Perhaps oddly enough and despite the organizers’ promises of various pre-event activities here in Guyana there appeared to be no significant evidence of a great of local marketing for the Festival. It raises the familiar issue of the failure on the parts of both the government and the mostly privately-run tourism industry to effectively market the tourist product.
If local patronage of the Festival is to match what appears to be the organizers’ high expectations then they might well have to
