Chief Executive Officer of Roraima Airways Inc. Gerry Gouveia has described as “a major potential breakthrough for the tourism sector the announcement by the Guyana Tourism Authority that government is now moving definitively to effect an amendment to the country’s Marriage Act that would allow for a reduction of the residency requirement from fifteendays to two days for non-nationals wishing to marry in Guyana.
At the launch of Roraima’s Wedding Expo 2018 at the Duke Lodge on Wednesday, Deputy Director of Tourism, Carla Chandra announced that draft legislation designed to effect the requisite reduction of the residency requirement has been completed and has been passed to the Attorney General’s Chambers for scrutiny. Chandra told the launch event that it was likely that new legislation could be in place by year end.
Responding to the announcement, Gouveia told Stabroek Business that he believed that it was “one of the most meaningful developments in the context of the forward movement of the tourism industry in a number of years. Once the legislation is passed I foresee the number of couples not resident in Guyana wanting to be married here. It could be a game-changer for visitor arrivals,” the businessman told Stabroek Business.
