Seemingly keen to raise the country’s tourism profile to match the surfeit of external interest in Guyana triggered by the emergence of a ‘world class’ oil and gas sector, the Government of Guyana is pressing the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) into service in pursuit of a visitor experience that would match, if not surpass, those other outstanding ones in the hemisphere.
Every expansive development initiative that occurs in Guyana these days is driven by the promise of generous returns from the country’s oil and gas sector, and tourism, it appears, is no exception. Earlier this week the GTA announced that that it is aiming to launch fifteen (15) new “tourism experiences” this year in pursuit of what it says is an effort to diversify tourism products available locally. Not ever in the history of our tourism ambitions, previously, has such an expansive outlay of tourism infrastructure been attempted previously. A recent release from the GTA says that some of the work being done, includes the refining of the Mahaica River Tours, an experience that exposes visitors to one of the country’s largest mangrove forests and also its biodiversity. This is promised as one of a swathe of initiatives through which the GTA promises to burnish the image of the tourism sector and to provide visitors with more than just a single reason to come here.
