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Crime reports hurt local tourism —THAG

May 15, 2008 News

The incidents of violent crimes in Guyana continue to seriously affect the tourism industry because the country is plagued internationally with an over-inflated negative perception of crime spiraling out of control.
President of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), Renata Chuck-a-Sang, said that this perception continues to be fuelled by local newspapers that feature incidents of violence on their front pages with ‘no attempt to balance their reporting.’

According to her, persons who live in Guyana ‘know and feel differently’ about the reality of the crime situation.

“Several of our members received cancellations and reduced economic activity…after the terrible violence at Lusignan and at Bartica.”

According to her, this kind of journalism is seen everyday, especially by the millions in the Diaspora.
She said that the good stories that occur in Guyana often go unnoticed.

“This negative perception is fast becoming a reality. When the industry was beset by hugely negative British, Canadian and US advisories, following on Lusignan and Bartica, THAG met with the British High Commission to seek a review of its advisory, which directly targeted and was particularly damaging to our members’ resorts in the Essequibo River.”

She said that the intervention by the Association was successful.

“We hope that over the next year we can work with the Ministry of Tourism and the GTA to institute much-needed damage control, especially in our key Diaspora markets where much of this is taking place. We shall continue to ask the media to take cognizance of these issues.”

THAG hosted its 16th Annual General Meeting at Le Meriden Pegasus on Tuesday. Chuck-a-Sang was elected President of the Association for a second term.

The Vice President is Lakeram Roopnarain of the National Parks Commission while the treasure of the Association is Umadatt Singh from Air Services Ltd.

At the AGM, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony highlighted the need for more accommodation for Carifesta X.

According to the Minister, accommodation, language skills and transportation are the major challenges facing the organisers.
Dr. Anthony said that Carifesta X will be staged at multiple venues with more than 100 events being hosted during the ten days.

“We have already had confirmations from a number of countries. I think to date we have about 23 countries and as we get closer it will climb to 30.”

The Bed and Breakfast programme, which was put in place for Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007, would certainly cushion the issue of accommodation, the Minister said.

“While the bed and breakfast programme perhaps did not work out the way we had intended during CWC, I think we will have to go back to this programme,” the Minister said.

Among the Caribbean countries that have already confirmed their participation in Carifesta X are Anguilla, Antigua, Barbados, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, the Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.

Venezuela, Brazil, Suriname and delegations from New York will be a part of the event.

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