YOU CAN DO WONDERS WITH US$ 50 PER NIGHT

Nov 09, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Guyana is not all bad. There are many good things that happen and at times these need to also be spotlighted.
The government may be awash with problems, incompetence and its fair share of corruption and failures, but there is also some good things upon which to draw some consolation and build on for the future.
For the tourism sector, this past week saw the fruition of something that would hardly make waves in other parts of the world but because Guyana is still playing catch-up with the rest of the world, this development is of some importance especially since it recognises a critical failing of the private sector.
The local private sector has been unable to boost tourism. It has both failed the country and failed itself by its inability to develop the sort of packages that would have boosted tourist arrivals to levels that would have made a big difference to the fortunes of the country and to those involved in the local hospitality sector.
As such, it needed a helping hand and this week this is exactly what the government, true to form, did. The Ministry of Tourism and the Guyana Tourism and Hospitality Association (GTHA) came together to host a breakfast welcome for some one hundred and sixty five individuals who have arrived as part of a package tour to Guyana.
This is a great initiative by the GTHA and the Ministry of Tourism and it points in the direction in which the government needs to be moving to make tourism a major sector in the economy.
Tourism can no longer be seen as simply a support sector within the Guyanese economy. Guyana no longer relies on commodity production but needs a new support plank on which to rest the economy. That support plank should be tourism, a rapidly growing sector prior to the global financial crises.
Guyana should not be worried about that crisis since when recovery comes, tourism is going to be resuscitated and by then we should be ready to capitalise.
This is why this recent package tour is something of a breath of fresh air to an otherwise stagnant sector.
Mind you, package tours are not cheap, and definitely not in Guyana where merely going to the Kaieteur Falls can cost as much as US$250 per person. You are not going to have many takers at that price. Our resorts are also expensive and this may have to do with the extremely poor occupancy but even so, most of the tourists who come here are not spinning in money and therefore they may not all be able to afford to spend time at these resorts, considering that many have to save all year just for their annual vacation and some are even financing these trips by means of credit cards.
The organisers behind this package tour must therefore not feel that it will be a promotion for other similar trips. It will not. The average tourist from the Diaspora cannot afford such a package trip. But what will happen by this present arrangement is that a favourable impression will be created of Guyana and through this, greater interest will be generated in the country.
Those behind tourism development must therefore not let up. They must accept the realities that most of the tourists that come here are Guyanese or persons related to Guyanese who spend most of their trip in local homes. This, too, is costly because there are some families when they have an overseas visitor in the house, suddenly seem to have little cash to do anything, leaving all the expenses to the hapless visitor.
There are many persons who would wish to return to Guyana for a short stay but who would prefer not to stay at family since this can be just as costly as staying at a low cost hotel.
In normal circumstances, the private sector would have recognised this need and responded by lowering prices and competing for occupancy, especially given that there are not many hotels with negligible occupancy rates.
This is where the government should come in. Christmas is just around the corner and then there is Mash. The Ministry should try hard to arrange with a few hotels and guest houses to offer a bed and breakfast facility at a rate of US$50 per night inclusive of taxes. This would attract a fair amount of short-term visitors to the country and allow for good business for both the hotels and the entertainment and hospitality sectors.
It would be nice if something can be arranged and announced for Christmas so that those who wish to fly in just for the holidays can do so without burdening family. They can stay at one of the hotels for a special package of $50 per night.
This will bring tourists to Guyana and it will be good for the small hotels that are not doing so well. It will be good for the country and by extension for the people. It may even kick start tourism which really needs a shot- in- the- arm at the moment.

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