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Guyana is an incredible story waiting to unfold
– Caribbean Tourism Organisation Secretary General
Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) statistic show that Guyana has received 113,538 visitors from January to September, and the peak period being the month of April, when 14,484 tourists visited that month.
Secretary General of Caribbean Tourism Organisation, Hugh Riley
According to Secretary-General of Caribbean Tourism Organisation, Hugh Riley, greater attention needs to be paid to customers’ satisfaction and the CTO recommends a total visitors satisfaction programme aiming at making the region a leading example of excellent service, while each country in the region should aim to be certified and compliant.
“Guyana is a natural magnet for travelers who want to do more than just fly in and flop down, this country is blessed with a wealth of attributes waiting to be enjoyed by adventure-seekers, hikers, birders, eco-tourists, naturalists, anthropologists…virtually anyone seeking a unique and enriching vacation experience. And to top it all off, you have all the advantages of a South American country and you speak English. So yes, Guyana is an incredible story waiting to unfold,” he said.
Secretary General of CTO said that everything the organisation does is guided by the principle of sustaining the assets of the tourism industry for the social and economic benefit of the people of this region. “That mantra is embodied in the mission statement of the CTO.”
Adding that Guyana has embraced those tenets, Riley said that the country has done so by its commitment to regional tourism and complete adherence to the benefits of the economies of scale which membership in a 33 nation body can bring to Guyana.
Ridley said when a business becomes truly competitive, it is in effect ensuring its ability to survive and is investing in its own economic sustainability, while excellent service leads to customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to repeat visitors and the sustainability of the tourism industry.
He said excellence tends to be infectious and it spreads and encourages other who witness the results to adopt similar practices of excellence which also affect customers positively.
The CTO secretary General said that positive testimonials from visitors give the type of publicity needed to regenerate visitors in the tourism business. “Excellent service leads to customers’ satisfaction which in turn leads to repeat visitors and the sustainability of our tourism Industry.”
Ridley explained that sometimes value is confused with discounts and deals, since patrons accept that the proper definition of value is the relationship between the price paid and the quality received, then we must pay equal attention to both part of the equation, price and quality, “and tackling quality is a sure means of improving our industries; bottom line, it means that if we spend enough time training our service professionals to deliver true quality, then in fact we can and will be able to command the right price our product.”
He said being in the service business, the taxpayers expect tourism officials to take tourism seriously, since it is the biggest business in the world.
The business employs two millions citizens of the Caribbean and in excess of 19 million stay-over visitors to the region, which injects over US$20 billion per year into the economies.
Initial research by CTO shows that there is no destination or region in the world that has developed criteria for total destination rating focused on satisfying visitors.
“As the world’s most tourism dependent region, there is need to focus our attention on visitors.” Ridley said.
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