The Tourism Minister’s fuzzy math

Jan 04, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Anyone reading Tourism Minister Manniram Prashad’s New Year message captioned “Another record-breaking year for tourist arrivals” (GC Jan.1, 2011), would conclude that tourism is flourishing in Guyana, and hoteliers are very happy with their occupancy rate. The Minister was very careful (or deliberately deceptive) in only quoting the percentage of increased Tourist Arrivals over the previous years, and conveniently failed to mention the exact number of tourist arrivals to Guyana, as compared to other tourist destinations in the region.
In his message, Minister Prashad said, “Guyana saw a record-breaking year for arrivals in 2009, boasting a nine per cent increase over 2008. According to the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), only four countries — Guyana, Cuba, Jamaica and Saba — registered an increase, with ‘Destination Guyana’ topping those figures.”
This sounded to me like the Minister was suggesting Guyana had the largest number of tourist arrivals of all the Caribbean territories, which is of course ludicrous. But had the Tourism Minister taken the time to research this thoroughly, he would have seen that the following countries all recorded increased tourist arrivals in 2009, with Suriname topping Guyana with an increase of 14.4% over the previous year:
Suriname: 14.4% increase (150,396 Tourist Arrivals)
Guyana: 10.1% increase (141,281)
Aruba: 1.1% increase (812,623)
Cuba: 4.7% increase (2,429,809)
Dominican Republic: 3.7% increase (3,992,303)
Jamaica: 4.5% increase (1,831,097)
Puerto Rico: 2.2% increase (1,300,783)
US Virgin Islands: 2.6% increase (666,051)
Even countries with a negative Tourist Arrival in 2009, attracted significantly more tourist than Guyana’s 141,281 visitors as can be seen below:
Antigua & Barbuda: (234,410 Tourist Arrivals)
Bahamas: (1,327,005)
Barbados: (518,564)
Belize: (232,247)
Curacao: (366,703)
Martinique: (443,202)
St. Lucia: (278,491)
St. Maarten: (440,185)
Trinidad & Tobago: (342,091)
(Source: Caribbean Tourism Organization – http://www.mintic.gov.gy/tourism_trends.html)
Guyana’s dependence on foreign exchange from the export of bauxite, gold, rice and sugar may have resulted in the lack of interest by previous administrations in developing our tourism industry, resulting in low tourist arrivals over the years; and the PPP/C Administration must be credited with trying to develop this sector.
However, I am astonished at the sizable difference in the reported Tourist Arrivals over the same period, by the Guyana Ministry of Tourism and the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), especially when the CTO receives its information from the Guyana Tourism Authority; Statistical Bureau. For comparison and convenience, I have listed below, the Guyana Tourist Arrivals for the years 2007 thru 2010 as reported by both the CTO and the Guyana Ministry of Tourism for the same periods. As can be seen, the figures reported by Prashad’s Ministry (http://www.onecaribbean.org/content/files/Strep3.pdf), are highly inflated:
Tourist Arrivals for January to September 2010:
Caribbean Tourism Organization reports 113,538
Guyana Ministry of Tourism reports 283,500 up to November
Tourist Arrivals for January to December 2009:
Caribbean Tourism Organization reports 141,281
Guyana Ministry of Tourism reports 224,200
Tourist Arrivals for January to December 2008:
Caribbean Tourism Organization reports 129,595
Guyana Ministry of Tourism reports 223,050
Tourist Arrivals for January to December 2007:
Caribbean Tourism Organization reports 134,057
Guyana Ministry of Tourism reports 186,800
When one considers that the Caribbean Tourism Organization gets its annual information from the Guyana Tourism Authority; Statistical Bureau, one is suspicious that the inflated figures reported by the Ministry of Tourism may be a way to justify the sizable tourism budget.
Something is terribly wrong with Minister Manniram Prashad’s fuzzy math…. The numbers just don’t add up.
Guyana has tremendous tourism potential, but we’re not going to succeed by pulling the cart before the horse.
While thanking the visitors for choosing Guyana as their destination, Minister Prashad said, “…we do hope to see you again, as I am sure you must have had a memorable and unforgettable experience during your stay here.”
I’m sure they did: They will never forget the garbage littering the streets; the daily reports of robberies and killings; the roads they’re afraid to drive on because of cattle and jaywalkers; the fear they have of being mugged and deprived of their cameras, money and jewellery while walking the street; the lack of professionalism in the hospitality business; and they sure as hell will never forget the poverty on display, forcing children to walk the streets begging when they should have been in school getting an education.
A large percentage of visitors to Guyana, are overseas-based Guyanese returning home for one reason or another, and they will always get the urge to ‘go back home’.
But those tourists who visited Guyana for the first time are very unlikely to return, unless Georgetown is cleaned up and visitors can feel safe.
All it takes is one or two major incidents that compromise the safety an American tourist, to start a major investigation by tour operators in the US, declaring Guyana unsafe for tourists.
For as it is, Guyana is already unsafe for most Guyanese living here.
Harry Gill

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