Stakeholder engagement is important to tourism development

Jul 18, 2019 News

The Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) has been working closely with a number of sister agencies and private stakeholders to elevate the tourism sector in Guyana.
To formalize the approach, the GTA, this month, successfully completed two round-table stakeholder engagements in Georgetown—one on June 6, 2019 and the other in Lethem on June 12, 2019.
A total of 45 stakeholders representing tour operators, interior lodges, resorts, hotels, communities and non-governmental organizations such as the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), Conservation International (CI), Visit Rupununi and North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB) were in attendance.
At the press conference that was held yesterday at the agency’s office in Sophia, Director of the GTA, Brian T Mullis, and Deputy Director of GTA, Carla James, spearheaded the engagements.
They facilitated the session held under the umbrella- “Tourism Development Challenges and Solutions: We all have a role to play.”
Discussions were focused on the tourism strategy, priorities and outcomes to date for the 2019-2020 period. The primary focus was on fostering a dialogue on the importance of collaboration in an effort to create shared ownership and buy in for roles that all stakeholders need to play.
Emphasis was placed on how critical areas such as reinstating regularly scheduled flights into the hinterland, prioritizing policy and critical infrastructure improvements, and raising awareness of the importance and value of tourism nationally.
All reliant on the roles each individual stakeholder plays in tourism.
Further, by increasing the collective reach of the tourism sector through cooperative marketing and promotions, and meeting the growing market demand by meeting international safety , quality and sustainability standards, the tourism sector will undoubtedly reap the benefits and raise its profile.
“The stakeholder engagements are important for the GTA and members of the tourism sector to share our strategies and priorities and discuss the ways in which both can be improved,” said Mullis.
He further noted that only through that level of multi-stakeholder collaboration can tourism realize its potential as a force for good in Guyana.
“We feel it is important to have general and stakeholder engagements of this nature to identify solutions to the shared challenges we face within the tourism sector and to determine tourism policy and infrastructure priorities,” echoed Carla James.
“As part of its annual budget planning cycle, the GTA intends to host yearly stakeholder engagements with a solution-oriented approach to build a stronger tourism sector,” she further noted.

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