Construction begins on hospitality institute

Construction of the hospitality institute at Port Mourant, Corentyne, has commenced and will cater to the training needs of the growing tourism and hospitality sector in Guyana.

This was disclosed by Minister of Tourism Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond during a recent interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI).

Minister Walrond noted that the facility will be better than was previously conceptualised.

“The hospitality Institute, I’m happy to announce is well on its way. We had to repurpose the project to conceptualise what we want for a hospitality institute which is something that is state of the art, something that is fit for purpose. We see our tourism sector growing and booming and the project as previously conceptualised did not envision that. So, we had to enlarge the facility, and more sort of state-of-the-art kitchens for people to be trained,” Minister Walrond stated.

“That was approved a few weeks ago by the CDB which is our founder for the project, the hospitality institute so it started construction, construction for the hospitality institute has been started,” the tourism minister added.

The hospitality institute has long been on the cards as Guyana’s tourism sector expands.

Several internationally branded hotels are currently under construction in Guyana and will come on stream soon, adding to the room capacity as the Government of Guyana seeks to add more rooms to the current stock.

Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, announced in December 2020, that the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) had approved a US$1 million loan for the development of the Tourism and Hospitality Institute in Guyana, this equates to GYD$2.3 billion.

The building was initially intended to be constructed at Providence, East Bank Demerara, but this was changed to Port Mourant, Berbice.

In the meantime, the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) has established its own facility to train persons in areas such as tour guides and other specified needs of the industry.

Guyana also has an agreement with Barbados which will see thousands of persons being trained.“They have approved to start with 30 train the trainers and those trainers will come to Guyana and train our people here,” Minister Walrond noted.