GTA establishes training facility to aid hospitality sector

As Guyana’s tourism sector expands, so is the need for training in various areas in the industry.

The Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) has now established its training facility, after working with tourism stakeholders throughout the years to facilitate various types of training for those operating in the sector.

The Department of Public Information (DPI) recently spoke with GTA’s Manager of Training and Licensing, Tamika Inglis, who noted that the agency offers more than 20 areas of training.

“We thought it was necessary that we have our own training room, so we put forward that plan and it has come to fruition and we are pretty much excited about that. It would definitely cut our overhead cost as well as give us the opportunity to have more training done,” Inglis explained.  

She said the facility has been in the making for some time, as the outsourcing of venues to host training has been quite costly.

The training manager noted that the GTA prioritises training based on an assessment of the needs of the industry.

“So far, we would have been able to train 1300 persons to date and those training covers mixology, first aid and CPR, delivering quality service, introduction to tourism, tour guiding, and birding. We have a whole list of training that we try to cover to build the capacity of the industry,” Inglis added.  

Currently, persons who benefit from the training are already operating in the industry, however, due to several hotels slated to begin operations in the future, the interest is growing.

“Persons calling us every day asking for training in different areas, even areas that we don’t offer like waitressing. What we are trying to do now, when these requests come, we see how best we could provide the training,” she noted

The GTA is also planning to develop a human resource data base for the tourism industry, especially for the hotels that will begin operations in Guyana.

“What we want to do is to be able to have a pool of persons that are trained in various tourism or hospitality areas, so that those hotels can pull from that pool,” Inglis added.

In 2021, 1,500 persons were trained by the GTA and more than 2,000 in 2022. The training target is set at 3500 this year.