Guyana is ‘safe for travel’ and ready to welcome visitors -GTA

Guyana has been deemed a safe place to travel as the country eases open the tourism and hospitality sector in a phased manner.

Addressing the media on Friday, Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) Ms. Carla James said considered steps have been taken to ensure that the industry is now able to welcome visitors.

“A strong Government commitment to the tourism industry and you would see that based on policies that have been taken over the past couple of months to enable a strong recovery like the removal of VAT on hinterland transportation and incentive packages that are being offered to encourage investment in the country.

Close collaboration between private and public sector is key because any policy or guidelines we develop we wanted to make sure that private stakeholders are able to meet those requirements so anything we do we have to do that in consultation with them because we want to set the industry up for success,” she said.

It was also noted that improving the enabling environment to support tourism business development, diversification of tourism products and increased airlift from key source markets, especially Europe, were among the steps taken to support the recovery of the sector.

To this end, strict guidelines were established for tourism stakeholders.

“We developed recommended hygiene and sanitation protocols that are suitable for tourism businesses in Guyana. The next step we did was integrate those protocols into our existing and new training programmes that are coming out because we want to make sure that hygiene and sanitation is added to every component of the tourism service,” Ms. James said.

Hygiene and sanitation supplies were also provided to communities and COVID-19 awareness campaigns held in indigenous languages, along with on-site inspections and the verification of implemented protocols to ensure that Guyana was safe for travel.

The GTA also highlighted that Guyana is well positioned for travel in the new Covid normal because of its vast open spaces, small, group tourism, small eco-lodges and low population density in the tourism communities.

Tourism businesses have been receiving conditional approval to reopen since November with strict guidelines and protocols. To date, approval has been given to 14 interior lodges and resorts, eight tour operators, one accommodation establishment, and 88 restaurants and bars.