‘Guyana sells itself’ – Minister Walrond

– wins another award in German travel trade show

Guyana’s pristine and untouched eco-tourism beauty continues to capture the attention of millions around the world.

Recently, Guyana won another award for the best ‘Stay Safe’ video at the Golden City Gate Awards at the ITB ‘Now Travel’ trade show in Berlin, Germany.

The multimedia contest was held for the 21st time during this year’s Internationale Tourismus Börse (ITB), the world’s largest travel trade show, which was held virtually from March 9 to 12, 2021 due to the pandemic.

This is the second time that Guyana has been awarded first place in the “Golden City Gate” category. In 2019, Guyana also secured first place after submitting a video in the ‘Destination” category.

Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Hon. Oneidge Walrond in a recent DPI interview said Guyana continues to sell itself around the world because it has always been beautiful.

“It is testimony of the sheer beauty of Guyana and that there is not much that we need to do to market ourselves. We just capture that beauty, awesomeness on camera and it attracts people because it so pristine and untouched. Guyana sells itself,” she said.

The contest in Germany saw a total of 122 film entries from 23 countries. The 32 members of the international jury honoured the “Welcome back to Guyana” video produced by the Guyana Tourism Authority, which highlighted the country’s diverse natural and cultural heritage, and promoting visits to the country once the pandemic subsides.

The Minister also noted that the emerging petroleum sector is also increasing focus on Guyana.

“Because of the oil and gas, more eyes have turned to Guyana or more attention is geared to Guyana because oil and gas is money.

So yes, more people are coming because of the oil and gas and when they research Guyana, they realise that Guyana is not just oil and gas, we have just a pristine, wonderful product so that has been highlighted and amplified because of the sheer number of people that have been interested,” she said.

At the same time, Minister Walrond noted that the Government will continue to promote a diversified economy.

“When we hit oil, it was such a huge reserve it caught everybody’s attention and we have been able to capture that attention with our eco-tourism product.

And we continue as Government to promote Guyana as a diversified economy where tourism, oil and gas, agriculture and all other sectors are going to be developed,” she said.

The Tourism Minister said the petroleum sector has been a real springboard for the economy and it is helping the tourism sector to bounce back.