Ali promotes Guyana as major tourist hub in Americas

Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister Irfaan Ali has announced that efforts are being made to promote Guyana as a major international hub between the Americas and the rest of the world.
“We are building a mechanism to encourage more traffic from Latin and South America to Guyana,” Minister Ali announced. The minister made this assertion as he addressed the first meeting of tourism ministers of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in Quito, Ecuador, on March 22. Tourism ministers from the 12 UNASUR member nations met in Quito, to discuss the establishment of a single visa for the region; other topics covered included the creation of the South American Tourism Network and/or the South American Tourism Institute, with the aim of adopting a common working plan and establishing a permanent coordination mechanism in order to promote the tourism potential of South America.

The ministers also met to discuss the adoption of a common work plan on building a permanent coordination mechanism within UNASUR.  In his address, Ali expounded on the importance of the sharing of information, research and building partnership in marketing and promoting the products of the region; he also suggested the twinning of markets within the region.
“We need to work on joint initiatives that would advance and further develop our product whilst we grow our markets. As member states, we also need to build an integrated marketing and information-sharing platform for the region, that would achieve cost benefit through economies of scale,” Ali stated.
More importantly, Guyana’s tourism minister pointed to the necessity of developing a common platform that will allow ease of access and hassle-free movement for tourists between destinations in member states. In this regard, he proposed working on a regional transportation system with tourism as a core focus.  Alluding to one of the actions to be taken when developing a common work plan, Ali said, “Recognising that our tourism product is heavily eco and nature-based, we should seek active involvement in global debate regarding climate change and develop an action plan that would safeguard the industry.”
In addition, he said that member states need to work out a mechanism where students can benefit from exchange programmes at the university level, particularly in Guyana, being an English-speaking country; universities can offer one year exchange programmes where students will be able to learn different languages.