Guyana is expected to benefit significantly from the hosting of the 24th Inter-American Committee on Tourism (CITUR) Congress of Ministers and high-level officials of tourism next month.
This is according to Business and Tourism Development Minister Dominic Gaskin, who underscored the importance of the event and the benefits to be realised from staging it in Guyana.
Minister Gaskin was speaking at the launching of the Congress in January. He maintained that the Congress would raise the country’s tourism and business profiles and would also contribute to Guyana’s economic growth in several other ways.
Gaskin noted that it was an opportunity for the country to demonstrate its capacity to host high-level events and to develop international ties with other countries.
The Inter-American Congress will see discussions related to tourism in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals, the importance of product innovation in the connected Americas, and multi-destination travel as a strategy for connecting the Americas and building resilience in the tourism sector among others.
Held under the theme “Connecting the Americas through Sustainable Tourism”, the conference will have several cultural presentations, tourism booths, replicas of Indigenous benabs, and also the vending of local craft.
Furthermore, special sessions will be devoted to Guyana to address tourism in a green economy. This will serve as an opportunity for local entrepreneurs to sell and market products within Guyana.
The event is slated for March 21-22, 2018 at the Marriott Hotel.
This will be the first time that Guyana will host an Organisation of American States (OAS) ministerial conference of this nature. Ministers from 34 countries that are part of the OAS will meet for the CITUR.
Ambassador Riyad Insanally, Permanent Representative of Guyana to the OAS, and OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro in December last signed a Memorandum of Understanding at OAS Headquarters in Washington, DC.
The Secretary General congratulated the Government of Guyana on its offer to host the Congress and reiterated the support of the OAS Secretariat to ensure the success of the event.
The hosting of the Congress is being coordinated by the Business Ministry’s Department of Tourism, led by Director General Donald Sinclair.
