Georgetown: Opportunities to foster tourism growth in the Guianas Shield, as well as other areas of cooperation were high on the agenda of Tourism Minister Catherine Hughes and her Surinamese counterpart, Rusland Andojo.
Hughes met with Andojo on Saturday when she conveyed Guyana’s desire to work in close collaboration with Suriname and French Guiana, to collectively promote the tourism industries in the Guianas and to market the countries’ destinations under the umbrella of the historic Guianas Shield.
She pointed out the various areas of cooperation that exist between the countries, including the vast potential for visitor exchanges and for jointly marketing the Shield as a “multi-destinational tour package”.
For his part, Minister Andojo spoke about the need to diversify the countries’ economies to tap into new growth areas. He highlighted the yet-unrealised potential that both Guyana and Suriname possessed to transform into choice tourist destinations.
The courtesy call on the Surinamese Tourism Minister was part of Minister Hughes’ itinerary for the journey to French Guiana on the invitation of the Sous Prefet, Monsieur Leon Bertrand, and Mayor of Saint Laurent-du-Maroni in French Guiana, who was formerly Tourism Minister in France under the Jacques Chirac Administration.
On Saturday, Minister Hughes sat down for a formal meeting with the Mayor to discuss opportunities for cooperation between the two countries in the Guiana Shield.
Several weeks ago, the Minister had welcomed a flotilla of yachts on their arrival at the Hurakabra River Resort in the Essequibo on the Guyana leg of a four-country rally.
In her remarks to the yachters in Saint Laurent-du-Maroni, French Guiana on Saturday on the French Guiana leg of the rally, Minister Hughes explained that they count among the One Billion People who crossed thousands of borders all around the world every year and were one of the reasons why small countries like French Guiana and the Cooperative Republic of Guyana could support and encourage growing tourist industries.
She reflected on the theme that the World Tourism Organisation created for World Tourism Day this year, “One Billion People … One Billion Opportunities”, which she explained meant that the tourists who visit these countries provide the wherewithal for the countries to set up new enterprises, employ young people, and give encouragement to women to utilise their skills and the resources around them to generate revenue.
She stated that yachting for Guyana was the newest form of cruising and added that many years before the advent of Guyana’s present Government, the country had some peculiar circumstances that retarded the development of a strong, viable cruise and tourist industry.
Minister Hughes stated that her expectation of the Nereid’s Yachting Rally’s inclusion of Guyana was ultimately it would lead to greater cooperation and faster development of tourism inside the Guiana Shield.
“More specifically, we are building on this foundation to establish new routes through the three countries in the Shield that will give tourists tremendous opportunities to cross our borders and experience a wide assortment of cultures and adventures in just one trip,” Hughes continued.
The Minister shared with the gathering that just recently Guyana embarked on a wide-ranging marketing strategy to ‘sell’ Destination Guyana under the new brand “Guyana – South America Undiscovered”. She stated that the objective was to extend Guyana’s visibility in the traditional tourist markets around the world as well as the non-traditional ones like New Zealand, Asia, South East Asia and the Middle East, to name a few.
In efforts to encourage investments, she also stated that the Government of Guyana was working overtime to ensure that the playing field for all investors remained level and the country was in a position to offer reasonable concessions across the board.
However, as Guyana continues to garner international support with regard to the Venezuela-Guyana border controversy, Suriname has again signalled its intent to pursue its claim on the New River Triangle (Tigri) area. Reports in the Surinamese media are that President Desi Bouterse recently told Suriname’s National Assembly that this issue would be placed on his country’s agenda once more.
This is as a result of that country’s President opining that he had ‘no choice’ but to do so.
However, Guyana’s Head of State, David Granger has maintained that the claim to the New River Triangle is “spurious”.
He told the media at a press conference on Friday that Suriname has laid claim to part of Guyana’s sea space the international tribunal determined in Guyana’s favour.
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