Georgetown: The Ministry of Tourism is set to host a “Familiarisation Tour” for select United States (US) media, as part of a drive to showcase the unique attractions of Guyana to the US market. The ultimate aim of the exercise is to grow this market and bring visitors to the country.
Commenting on the FAM trip, Director, Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), Indranauth Haralsingh, said that visitors from the US form just one of the key source markets for Guyana's Tourism, as it brings approximately 42 percent of all visitors to Guyana. Hence the drive to further reinforce the significance of the country’s tourism potential to the US.
The FAM Trip which is scheduled to take place in a few weeks, will give opportunities for writers from the Huffington Post, USA Today, and National Geographic among others, to meet and enhance their understanding of Guyana’s visitor offerings.
The FAM trip is also a part of the goal to promote the country ahead of the key, 50th Anniversary celebrations, Haralsingh said.
JCD & Associates Limited, a renowned video producing company out of Trinidad and Tobago, which had worked for several US Networks and Travel Channels in the United Kingdom, also recently visited Guyana on a filming expedition, to promote the 50th anniversary.
Haralsingh explained that the production, which sought to give reason to come to Guyana for the celebration and activities, will commence during November and run until mid-January 2016.
But the Media Fam trip for selected international media from world-renowned publications and news agencies and advertisements, goes beyond just highlighting the promotion of Guyana’s 50th Anniversary celebrations. It is also a part of an aggressive marketing, implementation plan, aimed at bringing awareness to Guyana, under its new brand, “Guyana South America Undiscovered.”
To this end, Haralsingh explained there has been increased advertising with a focus on being in more niche markets and niche publications.
In this line, he said, just last month, officials from the Ministry of Tourism and GTA attended the first American Birding Expo in Ohio, to promote Guyana as a bird watching destination to the US population. The US has about the largest bird watching population in the world. Guyana is also being promoted at the British Bird Watching Fair.
As the Ministry of Tourism and GTA continue to collaborate to increase the Guyana South America Undiscovered sales distribution network, Haralsingh said that focus will also be on attending more trade fairs, including the ITB in Germany (Internationale Tourismus-Börse Berlin), the World Travel Market in Latin America and Argentina, and the Vakantiebeurs Utrecht Tourism and Leisure Trade Fair in Holland in January 2016.
Additionally, there is focus on aggressively attracting more film and documentary producers to Guyana. Haralsingh said that in addition to lining up a number of fishing, adventures and wild life documentaries and films for Guyana, between February and April of next year, Guyana will have a return of the filming of the US series, 'Naked and Afraid'.
Some episodes of the series were filmed in Guyana this year and last year, and they were so successful that the producers are now doing the XL series, where the participants would be naked and alone for three months in Guyana, Haralsingh explained.
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