Georgetown : The government is now moving to implement the Tourism Satellite Accounting (TSA) system to record Guyana’s tourism’s contributions to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This has been identified as a critical process in defining the way forward for the local tourism sector.
TSA can be defined as the standard statistical outline and is a key instrument for the economic measurement of tourism.
During a one-day workshop held at the Arthur Chung International Convention Centre, Minister of Telecommunications with responsibility for Tourism, Cathy Hughes told participants that, “This workshop will take us exactly where we want to be, and that is on the road to full implementation of Tourism Satellite Accounting.” This will then direct the improvements and developments needed to push Guyana’s tourism even further.
Financially, the tourism sector shows potential to contribute significantly to Guyana’s GDP. “The National Competitive Strategy Unit in Guyana in their report in May 2013, stated that the estimated value of tourism and hospitality activities generated by tourists in Guyana had an estimated value of $215M… representing 8.3% of our GDP,” Hughes indicated.
Hughes, citing some success stories in tourism, pointed out that Dubai, in the Arabian Desert, has invested in tourism, starting from scratch. This move is financially productive as tourism now rakes in more than oil, which once drew in most of the country’s GDP. “Dubai is a wealthy oil producing nation, but now it has limited its petroleum reserves which only contribute 5% to their GDP,” Hughes pointed out.
Some Caribbean countries like the Dominican Republic have started using TSA successfully in calculating every dollar spent on the tourism industry. “This is where Guyana is striving to be. Guyanese must be aware of the value of tourism to the development of this country. It is a fast growing global service industry that is raking in billions of dollars from the billions of tourists, who travel the world over with a willingness to spend,” Hughes added.
Shaun McGrath, president of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) stated that putting together a TSA is complicated work, but as a private sector body, they will play their part in the compilation of the data.
The TSA committee was formed last November, comprising various entities such as the Bureau of Statistics, he Immigration Office, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Guyana.
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