Task force to propel tourism policy
The establishment of a task force, information management and a structured yearly tourism marketing strategy were agreed on at the just-concluded workshop for human resource training and capacity building in the local tourism sector. The workshop, the first in a series organised by the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) and sponsored by the Caribbean Regional Programme for Economic Competitiveness (CPEC) was dubbed a success by the CPEC Project Coordinator for Tourism and Hospitality Training, Donald Sinclair. It focused on tourism policy design and strategic partnerships needed for policy implementation. The lead facilitator was Canadian tourism expert Dave Russell of ARA Tourism Consulting Group headquartered in British Columbia, Canada. THAG's Executive Director, Indira Anandjit, yesterday told Stabroek News that one of the duties of the task force was to develop a suitable package so that the tourism minister could make a case for tourism legislation and get government to commit to the development of the sector. The task force would be guided by set terms of reference to accelerate policy implementation. Anandjit said that many of the ideas which the task force will develop were pulled from Chapter 37 - A National Tourism Strategy of the National Development Strategy (NDS). Some areas were identified for "refinement", she said. A number of the participants who had never seen the NDS had also made suggestions consistent with what was contained in the tourism strategy. However, she said, they needed to be more informed about how to get the tasks done. As regards information management, she said that while raw data was available at the tourism ministry, accessing and using it effectively was still a problem. Government had assessed the country's tourism potential and she said that attention will be paid to how to assemble information. In relation to marketing, Anandjit said that initially it would be structured on a year-to-year basis. She said that another of the task force's duties would be to come up with a position on how to market the local tourism product internationally. One of the ideas mooted was to hold briefings with stakeholders including representatives of political parties in parliament, middle and senior managers in commercial and financial institutions, government ministries and the private sector. In a release on the just-concluded seminar, Sinclair said that 20 participants drawn from the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Industry, THAG, the Ministry of Education, the Carnegie School of Home Economics, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, the University of Guyana, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Private Sector Commission, took part in the three-day workshop. He announced that the second workshop will be held at the Hotel Tower from January 23 to January 25.
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