They are the first of five tour groups that will visit Guyana this year as a result of the partnership between local Rainforest Tours and Suriname Safari Tours.

The deal means bright business for Rainforest Tours, which recently also teamed up with a German tour company to bring, in the first instance, a group of more than 10 German tourists to Guyana starting next month.

The Finnish tourists, who, according to Ms. Pirjo Pitkonen, a Finland tour operator that concentrates on South American tours, travel around the world, leaves Guyana tomorrow.

They arrived at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri mid-morning yesterday.

In the afternoon they were taken to the St. George's Cathedral, which the Chronicle understands has lost its reputation of being the world's tallest wooden building to a similar structure in Delaware, USA. (At least that is what the tour guide said!)

The tourists, one with a Finnish flag, first posed for a photograph outside before they proceeded to check the inside of the structure that is 43.5 metres high.

Ironically, while the tourists checked out our world-famous cathedral, back in their city of origin, Tampere, police are investigating the attempted arson of the cathedral there. The windows of the Tampere Cathedral were broken and inflammable materials thrown inside the building around last Monday or Tuesday, they said.

After the tour of the cathedral, the visitors shopped in busy downtown Georgetown.

Today, they are to be taken on a detailed city tour, visiting Georgetown's magnificent buildings, most of which are steeped in colonial style architecture. The Botanical Gardens is also one of the sites to be visited by the tourists.

The Finnish band will tomorrow be taken by bus to Moleson Creek where they will cross the border Corentyne River on the MV Canawaima to Suriname. After spending some time there, they will move on to French Guiana and then back to Finland.

Before coming to Guyana, they visited Trinidad, Venezuela and Brazil.

Mr. Cyriel H. Eerstelling of Suriname Safari Tours, said Guyana and Suriname have the same things to offer when it comes to tourism, but he feels Guyana is "undiscovered."

Most of the tourists that he takes to Suriname are from Holland and North America. He said Surinamese living in Holland represent a large number of visitors to Suriname.

He said he has 20 groups scheduled to visit Suriname from Holland this year, and owing to his partnership with Rainforest Tours, they will be coming to Guyana for five days.

From April, Eerstelling told the Chronicle, he plans to start bringing Surinamese to Guyana on weekend trips.

Pitkonen said she received the invitation to visit Suriname about 10 years ago, but could not have made the trip before because of logistical problems. Thanks to the partnership between Rainforest Tours and Suriname Safari Tours, she came to Guyana.

She said she first heard of this country in 1978, when Guyana made world headlines with the Jonestown tragedy in which some 914 Americans died in a murder/suicide ritual at the People's Temple commune in the northwest jungle on November 18.

FIX AIRPORT WASHROOMS
Executive Director of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), Ms. Indira Anandjit welcomed the partnership between Rainforest Tours and Suriname Safari Tours, noting that if Guyanese tour operators can't attract tourists directly, joint ventures are the way to go.

She said that all the efforts made in the past in exhibiting Guyana in Germany at the World Tourism Bourse, held annually in Berlin, are finally paying off.

This shows that getting visitors to come to Guyana does not happen immediately and that with continuous marketing, more Europeans will be coming here since Guyana has what they are looking for, she said.

She called the partnership between Rainforest Tours and Suriname Safari Tours a "worthwhile" endeavour, recognising that one step leads to another in bringing more Europeans to Guyana.

She said that while the Government has called for sector leading investment when it comes to the tourism industry, the reality is that Guyana is not yet prepared to handle mass tourism and some basic things have to be addressed.

Number one on her list is fixing the washrooms at the airport. Anandjit pointed out that only recently a group from Canada complained bitterly about the state of the airport's washrooms.

She also said that the attitude of the Immigration and Customs personnel needs to be changed. She quickly added that the question is not training for the Ministry of Tourism has done a lot in this area. But she pointed out that everyone has to recognise the role they have to play in the sector and so dedicate themselves.

NO FALLBACK PLAN
Anandjit added that internal air transportation is another area that has to be looked at seriously. She said having tourists all worked up about flying to Kaieteur Falls and then an airline cancels its flight is not reflective of a sound internal air transport sector.

"There is no fallback plan," she complained.

The East Bank Demerara highway is also an eyesore and needs to be improved as it is the first drive for tourists arriving at the Cheddi Jagan airport, she pointed out.

Anandjit said these problems somewhat "dent" the industry, and have to be addressed as more and more tourists from around the world are coming to Guyana.

What a person experiences for the first time influences whether he/she will be coming back and encouraging others to come along, she stressed.

She noted that Guyana has seen an increase in Caribbean tourists and THAG plans to carry out a tourism sales blitz in the Caribbean this year to spread the word of the offerings of the local tourism sector. These are planned for May and October.

The association will also be targeting the South American market this year, she said.

Anandjit is happy about the tourists coming from Europe and she showed this yesterday when she encouraged the Finnish visitors to return to Guyana and experience the magnificent Kaieteur Falls and Guyana's diverse flora and fauna.