A small cruise ship, the MV Clipper Adventurer, which is due to drop anchor in the Essequibo River this evening, is expected to impact significantly on making Guyana a marketable eco-tourism destination.

Speaking with reporters on the eve of the arrival of the ship, which is making its way to Guyana from Brazil as part of a sixteen-day, six-country eco-tour expedition in the Guyana Shield region, Director of Tourism, Tessa Fraser said that the success of the expedition was crucial to Guyana's image as a tourist friendly place.

Fraser said that based on the activities planned for the tourists on land the communities are expected to benefit through the sale of craft items and landing fees. The ship will drop anchor off Bartica and make a stop at Saxacalli Beach. The landing fee for the vessel is $1,500 while the fee per head is $100. Some observers argue this fee should have been higher.

On the vessel are 118 American tourists between the ages of 50 to 85 years, mainly Americans with a few Europeans who flew from Miami to Brazil where they boarded the vessel at Belem. Their route includes the jungle rivers of Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago.

While the vessel was a small one with just over 100 compared to the cruise liners which transport about 1,000 people each, Fraser said a cruise of this nature was meant for a particular clientele. She noted that the middle-aged and retirees constituted a niche market with the ability to spend. In spite of the age of most of the persons on the tour, she said that they have been engaged in previous adventure trips and were very active.

The first vessel of its kind to sail up the Essequibo River, the Guyana leg of the tour has been organised by Evergreen Adventures in collaboration with the organisers of the entire tour Zeghram and Eco-Expeditions out of Miami, USA. At the local level Evergreen Adventures collaborated with the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce and the visit has been two years in the making, Evergreen Operations Director Carl Baldie said.

Baldie added that tomorrow is expected to be a big day as the tourists will be taken on land, river and air tours including trips to Bartica, Kaieteur Falls, Marshall Falls, and Baganara Island Resort which is also managed by Evergreen Adventures.

The vessel will depart on Thursday after a stop at Saxacalli Beach where the tourists will be able to make additional purchases of craft items as well as clear immigration for departure to Venezuela.

Permanent Secretary in the Tourism Ministry, Sonia Roopnauth noted that previously there were attempts to bring cruise ships to Port Georgetown but in one instance the ship was hampered by the depth of the Demerara Bar and in the second instance there were other concerns. A cruise ship docked in Port Georgetown several years ago.

The Tourism Ministry, Roopnauth said, has the cooperation of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Public Works Ministry on the issue of security and infrastructural matters.

She noted that immigration officers will go aboard the vessel at Parika so that the tourists will not be required to come on land to clear immigration.

In terms of infrastructure, the facilities at Kaieteur Falls have been spruced up and reports coming out of Bartica, she said, were that there is a clean-up campaign in progress to put the interior township in tip-top shape.