Bill to set up 'watershed' Tourism Authority passed
Opposition worried over ministerial powers By Patrick Denny
Stabroek News
May 10, 2002
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The National Assembly yesterday approved the Guyana Tourism Authority Bill 2002, by a majority vote, despite concerns expressed by opposition members from ROAR and GAP/WPA about the powers to be exercised by the responsible minister under the legislation.

It was one of four bills and a motion for a committee to assess the number of public holidays with a view to including May 5 (Arrivals Day) and May 26 (Independence Day as public holidays that were approved. The Energy Sector (Harmonisation of Laws) Bill 2002, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2002 - catering for seat belts in vehicles, and the Water and Sewerage Bill 2002 were the other bills passed yesterday. The motion calling for an enquiry into the operations of the Guyana Police Force was ordered withdrawn by the Speaker in the absence of the mover and seconder, PNC/R parliamentarians Deborah Backer and Raphael Trotman. The PNC/R boycotted yesterday's sitting over its ongoing row with the government.

The assembly also approved, on the recommendation of Cabinet, advances totalling $276.6 million from the Contingencies Fund between November 10 and December 31, 2001.

The Guyana Tourism Authority Bill provides for it to be set up and charged with the responsibility for developing and improving the industry by promoting tourism facilities. Among its functions, listed at Section 4(2) are the design and implementation of suitable marketing strategies for the promotion of the tourism industry; the encouragement and facilitation of the development of amenities and facilities designed to attract tourists to Guyana; the promotion of increased, efficient and sustainable air, sea and land transport services to, from and within Guyana; and the regulation, in collaboration with other relevant agencies and the minister, of standards to be maintained by all sectors of the industry and institutions that provide training programmes for persons employed or seeking employment in the industry.

Watershed

Moving the second reading of the bill, Tourism Minister, Manzoor Nadir said that the establishment of the Tourism Authority would be a watershed in the development of the industry.

He explained that the Tourism Authority was better suited than a ministry for the functions that it would have to carry out such as the analysis and generation of new proposals for developing long-term goals for the industry, the speed needed for making marketing decisions and being able to offer the sort of remuneration packages to attract the appropriate skills.

Nadir said too that it would also promote the concept of 'Public/Private Sector Partnership', explaining that in the past decade the government and private sector had reached the stage where they now shared and coordinated their work plans. However, he said that the private sector had called for a formal structure for the institutionalisation of the relationship.

Justifying the establishment of the Tourism Authority, Nadir said that it was recommended in the 1996 National Development Strategy and had been identified as one of the major deficiencies of the country's marketing blueprint to promote Guyana as a tourist destination.

He also attributed the bill's long gestation period to the need for adequate consultation with bodies like the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) and said that that body's recommendations were reflected in the bill.

But GPA/WPA parliamentarian Sheila Holder, cast doubt on the latter assertion, saying that from her consultations with the various stakeholders, the present legislation was preferable to no legislation and they were hoping that it would be appropriately amended to bring it into line with similar legislation in the region.

Nadir contended that it was government's policies, pursued since 1993, that had enhanced the prospects of the industry, starting with the elimination of visa requirements, which the Leader of the Opposition Desmond Hoyte was now recommending; the provision of an incentive regime in 1995 and the enhancement of the regime in this year's budget.

Control

Holder welcomed the minister's efforts to make tourism, the fastest growing industry in the world, a part of the Guyana economy. She also praised Nadir's efforts at promoting the interests of the industry. However, she bemoaned the fact that under the legislation an inordinate amount of power resided in the minister who could fall prey to the "uncontrollable desire to control" everything.

According to Holder and ROAR's parliamentarian Ravi Dev, the minister, under the legislation, has the power to appoint and dismiss all the members of the authority as well as set their conditions, approve the appointment and dismissal as well as the conditions of employment of the legal counsel and director of the authority, and to hear appeals from decisions of the authority, decisions which under the legislation he would have approved. Holder had also claimed that the minister had to approve the arrangements for the provision of services to the authority.

Nadir accused Holder and Dev of failing to distinguish "control" from "responsibility" which the government derived from the mandate given it by the electorate. Nadir said that Holder had focused on three of the 14 lines of the provision. The remaining 11 lines, Nadir asserted, circumscribed the minister's discretion.

Both Holder and Dev bemoaned the exclusion of the stakeholders in naming members of the authority, but Nadir countered that naming a specific organisation, for example THAG, would bind the government to naming only its nominees even though some other organisation claimed to be more representative of the stakeholders.

Culture, Youth and Sport Minister, Gail Teixeira, who spoke after Holder, pledged the support of her ministry to the efforts of the tourism drive.

She explained that one of the reasons for the long gestation of the bill was in part due to the absence of such basic infrastructure as water, electricity and roads which all had to be addressed before the government could move on legislation to promote tourism.

She also dismissed the concerns of Holder and Dev, arguing that the minister's discretionary powers were needed since the Tourism Authority would be a state enterprise, obtaining most of its funds from the public purse and the minister was the person accountable to the people of Guyana.

She contended too that discretionary powers were normally enshrined in legislation such as this for reasons of national security and the health and safety of the citizens and visitors to the country.

Describing the introduction of the legislation as timely to regulate and improve the efficiency of the sector which was still in its embryonic stage, Teixeira said that the local citizenry would benefit from the improved standard of service that the hotels and restaurants would have to provide.

Teixeira said too that it would open the doors to local and foreign investors as well as improve the economic well-being of the hinterland residents by the provision of opportunities for training for employment. But she warned that the latter would come with some attendant problems.

She cautioned that developing the tourism industry required sophisticated strategies and the modernisation of the approach to doing so, positing that as an industry it was highly competitive and at the same time fragile.

Teixiera suggested that Guyana could promote its tourist product based on events such as Mashramani, international sport events, which brought a large number of fans/visitors, conferences and the fast growing youth exchange for young people between the ages of 16-25.

She noted that in 2000 some 1,000 people visited Guyana for the Mash celebrations, which rose to 2,000 in 2001 and that major sporting events in 2004 and 2007 could generate even more visitors and there would need to be collaboration among the various agencies including airlines, hotels and restaurants.