Public/private approach best for key tourist sites
-notes working group
Stabroek News
March 19, 2003
The draft concept paper for marketing Guyana's tourism potential has been presented to the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce following several days of meeting among groups of local and international tourism experts.
The management of the Kaieteur National Park and tourism potential of the Rupununi, came under scrutiny with recommendations for joint management and marketing by both the public and private sector.
In relation to heritage tourism and historic George-town, a number of development and enhancement projects were suggested. These encompass the Georgetown Seawall, the Railway Station, Main Street, Independence Park, Carmichael Street and the Promenade Gardens, Tiger Bay, Brickdam, the Bourda Cemetery, Stabroek Market and the Square of the Revolution.
The suggestions came out of the meeting known as a 'charette' which was organised by Conservational Inter-national (CI) (Guyana) in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce with financial assistance from the government, the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Summing up the findings of the charette at City Hall on Saturday afternoon, CI Charette Leader Chuck Hutchinson said that the meeting felt that heritage tourism would be a smaller part of the bigger eco-tourism picture because eco-tourism attractions were the natural resources.
In relation to eco-tourism, the charette focused on the Rupununi area with the development of a number of hiking and biking trails and the Kaieteur National Park. They felt the Kaieteur National Park should be managed by the National Parks Commis-sion in collaboration with the local community, though it was noticed that the local community at Chenapau was somewhat suspicious of the work of the charette, Hutchinson said.
He said that the charette hoped that heritage tourism could reinforce the visitor's experience by presenting the kind of historical information and experiences that would enlarge the visitor's perception and enjoyment of the country.
All the recommendations were in keeping with existing legislation, and plans and policies including those contained in the National Development Strategy, the Greater Georgetown Planning Area documents and the George-town Development Plan. "We did not strive to re-invent the wheel in respect of policies," he added.
The main objective of the charette, he said, would now be to condense the recommendations for presentation to the public and private sectors. It is expected that this will take three months. In the meantime, Hutchinson said that the draft copy would be made available to the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Manzoor Nadir and Conservation International.
The immediate task, he said was to raise funds to put the study together to make it "bankable" whether funding to enable planning and marketing among other areas came by way of grants or loans.
In relation to historic Georgetown, conservation architect, Bill Sugaya said that tourism really needed to be developed by the residents in the city who could contribute to a sense of pride. The issue, however, was safety and security.
Sugaya emphasised that tourism in Georgetown or heritage tourism in Georgetown could be a success by itself, not just by concentrating on the attractions but on the overall environment of the city itself.
Making some recommendations to reinforce the image of Georgetown as a World Heritage Site, Sugaya said that the UNESCO preliminary report was favourable and Georgetown had the potential for the development of heritage tourism.
In spite of the "myriads of attractions" in the city, Sugaya said that information flow had to be developed and one of the strategies would be to establish a visitor's centre or an information desk at one of the hotels or the chamber of commerce, preferably in the heritage area.
He said that public and private partnerships might be able to get some simple things to promote heritage tourism such as the production of brochures, setting up of a website and enticing publishers to produce a guide book, maps, and putting up street signs through advertisements.
Because of the need to protect heritage sites, he also suggested private and public sector partnerships, adoptions and incentive schemes.
As a side to heritage tourism which focused on buildings and monuments, he suggested other cultural assets such as the creative and performing arts and local cuisine.
A suggestion was the establishment of a craft centre on the disbanded railway line in the city, and to this end there was a recommendation that a survey be conducted to determine the existing craft work in the country and how to better market this.
To support heritage tourism Sugaya suggested using portions of airport departure taxes and hotel room taxes such as happens in San Francisco to support culture and the performing arts.
Another conservation architect, Steve Farneth said that initially, the charette members were not convinced that Georgetown should be listed as a world heritage site, but the landscapes, `streetscapes,' engineering structures, public spaces, vernacular and monumental buildings changed the perception.
In historic Georgetown the team identified the George-town Seawall and Main and Carmichael streets as the primary corridor.
Noting that the seawall was a very important monument itself and a very important public place for recreation and leisure, Farneth said that the environment must be protected for tourism development while developing amenities for commercial vending and pedestrians.
The need to reclaim the space in front of the Stabroek Market was also highlighted. Once reclaimed, Farneth felt that it "could become a major public stage and a wonderful place in Georgetown."
The presentations for the Kaieteur National Park and the Rupununi were made by several other presenters. (Miranda La Rose)
