Winning the Caribbean Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Tourism Award came as a complete surprise to Wilderness Explorers founder, Anthony Thorne.

Tony, as he is better known, is an Australian, who first came to Guyana with Operation Raleigh in 1988 and formed the business in 1994. He was quick to say the achievement was largely due to his wife, Trudy Belgrave Thorne, and the company’s staff as well as the successful partnerships created over the past nine years.

Speaking very little about his formative years, Thorne, now 40, said he left high school in his fourth year to become an apprentice in plumbing and gas fitting. He hated it and joined the Australian and the British territorial army, developing a love for the environment, particularly forestry. He converted his love into a business “learning through trial and error.”

Thorne’s sojourn in Guyana started properly when he came to see cricket in 1991 and was offered a job to manage Timberhead, initially for six months. He stayed on for three years before forming Wilderness Explorers.

From a US$3,000 investment, a computer and a fax machine and `free’ office space at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel, the company now has offices in Melbourne, Australia and St Lucia where tours are being promoted not only to Guyana but to Suriname, French Guiana, Barbados, Tobago and the wider Caribbean. Actually the free office space was in exchange for the training of a staff member of Le Meridien Pegasus in sales and marketing. His wife and business partner’s holiday allowance paid for the computer and cash flow from the company was re-invested.

Why was he surprised by the win? Thorne said he felt that his company would be at a disadvantage in terms of bare profits compared to those on the shortlist. The sponsors, Ernst and Young, looked at the business in terms of its financial soundness, marketing, community involvement and he had felt that because of his unusual management style he would have been at a disadvantage. He was also not in Guyana when the first round of judging took place. But his management style actually proved to be an advantage. He was informed by letter that his “innovative business strategy has captured the interest of the judges”.

Giving a background to the company, Thorne told Stabroek News on Tuesday that his Guyanese wife and business partner, Trudy, who at the time had worked at Le Meridien Pegasus spent some time analysing the market in Georgetown, which was limited to the business clientele and Guyanese returning on holiday. “It did not make sense to try to get into that market.” So they decided on an inbound operation working with overseas tour operators to market Guyana in North America and Europe. They took advantage of the World Travel Market in London and the ITB fair in Berlin. Now with the internet a lot of direct marketing uses information from search engines.

In promoting its tourism packages, Thorne said Wilderness Explorers developed sound environmental policies, sustainable development and poverty alleviation. This meant working with communities mainly in the Rupununi, eco-tourist resorts and the Iwokrama.

Giving examples of how they work, he said that in Southern Rupununi, the company pays the people to find the nests of the endangered Harpy Eagle, pays them to protect the nests, then pays them when tourists are taken to the area to view them.

“Because of our environmental concerns...tourists are asked not to pick at plant species, especially in protected areas.”

What were his low points in the business? The Omai Gold Mines Limited cyanide spill in August 1995 which caused him to lose six months of personal wages; the aftermath of the 1997 general elections when visitor arrivals dried up; and the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attack on the US.

But he said Wilderness Explorers had had many high points and these included diversifying to keep afloat in a poor business climate. The diversification included sessions of `Cool Liming’ at the Sidewalk Cafe on Middle Street; the opening of a gift shop at Hotel Tower and becoming the General Sales Agency for Suriname Airways in November 2001.

Other high points included the successful marketing of three ranches of the Rupununi - the Rockview, Dadanawa and Karanambo - as tourist destinations and the signing of an agreement with the village of Surama in Region Nine to help to develop their tourism product. In that agreement the community retains 100% ownership of their tourism product and skills gained in marketing and product management.

The agreement with Surama has resulted in a close relationship in which, together with the Rockview Lodge, it has won a contract to manage the Iwokrama Canopy Walkway. That project, Thorne said, was something special as he hoped it would be a model to show the workings between a non-governmental organisation, the private sector and a community to promote business, sustainable development and poverty alleviation.

Apart from working with Surama, Thorne said that Wilderness Explorers also funded a prize for the Wildlife Festival in the North Rupununi including an essay on the environment for children in junior and senior categories.

On his contributions to tourism in Guyana Thorne also facilitated a 16-day tour operators training course for various tour operators in the country.

Only recently, he noted that Wilderness Explorers aided National Geographic in organising an expedition to Mount Roraima. He said that National Geographic had tried unsuccessfully for two years to gain a permit to climb the mountain from the Venezuelan side and through Wilderness Explorers’ intervention and the help of a lot of people on the ground in Guyana the trip was made possible through the Guyana end within one month.

Wilderness Explorers itself believes in rewarding for excellence and has awarded its workers for outstanding performance. This, he said, was done recently by the auditors who used among other criteria, the feedback obtained from their clients with the best accommodation going to the `Hammock Camp’.