Promising cruise liner signs
By Jaime Hall
Guyana Chronicle
April 20, 2004
GUYANA continues to show promising signs as a potential tourist destination for cruise liners with yesterday's arrival of the `MS Hanseatic’ which brought more than 160 tourists to Georgetown.
Most of the tourists were from Germany but there were South Americans on board too.
This was the third such cruise liner arriving here within two years.
Early last month, the Minervia ll, a cruise liner that brought more than 530 tourists here, most of them from Europe, docked at the John Fernandes wharf for about eight hours.
The `MS Hanseatic’ arrived in Port Georgetown just after 07:30 hrs amidst heavy rains after journeying from the Amazon in Peru.
While here the tourists were taken on guided tours in and around the capital city.
Evergreen Adventures, organisers of the tours, had initially planned to conduct overland trips as well to tourist sites such as Kaieteur Falls and Arrowpoint Nature Resort, among other places in the hinterland.
However, these arrangements had to be cancelled for the vessel to leave Georgetown about four hours ahead of its scheduled departure time, officials said.
Departure was set for about 20:00 hrs yesterday, but because the Demerara River draft is not deep enough it would be better to sail out at high tide, they explained.
From Guyana the ship is heading to Grenada and then to Europe.
Inadequate river draft to accommodate large cruise ships under all conditions here is one of the main concerns raised by cruise liner captains who had before docked their vessels at Port Georgetown.
And government officials have admitted that this is a main concern that needs to be addressed if Guyana is to continue attracting more and even larger cruise liners.
Tourism Minister, Mr. Manzoor Nadir who was taken on a tour aboard the cruise ship yesterday, said it was now clear that Guyana is a country where people can come not only by land and air but by sea as well and they would be well received.
"We are encouraged by the vessels that have been coming over the past 12 months and there are many more to come", the minister said.
The company through which `MS Hanseatic’ brought tourists here has two more ships scheduled for a visit within the next year.
Nadir said the work done in promoting Guyana as a tourist destination was paying off.
Although the draft of the Demerara River remains one concern, looking at the entire waterfront was a major, he admitted.
Part of these problems will be addressed through the Georgetown Development Plan which the Housing Ministry will take to Cabinet. The plan deals with the restoration of the city, he said.
According to Nadir, passengers on these cruisers are very selective in where they go and spend a lot of money for the experience.
When such ships come to Guyana the average tourist would spend a minimum of about US$150, and based on the number of people coming on these cruise liners the local economy receives a significant amount of US dollars in one day, the Tourism Minister noted.