Six trainee rangers begin one-month tour guide training programme
Stabroek News
February 6, 2007
Making cocoa: Kum-Kum Bhavnani, a US college professor (right), practices churning cocoa beans in Mabaruma.
Trainee rangers and environmentalists from the North West began a one-month training exercise last weekend, as tour guide operators at the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development.
The North West region, promoted as the "organic region of Guyana" owing to its rich soil, is now trying to showcase its rich biodiversity. This area, with hundreds of miles of shell beaches, is up for protected area status under the Guyana Protected Areas System.
Before going to Iwokrama for the one-month training, the six rangers and environmentalists were exposed to a presentation on tourism opportunities in the North West, compliments of the Guyana Marine Turtle Con-servation Society (GMTCS) on Wednesday last.
Iwokrama was hired by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to execute the training, under funding from the German Development Bank, according to Dr Raquel Thomas, director of resource and managerial training at Iwokrama.
The 'Tourism in the North West' presentation was made by Shyam Nokta of the National Parks Commission at the Barima Room, Le Meridien Pegasus. He told the prospective tour guides that the region's biodiversity and landscape are all opportunities for tourism. During this interactive session with Nokta, the six participants from villages and communities including Warapoka, St John's, Pomeroon and Waramiri/Haimaracabra shared ideas.
Picture Souvenirs: This tourist takes a few pictures of the flora and fauna in the North West.
Nokta also emphasized the importance of domestic tourism, where citizens will visit various areas within the country, but noted the challenge of transportation costs. The cost of travelling within Guyana for tour purposes is prohibitive for most Guyanese, therefore the marketing strategy will have to convince potential visitors that they are getting value for their dollar, he said.
Guyana's main tourism product will be a "niche product" like eco-tourism, but even in this area there is competition from countries like Costa Rica and even Belize, Nokta said. Our tourism product and the sector at large are still in the early stages of development, he said, adding that a successful tourism industry is not only based on the product, but on marketing. Marketing a tourism product abroad cost thousands of US dollars, he emphasized and if the campaign is successful and the tourist comes, then that tourist must be satisfied or will not come again.
Project Coordinator Annette Arjoon, of GMTCS and of Shell Beach Adventures, highlighting the importance of providing a quality service, said that as a tour operator she has experienced firsthand where booked tours were cancelled because a single visitor recalled a bad experience to a tour agent, after returning home.
Tourism in Guyana is evolving, Nokta said, noting that it was in the 1980s that a "real" push toward tourism development was made and persons began converting their country homes into overnight guest houses and later into resort locations. For example, Shanklands Rainforest Resort in the Essequibo River first operated from a large bus before its current lodgings were put in place.
Before leaving for the one-month trip to Iwokrama, the North West residents were expected to meet officials from the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce and the Tourism Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) and to have a practical session of bird watching at the Botanical Gardens.
After the one-month training the GMTCS will also sponsor two days at the Surama village in the Rupununi that hosts eco-tourists, for the trained tour guides to observe operations there.
Arjoon said the Surama experience will aid in building capacity. It is hoped, she said, that after the training, the six can begin tour operations themselves or provide a service to tours going to the North West.
In the North West one can find rock formations that are thousands of years old; waterfalls; have a fishing tour and experience canoe building at Haimacabra, a boat-making village. The Warrau Amerindians who populate the North West are known as the 'boat makers'.
One can also have a taste of the 'morucut' fish which feeds off crabwood oil seeds and is only found in the North West; see Harpy Eagles and have special photographic tours of the rich landscape that includes orchids, manufacturing of indigenous products and waterfalls.