The government will pay the sum of US$112,000 to the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) for a regional advertising campaign in which Guyana's eco-tourism product would be featured prominently, Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Manzoor Nadir, says.

The US$16 million Caribbean marketing strategy is to be funded half and half by regional governments and the private sector. The US$8 million from governments is further split with US$4 million each coming from CARICOM and non-CARICOM CTO member countries.

It is expected that the US$112,000 Guyana will pay to the CTO will come from the government's budgetary allocation this year for marketing the country's eco-tourism product.

In a brief interview yesterday, Nadir told Stabroek News that the decision to be part of the campaign was taken at the CTO Ministers of Tourism meeting held last Friday in Barbados to discuss the emergency marketing strategy. Heads of Government agreed to the marketing strategy at their meeting last October in the Bahamas, when they discussed the crisis created by the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. The marketing strategy, which was to be launched last month, is still to come on stream.

At a press conference last Friday, on his return from the Thirteenth Inter-Sessional meeting of Heads of CARICOM in Belize, President Bharrat Jagdeo had said that unless Guyana's eco-tourism product was featured prominently in the regional marketing campaign and the regional private sector was prepared to meet its share of the cost the Guyana government would withdraw its support for the campaign.

Nadir noted that it was the first time that Guyana was getting involved in a regional marketing strategy. In the past Guyana had paid its membership dues to the CTO and had benefited from technical expertise, as well as through its CTO chapters in Europe and North America, though not directly from any marketing programme.

Nadir said that Guyana's concern in Barbados was that it received equal treatment as other tourism destinations in the region. He showed Stabroek News the initial proposal in which the countries were listed and Guyana was not as easily found as other countries. He has suggested and put in writing that Guyana's name be presented in logo form in green writing on a yellow background with a Jaguar's face among green vegetation.

Secondly, he said that Guyana was asking that its eco-tourism, which was similar to the products of Belize, Dominica, Venezuela and Puerto Rico, be advertised as prominently as the traditional sun, sand and sea destinations.

Nadir also said that Guyana sought to ensure that its eco-tourism product was prominently featured on the CTO website and links so that eco-tourists could receive the necessary information and make decisions based on that information.

Guyana, Nadir said, was not alone in seeking prominence in marketing its eco-tourism or tourism products. Small and emerging destinations such as St Lucia, Grenada and Dominica were concerned about not getting the same level of prominence as some of the larger destinations. Special representation was made by these small and emerging destinations and a representative has been named to sit on the executive committee that looks into implementation of the regional advertising programme.