Shanklands opens new tour office
Tourism stakeholders must work together to move Guyana forward
- Shanklands General Manager
Guyana Chronicle
August 15, 2004
Shanklands Resort and Adventure Tours, which operates a popular eco-lodge out on the Essequibo River, has spread its wings to include a 'one-stop-shop' following the opening Thursday of a Georgetown office at the corner of Camp and Middle Streets.
The new facility boasts a cafeteria, boutique, craft and gift shop, jewellery store, and a general office, where, among other things, persons may make inquiries on just about anything to do with tourism.
It is arguably one of the oldest resorts in the Essequibo region, and Company General Manager, Bernard Leeyong said the reason they decided to expand their operations was so as to be able to offer a wider array of options rather than limit customers to what they have to offer alone. He also cited the convenience of being able to transact all of one's business in one place.
"People who want to see around the country must be able to go to one office and have all travel arrangements done based on their request," Leeyong said, adding: "This is exactly what Shanklands has set out to do with the opening of its tour office; this should be about what the customer wants, and not what the resort wants them to have."
Besides room and board, among activities the company coordinates are hiking, fishing, culture, history, adventure, field-tour research of which the latter is particularly favoured by international universities interested in the study of biodiversity. Leeyong noted that there will come a time when Shanklands would set up an information dissemination building, which will deal with information on Guyana's biodiversity.
The tour office currently operates with about six staff and the services people are now requesting there would soon be need for expansion. But for now he said, Shanklands is providing temporary employment for students of the Biodiversity section of the University of Guyana who work as tour guides for the company.
Leeyong urged other operators in the industry not to view the opening of such a facility as wanting to compete with them, since this was far from being the case.
"It's about competition with Belize, Costa Rica, the Caribbean and Suriname. Don't look on each other as competitors, but compete with the outer world," Leeyong said.
Likening the sector to a huge tree with its branches reaching every which way, Leeyong said tourism brings business not only to the market vendor, but the taxi drivers, the jewellery stores and just about anyone who has a product or service to sell. And since these benefits are spread across different sectors, he feels that the key players in the industry need to work more closely together to make Guyana go forward.
Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) President, Mr. Gerry Gouveia, who commended 'Shanklands' on their achievement, noted that the company was one of the pacesetters in the industry, adding that the setting up of such a facility as Shanklands is a good example of the kind of standards needed in the industry.
Players in the industry must ensure that visitors to Guyana get a wide perspective about the tourism products the country has to offer, he said. Gouveia, who also owns a resort and runs a tour operation, said: "We must all sell each other" to promote Guyana in a unified manner.
On the issue of standards in the industry, he said the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) has circulated to tour operators, hotels, restaurants and other stakeholders countrywide, draft standards by which it intends to monitor and regulate the industry.
"We have to set the benchmark for tourism now as we are starting to move". Gouveia said the industry is starting to move because the government has been on board providing the fiscal incentives available to the industry.
He said that President Bharrat Jagdeo's first meeting recently with the tourism authority on a one-to-one basis to discuss tourism development and marketing in Guyana is another good indication.
Gouveia said that corporate Guyana is now on the tourism bandwagon and is particularly interested in what could be done at this time to further advance what was being done for tourism over the past ten years.
Although people have no doubt about the benefits that could be derived from tourism, most of them did not understand the Guyana tourism product. They understood very easily the product Barbados, Hawaii and others offer, but the wave is now happening here. And the Private Sector Commission is very much on board with tourism.
Minister of Tourism Mr. Manzoor Nadir and Executive Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) Mr. Donald Sinclair were among officials who gave brief remarks during the opening ceremony. (Jaime Hall)