04/02/2020
USA TRAVEL AGENTS RAVE ABOUT GUYANA’S ECO-TOURISM AFTER FAM TRIP
Representatives from five tourism companies in the USA, were, last week, hosted on a Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) Familiarization (FAM) Trip, to Kaieteur, Iwokrama and several other interior destinations, with enthusiastic reviews from the agents.
The aim was that, after experiencing what is on offer, the agents were expected to return to the US and be able to add Guyana to their list of offered destinations, and match clients with those looking for the type of adventure tourism that Guyana offers.
The FAM Trip included Adventures and Expedition Cruise Specialist from Yam Global Travel in Chicago, Yamonee Barboro; founder of Knowmad Adventures, Jordan Harvey, from Minneapolis; Travel Designer from Explore X in Seattle Washington, Robyn Goldblatt; Sean Russo of G Adventures; and Rebbeca Dearing from South America Travel.
A representative from American Airlines, Vanita Jagnarain, was also part of the tour. American Airlines was a sponsor of the event. The representatives spoke about their experiences at a press conference on Friday, at Cara Lodge.
“I didn’t know very much about Guyana apart from the fact that it is an emerging destination, something that is fresh, new and unique, so I wanted to come and see if this is something that our travellers could be inspired by. It is very exciting in that it’s still so new and still very authentic, the experiences here are really rich,” commented Goldblatt.
At Explore X, Goldblatt’s clients include not only US but international tourists as well.
“Our clients are a pretty fair 50/50 combination of US and international. We get folks from all over the world who come to us. We do some small group trips, for groups of 8 – 10 people maximum and we do custom trips as well,” Goldblatt noted.
Barboro, an overseas Guyanese who migrated over 40 years ago, shared that she had been interested in marketing Guyana for some time now, and jumped at the opportunity to be a part of the FAM Trip.
“I sell mostly adventure destinations. I do Alaska, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and we’re going to be doing Antartica, so I’m in adventure and I love it and I’ve always been very passionate about Guyana,” Barboro shared.
“I have people asking me on my page about Guyana and how to get there and I hope to reach out to the diaspora. They need to come and experience it. When you go to the interior it’s a little bit rustic but the beauty is unbelievable.”
Arriving last Sunday, January 19, the representatives were treated to five days of tours to various destinations in the interior and a city tour around Georgetown, before they were scheduled to depart on Friday evening.
“They stayed at Iwokrama River Lodge. They got to go up to the canopy walkway and did some wild life spotting and birding there. They travelled to Yupukari where, at Caiman House, they got to do some Caiman tagging and hear about the conservation projects there. They stayed at the Karanambu Lodge and Waiken Ranch in South Rupununi, where they got to do some Ranch-style activities like horseback riding. They did a city tour around Georgetown’s more historical sites,” explained GTA Senior Marketing Officer, Nicola Balram.
Harvey was particularly impressed with all that was on offer.
“I jumped on the tour because I needed to recharge my battery. I needed a new experience; it came up and it was too good to be true. I was just excited to go somewhere that I knew so little about and it did not disappoint. It was fantastic, beautiful country, beautiful people, beautiful food, beautiful experiences, it was A+,” Harvey expressed.
FAM Trips are a feature that the GTA has been utilizing for quite a few years now. However, as of late, the body has been increasing emphasis and focus on them.
“At the GTA we’re responsible for marketing, product development and promotion of Guyana. One of the ways we do this is to host tour operators and media on familiarization tours where they come to Guyana and get to experience the tourism product,” Balram related.
“We’ve been doing these for quite some time now. Last year we actually hosted 12 of these events, a lot more than was done in previous years and we plan to continue it. There were group ones such as these individuals, and then there were a few individual ones for National Geographic, Wonderlust in the UK; those were media related.”
The trips are part of the wider promotion of Guyana as an “undiscovered” tourism destination. The GTA has market representation firms promoting “Destination Guyana” in the North American, German and the United Kingdom (UK) markets.
The purpose is to target clients who are specifically looking for the type of tourism Guyana offers, and collaborate with agents that tend to that particular clientele; as are the companies that took part in this FAM Trip.
“They are all focused on travellers who are more authentic adventure, nature type clientele. Some are more high-end and some are more price-sensitive, but they all offer similar products to what we offer in Guyana and it’s a good fit. We did this in partnership with American Airlines, when we reached out they did sponsor some of the tickets,” Balram said.
Courtesy: Guyana Chronicle
