The Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) has launched its own Online Travel Training (OTT) course designed to introduce the international travel trade (outside of Guyana) to one of South America’s most emerging destinations and to help the travel industry better understand the little-known destination.
Guyana is one of the most undiscovered destinations in South America and is a country characterised by its bounty of nature, wildlife and birdlife, and its eclectic mix of cultures. The leaps in sustainable tourism in recent years have propelled Guyana onto the international tourism stage and have opened up small communities to tourism, allowing visitors to get a meaningful and off-the-beaten-track experience. With around 87% rainforest cover across the whole country, its eco systems supports vibrant populations of some of the largest species on the continent and indeed the world, hence its moniker, ‘The Land of Giants’.
The aim of the course is for the travel industry to be introduced to the destination and to be equipped to sell the destination for the 2021 season and beyond, hopefully kick-starting Guyana’s international tourism following a torrid 2020 for the global travel industry. The course is available here.
The modules have been titled as follows:
- Guyana Essentials
- Nature, Birding & Wildlife
- Culture & Heritage
- Community-tourism and Lodges
The course is structured in a way that allows for its content to cover information on Guyana’s main pillars of tourism: wildlife and nature, birding, active exploration, culture and heritage, and conservation and SAVE (student, academic, volunteer, education) travel. Module one provides users with all the Guyana ‘essentials’ including how to get there, geography and climate, ethnicity and language as well as including an overview of the other more in-depth modules. They consist of ‘Nature, Wildlife and Birding’, ‘Culture and Heritage’, and a deep-dive into Guyana’s own, successful brand of sustainable tourism in the ‘Community-tourism and Lodges’ module.
In addition to its modules, the course also provides a host of tools and practical information for travel trade to use when selling the destination including trade-friendly tour operator and local operator contacts, sample itineraries, images, maps and more.
The course was announced in August 2020 via an exclusive ‘Be Inspired by Guyana’ webinar which was held in collaboration with OTT’s Julia Feuell who moderated a panel discussion and presentation with the GTA’s Senior Officer of Marketing, Nicola Balram, the GTA’s UK representative, Kate McWilliams, and Claire Thorne of leading Guyana DMC, Wilderness Explorers. Agents who attended the webinar were introduced to the many wonders of Guyana through a short presentation, panel discussion and Q&A with the esteemed panel. A recording of the webinar is available to watch on OTT’s YouTube channel here.
The first 15 travel trade employees to complete the course will win a copy of the 3rd edition of the Guyana Bradt Guide. Further initiatives and incentives to be announced in due course and will be available on the ‘Prize Draw’ page.
