The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has granted Guyana $52.7M to formalize the South Rupununi Tourism circuit. Guyana Standard understands that the financial institution will be providing technical assistance to develop and package market-ready products that meet the needs for cultural and environmental sustainability. It will also pave the way for local capacity building and marketing.
According to the project document, the funding is expected to address two key development challenges: Social Exclusion and Inequality, and Low Productivity and Innovation. It also addresses cross-cutting issues of gender inequality and diversity by focusing on minority groups through indigenous tourism, as well as Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability, as adventure, community-led, and wildlife tourism have a focus on environmental conservation.
With respect to Component I of the project, this deals with Product Development and will seek to finance a number of product development activities, including creating a Tourism Development Strategy, conducting a Market-Readiness Diagnosis and Assessment of cluster members, working with micro-small and medium scale enterprises to create business plans and develop 10 new tourism products, facilitating familiarization trips, and developing marketing collateral to help promote the cluster.
With regard to Component Two of the project, this places focus on capacity building and institutional strengthening. In this regard, small and micro-businesses will be trained on how to be visitor ready.
As for Component Three, this will deal with marketing and digitization. It will involve the design of content for social media marketing, the establishment of market connectivity, and enhance the cluster’s digital footprint on travel platforms.
The project is expected to be implemented in 36 months.
