Estimates of tourism sector revenue for 2024 reached approximately GYD$13.6 billion, according to Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond.
The Minister was, at the time, delivering her presentation on Day 2 of the Budget Debates in Parliament. She emphasised the sector’s growth and its significant contribution to employment, with nearly 22,000 people directly or indirectly working in hospitality across the country.
Minister Walrond highlighted the increasing confidence of the private sector in tourism investments.
“For hotels, we have seen more than $35 billion of investment; lodges have seen $21 million dollars in investment resorts $200 million, local airlines $600 million, malls $12 billion with a total investment by the private sector of almost $50 billion,” she said.
She also noted the expansion of Guyana’s room stock between 2020 and 2024, with the addition of four new hotels and 561 rooms, including facilities in Regions 2, 6, 7, and 10.
“When you include ancillary services, almost 22,000 people are employed in the hospitality sector, and this employment follows the more than 1500 jobs that were created during the construction phase of the various new facilities,” she noted while pointing out that the PPP/C Government has exceeded its promise of 50,000 jobs.
Minister Walrond reflected on criticisms surrounding the government’s Expressions of Interest for internationally branded hotels, noting the sharp increase in demand. By 2023, occupancy in the business segment had reached 83%, and grew by a further 5% in 2024, with similar increases in smaller segments of the hospitality sector.
She directly addressed comments made by Opposition MP Juretha Fernandes, who denigrated jobs in the hospitality sector as “washing hotel sheets and mopping hotel floors” and suggested that Guyanese cannot afford to stay in local hotels.
“They come to this house disparaging jobs which offer steady employment, offer opportunities for advancement, as well as inclusion in the social safety net through the National Insurance Scheme,” she said.
Minister Walrond also dismissed opposition claims that the current government’s achievements are solely due to greater resources from oil revenue.
“Before 2015, without even the prospect of oil resources, within the fiscal space available, the PPP government found the money to pay cash grants of $15,000 per year to school children. The APNU/AFC came into office, riding the wave of the first oil discovery in 2015 and took that grant away,” she pointed out.
In addressing statements that the budget does not consider small businesses and ordinary Guyanese, Minister Walrond spoke of the over 2000 small contractors across the country, who benefitted from approximately $27 Billion in contracts to upgrade and enhance infrastructure in their communities.
“Many of these people are first-time contractors, and absent our deliberate policy of facilitation and community empowerment, they would not have had the opportunities that they do today,” she stressed.
She underscored the government’s investments in small business and industrial development, reporting that $3 billion has been allocated to support small businesses in Regions 2, 3, 4, and 10. The Onderneeming Industrial Estate is now 95% complete and scheduled for rollout in early 2025, offering 90 business plots. Meanwhile, progress continues at the York Industrial Estate in Region 10, also slated for completion in 2025.
Minister Walrond noted the transformation of the Belvedere and Lethem Incubator Centres, which were once mere shells, in 2020. Today, these state-of-the-art agro-processing facilities are providing tangible benefits to the agro-processing sector in Regions 6 and 9.
She also highlighted the global recognition Guyana has received through numerous travel awards, coupled with improved air connectivity due to multiple airlines entering the market and launching new routes.
“Our coordinated and purposeful work has resulted in visitor arrivals setting an all-time record of 371,272 in the year 2024. This is more than 4 times the level of 82,000 recorded in 2020. It exceeds by over 16 percent last year’s record-setting performance of 319,000,” she stated.
Minister Walrond described the numerous comments by the opposition as hollow, contrasting them with the government’s tangible achievements across the tourism, business and other sectors.