GTA launches digital destination booking engine

The Guyana Tourism Au­thor­i­ty (GTA) Fri­day launched a dig­i­tal plat­form de­signed to rev­o­lu­tionise the way trav­ellers book tours and ex­pe­ri­ences across Guyana.

It said the plat­form, launched in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Breeze Trav­el So­lu­tions (BTS), is avail­able to trav­ellers world­wide and pro­vides a cen­tralised, user-friend­ly in­ter­face where trav­ellers, trav­el agents, and tourism part­ners can dis­cov­er, build, and book com­plete itin­er­aries rang­ing from eco-lodge stays to jun­gle tours, cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ences, and lo­cal flights, all in one place.

“This ini­tia­tive marks a ma­jor leap for­ward in mod­ernising and digi­tis­ing Guyana’s tourism sec­tor,” said GTA di­rec­tor, Kam­rul Baksh, adding “with this book­ing en­gine, we are putting Guyana’s unique ex­pe­ri­ences with­in easy reach of both glob­al trav­ellers and the trav­el trade in­dus­try”.

The GTA said that the plat­form will em­pow­er Guyana’s tourism sec­tor by show­cas­ing ex­pe­ri­ences ex­clu­sive­ly from li­censed op­er­a­tors, in­clud­ing tour com­pa­nies, ecolodges, re­sorts, and ho­tels.

It said in line with the gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to qual­i­ty as­sur­ance and vis­i­tor safe­ty, on­ly cer­ti­fied providers will be ac­ces­si­ble through the book­ing en­gine.

The plat­form al­so in­cludes air­lines serv­ing Guyana, al­low­ing vis­i­tors to plan end-to-end trips con­ve­nient­ly and se­cure­ly and pro­vides al­so for a se­cure pay­ment and re­port­ing tools which in­clude in­voic­ing, cred­it card pro­cess­ing, and per­for­mance track­ing.

The au­thor­i­ties say the des­ti­na­tion book­ing plat­form is billed to be a trans­for­ma­tion­al tool for the tourism sec­tor, and with tourism con­tribut­ing over US$396.5 mil­lion to Guyana’s gross do­mes­tic prod­uct (GDP) last year.

“Our vi­sion is to place Guyana firm­ly on the dig­i­tal trav­el map,” said Casey Dav­ey, the chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of Breeze Trav­el So­lu­tions.

“This plat­form em­pow­ers lo­cal busi­ness­es while mak­ing it eas­i­er than ever for trav­ellers to ex­plore the breath­tak­ing beau­ty and cul­tur­al depth of Guyana.”