Tourism Sector Projects $13.6 Billion Revenue for 2024
Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond, has confirmed that estimates for Guyana’s tourism sector revenue in 2024 have reached approximately $13.6 billion, this announcement during her presentation on the second day of the Budget Debates in Parliament, highlighting the sector’s growth and its vital role in employment creation, with nearly 22,000 people employed directly or indirectly in hospitality across the country.
Tourism Achievements
Minister Walrond underscored Guyana’s global recognition through numerous travel awards and enhanced air connectivity due to new airline 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 four 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.
The minister concluded by contrasting opposition criticisms with the government’s tangible accomplishments across tourism, business, and other sectors, describing the opposition’s comments as hollow.
The minister pointed to rising private-sector confidence in the tourism industry, noting that “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 also noted the growth in Guyana’s room stock between 2020 and 2024, with the addition of four new hotels and 561 rooms, including facilities across 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,” Minister Walrond emphasized, adding that the PPP/C Government has exceeded its promise of creating 50,000 jobs.
Addressing Criticisms
Minister Walrond responded to criticisms from Opposition MP Juretha Fernandes, who dismissed hospitality jobs as “washing hotel sheets and mopping hotel floors” and claimed Guyanese cannot afford local hotel stays.
The Minister stated that the opposition disparages jobs which offer steady employment, offer opportunities for advancement, as well as inclusion in the social safety net through the National Insurance Scheme.
She also countered claims that the government’s successes are solely a result of increased oil revenue, noting that before 2015, without even the prospect of oil resources, within the fiscal space available, this 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.
Economic Growth and Small Business Support
The minister emphasized the budget’s focus on small businesses and ordinary Guyanese. She highlighted over 2,000 small contractors who benefitted from approximately $27 billion in contracts to upgrade 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 noted.
Additionally, $3 billion has been allocated to support small businesses in Regions 2, 3, 4, and 10. The Onderneeming Industrial Estate is now 95% complete, set to offer 90 business plots by early 2025, while the York Industrial Estate in Region 10 is also slated for completion in 2025.
Minister Walrond also highlighted the transformation of the Belvedere and Lethem Incubator Centres into state-of-the-art agro-processing facilities benefiting Regions 6 and 9.
