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THAG president wants govt. to provide breakdown on visitor arrivalsThe head of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), Paul Stephenson, on Wednesday, described the association’s once turbulent relationship with the government as “good.”The change in the “traditionally boring messages” of welcome from President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Minister of Tourism in the official tourist guide “Explore Guyana” is one example of this,Cheap NFL Football Jerseys, Stephenson said at a press briefing held at Cara Lodge in Georgetown.The magazine is one of the Association’s main sources of revenue. In 2009, the Association had to fight off an attempt by the government to produce a rival tourist guide.THAG had gone as far as asking businesses not to advertise in the government’s magazine. The government later abandoned its plans.The Private Sector Commission (PSC) which represents the country’s biggest businessmen had endorsed THAG’s position on the magazine issue.“Our sectoral organisations are encouraged to join with us in denouncing this effort to duplicate the efforts of THAG,” the PSC had stated in an internally circulated letter.However, Stephenson yesterday painted a drastically different image of the relationship between the government and the Association. He said that the Executive Director of the government regulatory body – the Guyana Tourism Authority – has been invited to sit in on meetings of THAG’s board meetings, and has done so. Stephenson said the Minister of Tourism, Manniram Prashad, has indicated that he will attend the Association’s next meeting.When he was elected president of THAG, Stephenson said that he immediately sought to engage the Minister of Tourism. He said that meeting provided an opportunity to say “history is history.” Stephenson said he told the Minister of his plans to restructure THAG to make the Association more effective.In discussions held regarding the country’s official tourist guide, he said he sought to encourage a change in the welcoming messages of the President of Guyana, the Minister of Tourism, and the president of THAG.He indicated that the messages were essentially wordy. “Who really reads (them) all?” Also, he had a problem with the messages themselves.“Generally all the messages were repeating each other; go back over all the old magazines and check them,” Stephenson said.“So we changed the content to ensure there (was) no repeat of the President’s message, or the Minister and certainly (the president of THAG).”He emphasised that the meetings were not about a “fight” over the magazine but about layout and change in these “traditionally boring messages.”In addition, he said the government is actively assisting with the distribution of Explore Guyana, taking an estimated 10,000 copies of the magazine.Another initiative has the Association working with the government on statistics on actual tourist arrivals. In fact, he said the Association’s biggest need is for statistical information.He pointed to the “hullabaloo” about arrival figures, “but I need to get that number and break it down…You have different categories of arrivals.”“I want that analysed; I want to know where they are coming from..and then why they are coming…He said that once the Association gets these statistics ironed out in hard numbers, then it would help THAG’s members to better plan their marketing strategy.However, the Guyana Tourism Authority is already using a management information system for tourism that allows it to analyse visitor arrivals. So, the Authority knows where visitors are coming from and the reason they are coming to the country, whether for conference, sports, funerals or just leisure.The issue at the moment is now trying to deduce first time visitors and tourist expenditure. This, the Authority is working on with the Bureau of Statistics.THAG now has 38 paying members, and Stephenson said the Association is recovering from a period when it was losing members.In fact, he said that 12 members who had abandoned the Association have now rejoined, while 11 new members from interior locations have been added.