No menial jobs in tourism; frontline workers are stars of industry – GTA, THAG heads

As Guyana’s tourism and hospitality sectors continue to expand, young people are being encouraged to consider the field as a viable career path, with two industry leaders challenging the perception that it is limited to low-skilled, service-oriented roles.

Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), Kamrul Baksh and President of the Tourism Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), Mitra Ramkumar, emphasised that the sector offers a wide range of career opportunities, with frontline employees playing a critical role in shaping visitors’ experiences and encouraging them to return.

They made the remarks on Friday during the local edition of Regional Tourism Youth Congress, an annual event organised by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) that brings together young people from member countries to discuss and debate the future of regional tourism.

Speaking at the event, Baksh pushed back at the perception that the industry offers only “menial” jobs.

“Many times, and I have a pet peeve about it, many times people say it’s an industry that has a lot of menial jobs and you know it’s a matter of servitude and ‘we don’t want to do that’,” the GTA head lamented.

Adding to the conversation, Ramkumar highlighted that tourism is a “touch and feel” industry, and, it is oftentimes the frontline workers who keep customers satisfied.

“Many of the outstanding performers in the tourism and hospitality industries are the frontline staff and these are the staff who keep the guests coming back to specific places because of the experience they would have had with a housekeeper for example, or the front desk, or the person at the bar, the bartenders or the kitchen [staff]. These are the stars in our industry and so we want more of our young people in that front line, this is the face of the industry,” the THAG head remarked.

Moreover, the GTA director pointed to the growing interest in tourism entrepreneurship, while encouraging more young people to view the sector as a viable and rewarding career path. “Within the last five to six years, tourism entrepreneurship has gone through the roof and this has been led by young people, a lot of the tour operators are young people,” Baksh noted.

In this regard, he underscored the importance of youths having a seat at the decision-making table in the tourism industry, expressing that “we cannot have a conversation about tourism in Guyana or tourism in the region or anywhere in the world without the youths. Your voices, your inputs are integral in the planning and execution of tourism development and promotion”.

Baksh noted that 60 per cent of the people trained by the GTA are under the age of 35 while some 70 per cent are women. Meanwhile, as youth participation and interest in the sector continue to grow, Baksh said the GTA will explore ways to increase young people’s involvement in its programmes and projects. “I think you have excellent ideas and if we can come together and bring all those ideas together, we can come up with great output,” he emphasised. The Guyana leg of the Regional Tourism Youth Congress forms part of Guyana’s preparations to host the CTO’s State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC) 2026 and the Regional Tourism Youth Congress in October.

The local congress featured presentations on community-based tourism, sports tourism and youth engagement, sustainable tourism futures and digital innovation.

Commenting on the presentations, Baksh underscored the GTA’s commitment to staying abreast of developments and emerging trends in the global tourism industry. On digital innovation and artificial intelligence (AI), he said “we need to keep abreast, Guyana that is, of these trends and technologies because we’re competing, tourism happens in a global environment, and it’s very important that we keep abreast of these happenings”.

On sustainability in the industry, he said the GTA will this year expand a programme it started to certify businesses based on their practices and operations, following standards outlined by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.

Meanwhile, Himanshi Kumar secured the title of Junior Tourism Minister following the Guyana edition of the congress; she will now represent Guyana at the Regional Tourism Youth Congress during SOTIC 2026. The GTA said it will work with her in the weeks ahead to further strengthen her delivery and prepare her to compete at her very best.