FOUNDER and Managing Director of licensed tour company, Touring Guyana, Shivana Gulchend has a passion for “touring” Guyana.
Gulchend grew up on the coast of Guyana and said she always had an interest in travelling.
While growing up, she always heard persons talking about travelling to the United States of America, Trinidad and Tobago and to Suriname.
“I remember reading in high school and in school in general about the mountains and the rainforest and all of that, and then we started seeing pictures with the age of the cameras and then TV and all of that. I figured that it has to be interesting as well; and for me, I wanted to see more of Guyana than to visit other countries,” Gulchend said.
Through her job at the Ministry of Finance as a System Administrator, where she was responsible for managing the financing systems at all Neighbourhood and Regional Democratic Council (NDC/RDC) offices, she was able to travel to each of the ten administrative regions of Guyana.
She said: “But before that as well, my husband, he saw my interest in travel as well and he took me to a few places. And then we made it like a yearly trip where every year we would save our money to visit somewhere remote in Guyana.”
Shivana Gulchend, Founder and Managing Director of Touring Guyana
By seeing and experiencing these places for herself, she realised how amazing and breathtaking they are. She realised as well that not many persons knew these places existed in Guyana.
In 2018, she took a step to create a generic page called Touring Guyana where she posted pictures of everywhere she visited. In these posts, she added details about the location and other relevant information for others to see.
From that point, she received calls from family, friends and colleagues asking for recommendations for weekend activities or seeking her expertise in organising a trip.
Noticing this growth, her husband suggested that she start doing tours. Although the doubts were there, Gulchend did her first tour in 2021 where she visited a ranch on the Abary River called Dhandarry Nature Resort.
Apart from social media boost, she noted that the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) played a major role in getting her off the ground by guiding her through the process to become a licensed tour operator, offering training to develop her product, as well as marketing and promotion from them.
Gulchend noted that the GTA is doing an excellent job in aiding in the development of a top-notch tourism product across Guyana.
Reflecting, she underscored that the awareness of tourism, the quality of tourism products and training and support for tourism has grown tremendously from the Tourism Authority, and the Guyanese people from the time she started to today.
She noted that, “when I started in 2021, I had no idea it would grow to this magnitude. I thought it was something I would have done on the weekends, like a side hustle, basically. But it has been amazing how large it’s gotten, and I’m actually looking forward to because I see the potential for it and I see that it’s going to get even bigger.”
The tour operator subsequently revealed that while there has been growth, there are some challenges faced. One of the challenges highlighted was the issue of garbage/ trash at tour sites, something that she says customers “blaze” them for.
Another major challenge is the lack of payment options for foreigners and locals to pay online.
She said they would usually have to wait for customers to come to Guyana to pay. With delayed flights among other issues, Gulchend stated that this isn’t always a feasible option for them or their customers.
The company offers tours around Georgetown, Linden, Mahdia, Essequibo Lakes, Essequibo River, Mazaruni River, and tours to Kaieteur and Orinduik Falls just to list a few. The tours are placed into five categories: day, night, air, land and water.
The company has a total of three full time staff and five part-time tour guides, in addition to Gulchend. Touring Guyana can be found on all social media platforms including YouTube and TikTok @Touring Guyana. Additionally, persons can make contact via on WhatsApp- +1(592)-700-5252.
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Publish date : 2024-11-25 19:11:00
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