Despite its close proximity and shared common language, the South American country ofGuyana traditionally received extremely few visitors from the United States. Guyana is a destination rich with natural and adventure-based experiences that constitutes one of the last remaining purely untouched places on earth – all traits becoming more and more desirable amongst North American travelers. To capitalize on this opportunity, Guyana sought to enter the US market and capture some of the market share and media attention so often enjoyed by its larger and better-established neighbors.

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Given the country's limited budget, it was determined to focus marketing efforts on the travel trade, and the optimum way of achieving that was through the hiring of a Market Representative for North America.

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The Results (pre-COVID)

After only 18 months of engagement, visitors from the UnitedStates to Guyana have already seen double digit growth. Following three tour operator fam trips, 24 operators and travel agents started offering Guyana.

Through our media outreach, Guyana has received 2.7 Billion media impressions valued at over US$150MM. This coverage has included multiple cover features and Guyana has been repeatedly recognized globally as a top destination to visit in 2020. Travel +Leisure named Guyana one of their 50 Best Places to Travel in 2020. Conde Nast Traveler featured Guyana on their 20 Best Places to Go in 2020 list and NBC’sThe Today Show featured Guyana’s rich cultural diversity and new direct flight options as some of the many reasons for travelers to visit in 2020.

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The Results (post-COVID)

When the COVID-19 crisis hit, we helped Guyana reshape its strategies and messaging to maintain brand awareness, while highlighting the aspects of Guyana tourism--nature, wonder, escape--that would resonate most with a locked-down audience. 

We continued to run webinars for the GTA and its stakeholders, and trained over 1000 agents on the destination. We created an online digital marketing toolkit for local stakeholders with turnkey social media posts, as well as advice on how to best deploy social media, price trips, and understanding the North American market.

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