Guyana nears 6000 hotel rooms by year-end – GTA Director

… says 15 new hotels expected post 2026

Guyana’s hospitality sector is expected to reach nearly 6000 hotel rooms by the end of 2026, with another 15 hotels projected to come on stream after this year as the country continues to expand its tourism market.
This was revealed by Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) Kamrul Baksh during the recently concluded State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC) 2026. The conference, which was hosted in Guyana, brought together more than 300 delegates from across the Caribbean and beyond for a week of discussions, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration.

“This here is the growth of the accommodation market, so if we are to accommodate additional visitors, we, of course, need rooms. That’s just simply logical, and as you could see, we had a relatively small number of rooms as of 2020. But because of an aggressive investment strategy by the Government, you can see what the expected number of rooms will be like by the end of 2026 – close to 6000 rooms – and that is pretty strong,” Baksh stated.
He added that another 15 hotels are expected to come online after this year, further expanding the accommodation sector as Guyana develops its Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) market, as well as diaspora travel and leisure tourism.
“We, of course, are expecting an additional 15 hotels to come on board post this year, so that is only going to continue to expand as we build out the MICE market and continue to build out on the diaspora travel and leisure, of course.”
Baksh also highlighted the importance of training and developing the local workforce to meet the demands of the expanding tourism industry. “At the heart of this, Guyana is at a place where we need to upscale our people at scale, and to this point, we have started that investment. We have signaled a great intention to take this to the next level through the establishment of the Hospitality and Tourism Institute, and that is going to be completed by the end of this year so our people could be trained, and they could then go back out into the industry and exercise those skill sets to provide great service delivery. That is something that we think is very, very crucial if we are to expand tourism here in Guyana.”

He explained that visitors attending conferences or traveling for leisure were increasingly looking for activities and experiences during their stay. “It is very good because when people are coming to the conferences, when they are coming for leisure, or whatever type of travel, they want activities, activities, activities, activities, so that is very, very important,” he said.
Baksh further noted that attracting more airlines would require improvements to airport infrastructure and passenger-handling capacity. He pointed to the Government of Guyana’s investment in a new airport terminal, Terminal Two, which is expected to increase capacity and enable the country to accommodate more airlines.
Looking ahead, he said sustainability, community development, service quality, connectivity and capacity, along with the creation of new tourism products and experiences, would remain central to the sector’s expansion. “Whatever we do in the tourism industry, it has to be for the people. It has to be for the people, it has to be for the community. We want to ensure that the people of Guyana benefit from this, and that is going to be the hallmark, you know, as we expand tourism in the next few years. Quality and service, I spoke about that. Connectivity and capacity, we need to build out that, so that we can grow, and of course, new products and experiences, so that we can give people, you know, more reasons to come to Guyana,” Baksh said.
Only recently, this publication reported that GTA Director Kamrul Baksh highlighted at the 2026 SOTIC event that approximately 80 new tours and experiences had been launched across the country over the past six years. “So, the capacity building is absolutely important. I spoke about diversifying the product portfolio, so within the last, I would say, last six years, we launched about 80 tours, 80 new experiences all across Guyana, from food experiences to adventure products to nature products, in all the major tourism circuits. I think we have done a very good job in partnership with the private sector as well. I want to at this time shout out to the private sector, and kudos for bringing additional experiences to the market,” Baksh said.

Source: Guyana Times