Rapheal John-Lall

Guatemala's Am­bas­sador Gio­van­ni Castil­lo is invit­ing na­tion­als of T&T to vis­it Cen­tral Amer­i­ca's largest coun­try for busi­ness pur­pos­es and as ca­su­al tourists.

"Ac­cord­ing to re­search, Guatemala as a des­ti­na­tion is not well known to the Caribbean re­gion. How­ev­er, we have been recog­nised in the world as one of the best des­ti­na­tions in the area of eco tourism and con­ven­tions. Com­pared to oth­er sim­i­lar des­ti­na­tions in Latin Amer­i­ca, by far we of­fer a bet­ter mul­ti-cul­tur­al and mul­ti-des­tiny ex­pe­ri­ence," he said dur­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion on Guatemalan tourism at the of­fices of the As­so­ci­a­tion of Caribbean States (ACS) St Clair.

Castil­lo said it has been three years since an agree­ment on tourism co-op­er­a­tion was signed be­tween T&T and Guatemala but it has not yet been rat­i­fied.He said the top four coun­tries of ori­gin of vis­i­tors to Guatemala are France, Italy, Ger­many and the UK.

Julio Ed­uar­do Oroz­co Perez, di­rec­tor of Sus­tain­able Tourism of the ACS, said he wants to see the cre­ation of a mul­ti-na­tion­al des­ti­na­tion area in the re­gion where tourists can come from oth­er ar­eas in the world and vis­it not just one coun­try but a num­ber of coun­tries.He al­so wants to see more in­ter-re­gion­al tourism with peo­ple in the Caribbean and Cen­tral Amer­i­ca vis­it­ing each oth­er.

"For peo­ple wish­ing to vis­it the re­gion, it will be un­for­get­table," Oroz­co said.