Reflections on the theme issue outcomes : What innovative strategies are needed to develop tourism in Guyana for 2025?

Purpose Profiles the WHATT theme issue ‘ What innovative strategies are needed to develop tourism in Guyana for 2025?’ with reference to the experiences of the theme theme editors and writing team. Design/methodology/approach Uses structured questions to enable the theme editors to reflect on the rationale for the theme issue question, the starting-point, the selection of the writing team and material and the editorial process. Findings Examines the past and current state of tourism from the standpoint of a number of sector components – community-based tourism, policy, human resources, entrepreneurship among others; assesses the local and global environment impacting upon the development of the industry and explores what the theme editors regard as viable paths to a tourism sector in the year 2025. Practical implications This theme issue has a number of practical implications. Scholars and researchers may be inspired to undertake comparative studies of the trajectories of tourism development observed in emergent tourism destinations like Guyana. Those who work in tourism planning and administration will find the retrospections and proposals made of considerable value, even as those, in some cases, provoke lively debate. Originality/value This theme issue adds to the growing corpus of research and writing that focuses upon the Caribbean. While the Caribbean as a whole, or individual States, may have been the subject of research, there has been comparatively little written about Guyana as a tourism destination. This gradual increase in scholarly interest may indeed parallel the growth of the tourism industry in Guyana itself. The raft of consultants’ reports is now enriched and diversified in this theme issue that asks the hard questions and makes bold proposals.