Make a case for Guyana to become a marriage tourism destination- Rohee

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:02 by GxMedia

Roraima Airways’ Chief Executive Officer, Gerry Gouveia addressing the opening of Wedding Expo 2013. Seated are (L to R) GT&T’s Mobile Marketing Executive, Allison Dundas; President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Clinton Urling; City Mayor, Hamilton Green and President Donald Ramotar.

As the curtains on Sunday came down on Wedding Expo 2013, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee said government was willing to consider amending the laws to make Guyana a wedding destination.

“If we were written to and it is formally put to us for us to examine it in the context of amendments to the law, obviously we don’t have any problem in doing that,” Rohee told Demerara Waves Online News (www.demwaves.com).

Advocates of amending the law, he said, would have to make a case to justify the legal amendment for wedding tourism before it is taken to the Attorney General’s chambers.

Chief Executive Officer of Roraima Airways, Gerry Gouveia has recalled lobbying the government to tweak the laws to allow persons to come and get married in a short space of time as they do in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and St. Lucia.

Currently, the law requires persons to be in Guyana at least 15 days before their wedding day.

Speaking at the opening of Wedding Expo 2013, Gouveia had urged President Donald Ramotar to make a public pronouncement there about changing the law. “We’ve been lobbying the government and today I ask the President- we’ve been speaking to Minister Irfan Ali, he promised that he spoke to the President and the government would take the changes that are needed in Parliament to change the legislation so that Guyana can become a wedding destination,” said Gouveia.

However, the Guyanese leader did not react.

Though the Tourism Minister has at least twice referred to the need to amend the law to facilitate speedy weddings by foreigners here, the Home Affairs Minister said he was unaware of the idea. “Nobody has ever raised it with me in a representative way for me to look at it to see what the law says and (have) further discussions with my colleagues to see if this is supportive,” he said.

Wedding Expo-5 was sponsored mainly by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) company.  Wedding Expos have been credited with helping small businesses to “grow many, many times over the years”.