*Flush with new oil revenue, Guyana is investing heavily in tourism — and inviting visitors into one of the world’s most biodiverse landscapes.*
*Mark Johanson for Bloomberg News*
Regarding tourism, Georgetown is brand-new on the map, a rarely used gateway to the country’s richly biodiverse rainforest. Yet by the end of 2026, roughly a dozen Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott hotels will have opened, solidifying the city’s meteoric makeover from a sprawling village to a bona fide boomtown. Since 2020 the World Bank has listed Guyana, bordering Venezuela and Brazil, as having the world’s fastest-growing economy.
It’s been a decade since everything changed for this small, English-speaking nation. In 2015, ExxonMobil discovered what’s now estimated to be 11 billion barrels of oil off the coast — giving Guyana one of the largest-known reserves per capita in the world.
Commercial drilling began four years later, and the nation has already earned about $7.5 billion in revenue from oil sales and royalties. That wealth has rippled across society, transforming the capital. “People are beginning to see a city we’ve never seen before and to experience a different standard of life,” says Oneidge Walrond, who until recently was tourism minister.
1 Comment
*Flush with new oil revenue, Guyana is investing heavily in tourism — and inviting visitors into one of the world’s most biodiverse landscapes.*
*Mark Johanson for Bloomberg News*
Regarding tourism, Georgetown is brand-new on the map, a rarely used gateway to the country’s richly biodiverse rainforest. Yet by the end of 2026, roughly a dozen Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott hotels will have opened, solidifying the city’s meteoric makeover from a sprawling village to a bona fide boomtown. Since 2020 the World Bank has listed Guyana, bordering Venezuela and Brazil, as having the world’s fastest-growing economy.
It’s been a decade since everything changed for this small, English-speaking nation. In 2015, ExxonMobil discovered what’s now estimated to be 11 billion barrels of oil off the coast — giving Guyana one of the largest-known reserves per capita in the world.
Commercial drilling began four years later, and the nation has already earned about $7.5 billion in revenue from oil sales and royalties. That wealth has rippled across society, transforming the capital. “People are beginning to see a city we’ve never seen before and to experience a different standard of life,” says Oneidge Walrond, who until recently was tourism minister.
[Read the full story here.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-16/guyana-pitches-itself-as-a-new-ecotourism-destination?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2NjIyNjg2OCwiZXhwIjoxNzY2ODMxNjY4LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUN0NYNDhLR1pBSlIwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJEMzU0MUJFQjhBQUY0QkUwQkFBOUQzNkI3QjlCRjI4OCJ9.Ix1eOyZ5TLcZIeeCeNSHasULRBZ9hOwR3ASKSBIFVEY)