Organisers need to be more responsible when selecting beauty competitors

Dear Editor, Don’t people ever understand that there are major consequences when we continue to kill off our tourism sector?

I was in total disbelief when I read the news via social media that Guyana was served with the penalty of a two-year ban from competing in the Miss Universe Pageant because of the hand-picking of the last Miss Guyana Universe 2017 winner, Miss R Khan. I am still hoping that the Miss Universe Organisation will make an official statement in support of what I read via social media forums.

For many years I have been a private tourism advocate and trust me on this, Guyana is not an easy tourist destination to sell to the international market. Many have never heard of Guyana before, and there is always the confusion between Ghana and Guyana. You have to constantly keep educating persons about the difference in geographic locations.

I always felt that Guyana’s presence among the other Miss Universe delegates over the years was an ideal platform to showcase the Golden Arrowhead. This was especially the case with the introduction segment seen on global television, that allowed the beauty ambassadors to do their duty in educating their competition colleagues and the international media about our existence. Guyana may not always be fortunate to crack the finals, but we need to continue to have an ambassador present, and to my mind, marketing means mileage.

Organisers have to be more responsible and create an impartial image during the selection process for any beauty ambassador. I hope this is a learning process for Guyana. Yours faithfully, T Pemberton