By LCN Business Desk
The Guyana Tourism Authority put October 2026 arrivals at 47,726 on Wednesday, the highest October the country has recorded. It stands 12.8 per cent above an October 2025 that had itself grown 28.9 per cent, and it leaves the year 91,651 short of the half-million the Minister set for it.
Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Susan Rodrigues gave 360,623 arrivals to September on 31 October, launching Tourism Awareness Month, and said Guyana was working towards more than 500,000 by the end of the year. With October the year stands at 408,349.
Is the target still reachable?
On the published figures it needs the last two months to grow faster than the first ten did.
| 2025 | 2026 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| October | 42,306 | 47,726 | +12.8% |
| January to October | 371,446 | 408,349 | +9.9% |
| November and December | 82,043 | 91,651 required | +11.7% |
| Full year | 453,489 | 500,000 target |
The 2026 column is from the Guyana Tourism Authority's statement of 5 November 2026, the 2025 column from its reporting for that year. The November and December lines are LCN subtractions from those totals and are not published statistics.
The two rates are 1.8 percentage points apart, and the faster one is asked of November and December.
What did October have that the next two months do not?
The Authority named four international conferences.
The month carried SOTIC, the Bethune Round Table, the Caribbean Shipping Association's 56th Annual General Meeting and the Global Biodiversity Alliance Conference and Financing Forum. Business travel was 17 per cent of arrivals and a further 24 per cent came for purposes classed as other.
::: Business and other purposes together accounted for 41 per cent of October's arrivals. Leisure accounted for 59. :::
Leisure supplied 59 per cent of the month. November and December carry Christmas, when Guyana's visitors are largely its diaspora.
Where are the visitors coming from?
The United States leads, and the Caribbean sits close behind it.
| Source market | Share of October arrivals |
|---|---|
| United States | 37.7% |
| Caribbean | 33.9% |
| Latin America | 9.3% |
| Canada | 7.1% |
| Europe | 5.5% |
Guyana Tourism Authority, October 2026.
Over seven in ten arrivals came from two markets. In the larger of them, the cost of checking a bag to Georgetown rose on 3 November, when JetBlue, which sells New York to Georgetown and lists Guyana among three South American destinations, raised checked bag fees for the second time this year. A fee charged per bag per direction lands on the visitor who checks luggage and not on the one who travels with a carry-on.
Is the slowdown a problem or a base effect?
Mostly the base. Guyana's 2025 total was a fifth larger than 2024's.
By the end of October 2025 Guyana had already passed its entire 2024 total of 371,271. This year's ten months added 36,903 visitors to that base; the same months of 2025 added about 71,700 to a smaller one.
Passenger movements through Cheddi Jagan International Airport went from 182,736 in 2020 to 973,016 in 2025, and the number of airlines and aviation companies operating in Guyana went from four to sixteen, figures given by Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar.
What is not established here?
Whether the four named events are credited with any measured number of arrivals. The Authority attributes no volume to any of them, so what the conferences contributed is not quantified by anyone.
The basis of the count. The statement does not define whether the figure is air arrivals, all arrivals, or non-resident arrivals, and the 2025 comparison assumes the basis has not changed.
The November and December split within the 2025 fourth quarter, which is derived here from the full-year and ten-month totals rather than published as a figure.
The entities
- Guyana Tourism Authority is the state agency that reported 47,726 arrivals for October 2026 and the 408,349 cumulative. - Susan Rodrigues is Guyana's Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, who gave the nine-month figure of 360,623 and the half-million target on 31 October 2026. - Deodat Indar is Guyana's Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation, who gave the airport and carrier figures. - Cheddi Jagan International Airport is Guyana's main airport, which handled 973,016 passenger movements in 2025. - SOTIC is the Caribbean Tourism Organisation's State of the Tourism Industry Conference, held in Georgetown in October 2026. - Caribbean Shipping Association is the regional body whose 56th Annual General Meeting was among the events the Authority credited for the month.
What the title card says
- Headline: the record October grew at less than half last October's rate, and the target now needs the year to speed up. - October 2026 arrivals: 47,726, a record for the month. - Growth on October 2025: 12.8 per cent. - Growth October 2025 recorded on October 2024: 28.9 per cent. - January to October 2026: 408,349, up 9.9 per cent. - Still to find in November and December: 91,651. - Growth that asks of those two months: 11.7 per cent. - Share of October arrivals that was leisure: 59 per cent. - Visitors in 2025: 453,489.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many visitors did Guyana receive in October 2026?
47,726, which the Guyana Tourism Authority describes as a record for the month and 12.8 per cent above the 42,306 recorded in October 2025.
How many has Guyana received this year?
408,349 between January and October 2026, on the Authority's own cumulative figure, against 371,446 over the same months of 2025.
Is Guyana going to reach 500,000 visitors in 2026?
Reaching it needs 91,651 arrivals across November and December. The same two months of 2025 delivered 82,043, so the target asks for 11.7 per cent growth from a year that has run at 9.9 per cent over ten months. Neither month carries the international conferences the Authority credited for October.
Is Guyana's tourism growth slowing?
In percentage terms, yes. October grew 12.8 per cent after growing 28.9 per cent the year before, and the ten-month rate is 9.9 per cent against 24 per cent over the same months of 2025. The base has roughly doubled in four years, so a smaller percentage represents a similar number of additional visitors.
Where do Guyana's visitors come from?
In October, the United States supplied 37.7 per cent and the Caribbean 33.9 per cent, followed by Latin America at 9.3, Canada at 7.1 and Europe at 5.5.
What was the 2025 total?
453,489 visitors, a record at the time and 22 per cent above 2024.