February 16 2020
Stacey Dos Santos Rahaman and her husband Chris Rahaman are warriors for Guyana, and they will fiercely defend this land of many waters they call home. They are not in the Guyana Defence Force, nor would they pick up a bow and arrow to fight their battles. Instead their line of defence comes in the form of cameras, computer keyboards and the worldwide web through which they sell their country and counter any negativity with positivity.
After one conversation with this duo, you are bound to be infected by the love they have for their country. They mostly speak through their photographs and more recently videos on their Visit Guyana Facebook and Instagram pages, but they are not afraid to become keyboard warriors to defend this beautiful land.
Ten years ago, Stacey declared that she was tired with all the negative comments about her beloved country. Her husband, Chris, knowing her background in information technology and her love for Guyana, urged her to do something about it. They have since become the team to reckon with and while initially no profit came out of their work, the mere fact that they managed to sell Guyana and pique persons’ interest to visit was enough.
“It really stemmed from wanting to accurately show people what Guyana is all about instead of them Googling the country and the story of Jonestown coming up,” Stacy toldStabroek Weekend, when the couple took time out to chat with us. “It was born out of a need to make sure that Guyana has some sort of presence that is positive… to show people that Guyana is not only Jonestown, [nor filled with] political turmoil, we are a people that have so much to offer in our country.”
When they say positive, they mean it. While they would address certain things, they do not “tolerate any form of negativity on our platform.”
They later realized that it was not only their friends overseas who were being educated but also Guyanese at home.
Stacey recalled that she lived outside of Guyana for a while and met no one who knew anything about the country, but many who had perceptions which were often not positive and extreme.
What started out as a ‘side thing’, as the couple also own a marketing company which remains a large part of what they do, soon ballooned into pages that now reach over a million people. Stacey said that at the beginning of 2019 they realized that they needed to do more in terms of streamlining the information on the page and make it more targeted. They have also added a blog – undiscoveredguyana.com – which has content geared towards different persons. Their writers include young people, visitors, indigenous people and researchers.
They attempt to capture what is meant by ‘land of six peoples’ through experiences and as such their content has been diversified to include a lot more videos.
Tourism
Stacey’s interest in the world of tourism was sharpened when she worked with the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), albeit in the information technology department. But she fell in love with tourism there and even though she left to work at Digicel, six months later she was in Grenada working on a tourism magazine following a job offer. She said it was her work at the GTA that opened her eyes to all Guyana has to offer. She remembers working on the authority’s website and the many questions that were being asked.
“My love for this country grew from there and it was just a natural progression. I just embraced it and said… this is my calling. This is what I am here to do. To celebrate the country that I am born in, educate people about it and hopefully inspire some kind of national pride,” the passionate Stacey said.
Countering negativity can be draining for the couple at times, Chris said there are more positives than negatives. “We can counter them more than they can send negatives,” he continued.
One of the negatives is persons commenting that the tour operators are overcharging. To counter this, Stacey said, they explain that Guyana is a big country. An example is that the flying from Georgetown to Kaieteur Falls is longer than a flight to Trinidad. Chris added that there is a myth that it is cheaper to go to Trinidad than to Kaieteur. Replying to this, he would point out that there were costs attached to a ticket, accommodation and transportation for a trip to Trinidad, while there was one price for the ticket and provision of a snack for a trip to Kaieteur; and that price was US$215.
Stacey said she would point out that the operators have to pay their pilots, tour guides, provide refreshments and buy fuel and also pay the airline; all of that from US$215.
“So, it is not like these people making the world of money. They are not. They are struggling,” she stressed, while pointing out that the more tourists they get, the prices will go down.
“One way we counter the negativity is by sharing the facts… The other way is sharing information about our biodiversity, our flora and fauna.”
Georgetown, according to Chris, is one of the biggest negatives as many are of the opinion that Georgetown is Guyana.
“And you know we would ask them, ‘have you ever heard of anyone getting robbed in the Rupununi? Or a tourist getting robbed on the Essequibo tour?’ And they can’t answer. And yeah, Georgetown might not be the safest place in the world but there is crime everywhere also,” Chris added.
With Guyana winning six tourism awards last year, including recognition as one of the top tourism destinations in the world, Stacy and Chris now have more ammunition to use when the negatives come their way.
Extra care must be taken in certain places in Georgetown, Stacey admitted, but she pointed out that most of the tourist destinations in Guyana are free of crime.
She noted that more people are taking pride in the country and are defending Guyana and she wishes to see more persons involved as it is Guyanese who have to love and take care of their country.
No money
Stacey recalls that when they started on social media, they had no money and the first video they did there was not even enough money to pay the videographer; they had to save up to pay. They also publish two annual magazines, but when they did the first one, they also had no money to publish it.
“We had no computer. We plugged our monitor – because our laptop wasn’t working – into our TV and sat up night after night, on our floor in our living room doing that magazine and that was our first Guyana Lime & Unwind magazine,” Stacey shared.
“So, it was not without struggles. People see the fancy pictures and so, but it didn’t come about without struggles and a lot of the places we went, we would pay for it. We would save up and go. And so, it has been a journey,” she added.
After many years, they are now trying to monetize their pages. Over the last year also, they have received discounts when they visit certain resorts; they barter because companies benefit from the promotion on their page due to their wide reach. There are also clients who pay for advertisements.
“In 2019, we decided that we had to monetize because the website had a cost attached to it, the content development had a lot of cost and our time. It started to get a lot, so we did monetize, and we do sell advertising space on the page. We would work with you if you have projects and your campaign on Visit Guyana as well,” Stacey said.
Other organisations, such as the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana, outsource certain aspects of their work to the couple.
“It is coming, it is not there yet but we are getting there and we have found over the last three months we have been getting a lot,” Chris said, adding that with the advent of oil persons are seeing the need to promote their businesses.
This year, they started a new social media project which has been time consuming and it falls under their marketing company.
A day in their lives begins with checking their stats on Visit Guyana. They also do their work with Christa (a shortened combination of Chris and Stacey) Marketing, managing the marketing profiles of several companies.
Stacey is a working mom, so she has to prepare the children for school, hustling and bustling like any other mother.
“[After] I drop them off to school is really when our day starts and still at the back of my mind is what we are doing for lunch and dinner, [being] a mother, that part is a priority,” the wife and mother said.
Influencer
Stacey can now be considered a travel influencer and not only she is recognized around Guyana, in restaurants and other places, but also in the US when she visits certain places.
All of this is because she is now the face of the page. However, when they started the page Stacey was not in the photographs for at least six years.
“It happened because we realized that people wanted to see someone having the experience, not just the landscapes and the buildings… And that is what the travel world is building on. Instagram blow up this whole travel influencer and now it is a thing,” Chris said adding that GTA has brought in persons from other countries to sell Guyana.
It was not easy for Stacey to put her face out there. One of her biggest fears was criticism. She knew the negative comments would come but she did it anyway because for her it was necessary. People were beginning to say that the couple had not visited the places they exhibited. But “once I started to [put] my face out there, they started to trust me more,” she noted. She had to grow a thick skin and let the criticisms slide off.
“Stacy is stopped daily, every single day, on the streets. The thing about it, is not the Guyanese so much, it is the tourists,” Chris said.
He said his wife is now the influencer for their page and she will soon be going to a neighbouring country, hired by a company, to be a travel influencer.
On the agenda for the tourism duo is a new page primarily for travel influencing and this will focus solely on Stacey and her journey. While initially it will be about Guyana, other countries will also be added gradually as they seek to link with tourism authorities overseas.
They pointed out that there are already several influencers in Guyana in different areas such as social, fashion and entertainment.
But persons, including big companies, are still to understand the huge benefit they can get from having their business promoted on pages like Visit Guyana, which has over one million followers. For them, though, it is a work in progress. They recalled initially they asked companies to pay them $5,000 a month to promote their businesses and they were turned down for six years, but now things are turning around, even though some of the bigger companies still do not subscribe to this form of promotion. Instead their clientele comprises smaller and newer companies.
Stacey had some advice for the youth. She said while it is important to know one’s craft well, one needs to make sure one remains humble and delivers on what is promised.
“Work ethic is important. If you are working with companies, my advice to young people is to ensure that you link up if you don’t know what companies to partner with to get the knowledge that you need to move to another level,” the influencer said.
She pointed out that what sets people apart is when they deliver on deadline, carry themselves in a professional manner, and work hard honing their craft. Collaboration is also key as with oil and gas on the horizon, everyone is a small fish.
“There is room for all of us and one of the things I think Guyanese are guilty of is trying to back-bite each other. You cannot be jealous of people because they got their blessings and I say this because of experience… Don’t be jealous of the blessings that people who you perceive as competition are getting, your own will come,” Stacey admonished.
She noted that there are other pages that do what they do and as a couple they have long decided that if anyone asks about those pages, they will never give negative comments. “There is room for everybody, and we even need more. I wish more people could do it,” she said while Chris chimed in to say that they have told GTA that there is need for more tourism pages in Guyana as they “alone cannot satisfy the demands of people.”
To help the youths they would help to arrange for them to experience Guyana free or at a reduced price and they have also decided to give them the free passes they receive, to help them to get the exposure.
The Rahamans’ two young daughters are part of their experiences wherever possible. The story of how they met also involves the worldwide web, but that is a story for another time. For now, they just want to continue to focus on selling the land of many waters, a country they are in love with. And there is more in store for this year, such as a Visit Guyana app.