Guyana pad$ up for World Cup

And Chief Executive Officer of the CWC 2007 Local Organising Committee (LOC), Karan Singh said as a result, Guyana is no longer interested in a luxury cruise liner to meet accommodation needs. Singh said the CWC 2007 had asked if the government could guarantee a portion of the US$1.95 million cost of the cruise ship and "we indicated they were no longer interested. We would have rooms available."

Meanwhile, some US$11 million of the US$25 million allocated for the building of the stadium at Providence has been spent to date.

At a briefing, the LOC Chief Executive said the four hotels being built would provide in excess of 400 rooms. Two of the hotels are being built in the vicinity of the Providence cricket stadium: one by Buddy Shivraj and the other by Arthur and Smith (a partnership); another is under construction at Turkeyen by Gafsons; and the fourth, described as Arakari Hotel, is being built at Versailles on the West Bank Demerara.

The number of rooms required for the TOMS is 486 and at present the number of rooms available is less than 50%. Shivraj’s Hotel is expected to have 216 rooms; Gafsons’, 112; Arakari, 112; and Arthur and Smith’s would be smaller, Singh said.

Singh said that the current focus was on new hotels and housing developments that have started and are being pursued aggressively. "We are confident that we would have more than the adequate number of rooms to satisfy TOMS and the influx of visitors that are expected in Guyana during the tournament," he said.

Asked about the investment sums and what concessions and incentives the government was offering to the developers, Singh said he did not know but added that the government was supporting the ventures. The Guyana Office for Investment would be able to provide the details, he said.

Along with the new developments, Singh said, the LOC is working closely with Hotel Tower and the Ocean View International Hotel to provide an additional 150 rooms.

Le Meridien Pegasus, which had initially offered the LOC 60 rooms, has increased the number to 120. Others that have committed rooms are Cara Lodge, Cara Suites, Grand Coastal Inn, Blue Wave and Brandsville. Singh said all those rooms were of a certain class and standard.

The objective, however, is to accommodate about 70% of the approximately 10,000 people expected here for the event. The other 30% will stay with relatives and friends.

Apart from catering to the needs of CWC, Singh said there were a number of international events billed for this year including the Rio Summit and it was expected that some of the developments would be finished in time to accommodate some senior officials and important persons.

Also in terms of providing other means of accommodation and providing for all classes of visitors, Singh said that the bed and breakfast initiative, which in Jamaica is linked to community tourism, would be launched later this month or early in February.

The objective is to allow householders in the environs such as Republic Park, Nandy Park, New Providence, Providence Housing Scheme and Herstelling the opportunity to benefit by upgrading their homes to offer at least one room to a visitor. This would boost their own personal income in addition to beautifying their homes, he said.

He said the accommodation could never be too much as Cricket Logistics will be looking to buy rooms at all levels for the tour packages that would be offered. The idea is to develop a database of what is available on a website linked to the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) and CWC 2007.

On the issue of security with two hotels and housing areas being built in proximity to the stadium, Singh said they were outside the red zone of the stadium and the areas surrounding it. The stadium has several zones.

While Guyana’s ratings were critical (yellow) in at least five areas, including accommodation and security, about a month ago, Singh said, those areas had since improved. The stadium is currently graded at green and security upgraded to green; medical and emergency and anti-doping is blue; overall events management which covers volunteer and protocol is blue; Guyana is still colour-coded yellow for Information Technology and Communications but Singh said that was because the ICT installation could only be done when the stadium was completed.

He said the volunteer programme, which was scheduled to start in January will now be launched in March. The sunset legislation, under which people will know their rights on CWC 2007, is also in progress.

Singh, however, noted that there are many detractors. "If you go online and punch in Providence Cricket Stadium you would see over 200 websites created. Everybody is doing their own monitoring and their own evaluation, some without the vaguest idea of what is going on and what the site looks like.