W/Cup 2007 rooming

And the key man behind the organisation of the March 11 to April 28 event says discussions with regional stakeholders have been encouraging.

“We have been working with both CARICOM and the Caribbean Hotel Association to manage that problem,” Dehring told the Jamaica Observer.

“There are a number of constituents obviously who would be impacted.

“Ourselves at Cricket World Cup. We have been assured by the countries of the region that they will be sticking to their commitments in terms of the room rates that the teams and officials will be staying in.”

He continued, “There is a media plan that has been rolled out across the region to ensure that we have sufficient bed-bank for the international media and of course for the international travelling fans.

“We have again rolled out a programme and we think that there will be an adequate supply of a wide variety of accommodation, ranging from bed and breakfast, dinner and home stay programmes to traditional hotels and cruise ships, which have already been booked and are on sale around the world through our network of official travel agents.

“I would say all in all from an accommodation perspective we are much further along than where we were six or nine months ago and the situation is improving.” Recently, concerns have been repeatedly raised over the Caribbean’s ability to host the large amount of travellers expected for next year’s 16-team event. Additionally, CWC 2007 Inc had complained about the high rates being charged by regional hotels for the cricket event, with Dehring subsequently making his case to CARICOM on the issue.

He said despite the challenges however, he believed the appeal of the Cricket World Cup would lure large numbers of visitors to the Caribbean.

“We certainly feel that at the end of the day, the demand is going to be so strong and the product is so good that we will still have a very sizable travelling contingent to the region,” Dehring said. (CMC)