Cricket brings brief boom for hotels
Stabroek News
April 23, 2004
Members of the English team departing the Le Meridien Pegasus this week.
City hotels were full or close to capacity last weekend as Guyana hosted the first one- day match at Bourda.
Cara Lodge on Quamina Street and Cara Suites on Middle Street with a combined occupancy level of at least 76 persons was full last weekend.
Gavin O'Brien, general manager of Cara Lodge and Suites says a United Kingdom-based company that organises sporting events booked 95% of the rooms at the Cara facilities twelve months in advance while other individual bookings made up the remaining guests.
O'Brien says England's cricket teams always have a huge contingent, so these bookings came as no surprise.
Le Meridien Pegasus with accommodation for at least 260 persons was sold out, according to Susan Isaacs, the room division manager.
Both the English and West Indies cricket teams stayed at Le Meridien, along with journalists and media officials from Trans World International(TWI) who broadcast the match for SkySports.
These bookings were made twelve months in advance, says Isaacs, adding that only one or two individuals from last week's bookings had no connection to the match.
Emba-Sea Courtyard officials said the majority of their bookings for last weekend were related to the match. As early as October and November bookings were made and confirmed in January, officials said. Of the overseas guests, the majority were English tourists with a few overseas-based Guyanese. The hotel also had to refuse bookings and believes that if Guyana hosts matches for the World Cup Cricket they "would be able to [provide accommodations]."
However, Sunday's match did not see the normally large contingent of English fans that were present during the five Test games played in the Caribbean for the Cable and Wireless series.
Wind Jammer Internat-ional Cuisine and Comfort Inn, located in Kitty, that has occupancy levels for at least 30 persons, was full, says one hotel manager.
The Inn refused bookings from eight persons because of room shortages, while they were also asked by other hotels to take off bookings. The manager stated that they also approached Brandsville Apartments, in Campbellville, to take guests who could not get bookings with them.
On the other hand, at Kampala International Hotel, on Camp Street, which had 60% occupancy level last weekend, only 20% represented stays for the cricket match. Kampala has an occupancy level for at least 18 persons.
Two of the larger hotels also could not boast of full occupancy levels.
The Ocean View International Hotel, at Liliendaal, with occupancy levels of at least 220 persons stated that they did not have full occupancy for the cricket with only 15% of their bookings being for the one-day international cricket match.
Hotel Tower with room for at least 160 persons noted that out of their 70% occupancy levels for last weekend, 95% represented bookings connected to the match. Overseas -based Guyanese made up the majority and a handful of English and Caribbean tourists, the remainder.
Hotel Tower's general manager told Stabroek Business that although city hotels were close to full, it does not mean that Guyana will be unable to accommodate tourists for the World Cup.
"We are not worried as [hoteliers]...we have to watch and see the matches [scheduled for Guyana]," he says.
He says that after looking at statistics from past World Cup matches, only the more popular teams from countries such as Australia, South Africa, England, India, Pakistan and the West Indies usually have large followings.
If Guyana does not get to host large matches such as these, then building more accommodation would not make sense. As long as the business community knows the type of matches to be held in Guyana, accommodations will be found, says the manager. One solution noted by the Tower official is for two to three cruise ships to berth at the harbour.
It was also pointed out by the manager that since the proposed cricket stadium for the World Cup is being built to seat 15,000 to 20,000 persons, it may be too small since the one-day international on Sunday saw over 10,000 fans attending, the majority of whom were Guyanese.
The government has so far secured US$20M to build the cricket stadium at Providence, East Bank Demerara. Guyana is to submit its bid to be part-host of the World Cup cricket by May 6.