38 B&B facilities conditionally approved for Cricket Carnival

A total of 38 Bed and Breakfast facilities have been granted conditional approval under the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce/Guyana Tourism Authority’s (GTA) Cricket Carnival Bed & Breakfast initiative. This was disclosed by Tourism Business Support Officer, Stephanie Noble during a telephone interview on Tuesday.
“These are locals who have placed their properties up or registered under the Cricket Carnival Bed and Breakfast initiative. These have the capacity to accommodate approximately 342 individuals who are expected to be here during the cricket season,” she noted.
Noble explained that the conditional approvals are valid for six months, providing the opportunity for the facilities to be used for the ICC WorldCup Games in June and CPL Games in September/October and other end-of-year events. It encourages the proprietors to have their businesses registered on the AirBnB platform which allows for the receipt of payments for rooms and related fees. The tourism body also conducts inspections of the amenities and quality of accommodation provided to visitors.
Noting that most of the properties are located in Regions Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice), she said 80 per cent is already booked.
However, the GTA is encouraging other persons to sign onto the initiative.
“Currently doing inspections in Region Two [Pomeroon-Supenaam] and Six [East Berbice-Corentyne], and we will do some more in Region 10. During this period, we will continue to monitor and evaluate the preparation for the accommodations and also to ensure that safety is implemented and ensure that establishment owners are ready for this period because we know it can be a hectic one,” the Tourism Business Support Officer told this publication.
Training in First aid/CPR as well as customer service was delivered to representatives of the bed and breakfast facilities. The Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce under whose purview the GTA falls, continues to roll out programmes that will improve the service delivery in the tourism and hospitality sector. Over 2500 persons are expected to benefit from capacity building programmes this year, according to the GTA.
This year’s Caribbean Premier League (CPL) which is one of the key highlights of the Cricket Carnival, commences on August 29 in Antigua and Barbuda and returns to Guyana from September 20.
Further, in October, the ICC World Cup games continue at the Providence National Stadium.
The GTA has indicated that in leisure; sports and entertainment activities this year as well as the ICC games in June, a significant number of visitors to Guyana were recorded. For the first seven months of the year, six have been record-breaking months, with June and July recording 29,727 and 34,739 visitors respectively.