IT is almost a certainty that Guyana would be afforded the right to host World Cup matches come 2007. The bid was touted among the best and indeed, the people conducting the checks were most impressed.
It took a lot of work and a commitment from all parties involved in ensuring that Guyana hosts at least some of the matches in the preliminary round of the World Cup. This country made no bones about wanting to be the home for the Indian team to the World Cup. The Indians are aware of this and they are happy with the arrangement.
But we have a problem. From as far back as one could remember, Guyana has never been able to provide accommodation for large delegations. Of course there was 1972 when we hosted Carifesta. To ensure that we had accommodation for the almost one thousand people who were coming from the various Caribbean countries, we built an entire village in North Ruimveldt.
To this day that village is known as Festival City. The streets were named according to the accommodation for a particular delegation. People interested in history could still walk into that community and know where the St Lucian delegation stayed or where the Barbadians stayed.
When Carifesta ended those homes were sold to Guyanese. So in one fell swoop, we constructed a housing scheme even as we prepared for the foreign invasion. We can expect even more people visiting this country during the World Cup. It is a foregone conclusion that the existing hotels will not be able to accommodate the visitors.
We have problems providing accommodation for people visiting this country to attend conventions. Given the fact that we have never been tourist oriented we often felt that the major hotels would have always been more than enough to accommodate just about everyone visiting this country. However, survey would reveal that at most, we could find about 1,000 rooms.
The authorities have a lot on their plate at the moment. We have heard about plans to undertake a project similar to the one we undertook for Carifesta. But even that would not be enough. It is unlikely that we could build more than 500 houses in some part of the country. But that would at least help with the accommodation for some of the anticipated influx.
Minister of Sports Gail Teixeira is also talking about floating hotels. That is certainly a novel idea for Guyana. It would mean securing some of the large cruise liners and having them moor somewhere in the Demerara River. Two large liners may easily accommodate a further 2,000 people.
There is also talk about some investors undertaking to construct at least two hotels. This readily signals jobs for a large number of Guyanese.
The first group would be employed by the stadium construction team. If we are going to build houses then another set would be recruited. Even more would be needed to work on the proposed hotels.
But certainly we have to recognize our limitations when it comes to providing accommodation for large numbers of people.
Hotels have a tough time surviving under normal conditions. The few people who come from time to time make the hospitality houses a profitable business but even they remain largely empty in the off season.
If we could solve the accommodation problem during the influx then we would be home high and dry. We have food, something that the other Caribbean islands cannot boast about. We could feed any number of people.
We had the Carifesta experience in cooking for large numbers. This time, with even more sophisticated equipment we should do even more.
All in all, the economy would get a big boost. It is expected that we would have to invest some US$26 million.
That is an awful lot of money but we could expect to reap much more when the visitors leave.