Minister Anthony pleased with ‘Bed & Breakfast' progress
By Sean Devers
Kaieteur News
January 27, 2007
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony, is pleased with the response for Guyana 's Bed and Breakfast (B&B) programme put in place for Cricket World Cup (CWC).
The Minister made these remarks while interacting with the media at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence , yesterday, during the Local Organizing Committee's (LOC) weekly CWC press briefing.
Anthony also disclosed that the proposed Park & Ride (P&R) initiative has been scaled down from five to two locations with the Joe Vieira Park in West Demerara and another to be identified in the City, being the preferred venues.
Minister Anthony said that with 43 days to go to the massive event and with warm-up games starting before then in Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica and St Vincent, there has been ‘a flurry of activities' around the Stadium to complete external works and in the country generally, as preparations intensify in several areas.
“There has been a rapid increase in the response for the Bed and Breakfast programme and the number of available rooms has climbed to 1,470. We have received applications from as far as Linden and last weekend our staff visited approximately 47 rooms there,” Anthony informed.
He said that many persons are utilizing the on-line facility (www.guyanaaccomadation.org) for bookings, and expressed satisfaction with the recent progress in this regard.
The Minister explained that 50 volunteers distributed flyers about the B&B programme adding that LOC staff has been trained to inspect rooms.
“Now that this training has been completed, we have more people to conduct the inspections and provide grading for the various categories of rooms,” Anthony stressed.
He revealed that the LOC will be running a training programme at the stadium for 150 home owners on the B&B programme to make them aware of the LOC's expectations and what the home owners expect in return. Anthony disclosed that the Guyana Tourism Authority will assist in conducting the exercise.
The Minister stated that persons have already been identified for the Transportation programme adding that inspection of their buses is scheduled for this weekend.
Instead of the initial plan of the five P&R venues, the 11-acre plot of land between the Stadium at Providence and Buddy's International Hotel & Resort will be utilized as a Park and Walk facility.
According to the Minister, this area can accommodate 2,000 vehicles and the LOC is presently looking for persons or organizations to operate this parking area during match days.
Any interested person or entity can send their proposal (which should include the fee they will charge) to the LOC Secretariat at 91 Middle Street, South Cummingsburg, Georgetown , during the next two weeks.
Anthony said that because the P& R programme has been scaled down, the Traffic Management Plan has to be adjusted and informed that the Traffic Chief is working in collaboration with the LOC.
The Sports Minister also emphasized the importance of the volunteer programme to Guyana's successful hosting of the mega event - between March 28 and April 9 - and appealed to employers of volunteers from the public and private sectors to ensure they are given time off to facilitate their CWC-related work.
“We had a fruitful training programme for volunteers on January 20 and we are now in the process of putting the volunteers into various job positions.
The volunteer programme is critical and we have some of the best minds on board this programme, from a wide cross section of Guyana .
We will be sending letters to the employers of our volunteers specifying the dates we need their services and we are appealing to them to work with us on this national effort by providing time off,” Anthony stressed.
Two volunteer programmes (the CWC Vibes and the Guyana Volunteer Programme) and a number of training sessions, including one next week at the Saint Stanislaus College, are planned for the coming weeks.
Minister Anthony thanked the media for their assistance in promoting CWC and urged all involved to work together to make this event the best ever.