Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Sustainable Development and Culture,
Honourable Carlos James says he is quite pleased with the hotel accommodation and
bookings for the months June and July, 2024 as this country prepares to host two major
events, the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup and Vincy Mas 2024, during that period.
Minister James confirmed that over 4,000 nights have been booked for the period of
the World Cup across a suite of hotels, including Grenadine House, Beachcombers,
Sunset Shores, Young Island, Paradise Beach Hotel, Hotel Alexandrina, La Vue
and Sandals. The tourism minister noted that bookings are shared among teams, technical
crew along with spectators.
“We have been tracking the bookings and all the major hotels are showing bookings
above 75 per cent occupancy, this will no doubt get closer to 100 per cent in a matter
of days as we move closer to the major games of the cricket world cup and Vincy
Mas 2024,” Minister James said.
According to Minister James the technical staff and ground crew for the world cup
would account for close to 200 rooms, while cricket teams would account for just
about 1,400 rooms over the duration of the games.
Minister James expressed some concern regarding accommodation for the qualifiers,
noting that the qualifying teams are expected to draw a larger number of visitors to
the island.
“We are working with smaller accommodations and those registered with the
Tourism Authority and Air bnb to provide additional accommodation during the
qualifying round of games. These games are expected to draw a larger number of
visitors,” Minister James said.
Minister James urged other accommodation providers to reach out to tourism
authority to provide information on accommodation.
“We are already having this particular challenge with room stock, hence the reason
I have asked for more investments in hotels and apartments to provide
an additional 800 rooms to the island’s room stock,” Minister James said.
Meanwhile, Minister James said the Vincy Mas period is showing a greater number
of bookings than in previous years with most hotels already booked with over 90 per
cent occupancy.
“Quite a few of the hotels are already at 100 percent occupancy during the
carnival period, but if we were to take into account the majority of the room stock
they are on average well over 90 percent,” Minister James said.
The tourism minister expressed his gratitude to all stakeholders for working together
to ensure the tourism product is developed and transformed into a sustainably viable
way.
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