A total of 184 rooms are ready to cater to the influx of persons seeking out the bed and breakfast service offered by the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) for Cricket Carnival. This is according to the Authority’s Director Kamrul Baksh.
To provide additional accommodations for visitors during Cricket Carnival, the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) Director Kamrul Baksh on Tuesday disclosed that the Authority’s ‘Bed and Breakfast’ initiative has so far approved 30 providers.
The initiative was implemented to provide additional accommodation to visitors for the first-ever Cricket Carnival last year. On Tuesday, Baksh said the accommodations are in Regions Two, Three, Four, and Ten.
“We are going to make the bed and breakfast a main stay so not only for Cricket Carnival but for other events that we will host. So far we have 30 conditionally approved bed and breakfasts right here in the city and on the outskirts of the city which adds up to about 184 rooms across regions 3,2,4 and 10.
“We will continue to monitor them [and] we inspected all of the properties. They are on par and we had even went into an agreement with courts,” the Director said.
He explained that the agreement is to provide the service providers with the necessary amenities for the rooms.
Cricket Carnival will be hosted from September 08 to September 25, 2023, with several sports and entertainment events planned.
To ensure visitors experience a comfortable stay with quality amenities, Baksh said the GTA has already inspected the properties. These properties are being marketed and promoted on Stabroek Travel, cricketcarnival592.com, GTA’s Facebook page and Airbnb.
In addition to the Bed and Breakfast programme, Baksh said the GTA is working to get tour guides licensed. Earlier this year, it started the business licensing clinics which expedite the processes and address the challenges related to registering and licensing their businesses.
He said by year end it is expected that some 150 businesses and tour guides will be licensed.
“By the end of the year we anticipate that over 150 businesses and guides will be licensed and we are doing following through with training capacity for guides
We have shadow programmes where new guides can shadow experienced guides on the job so that they can learn articulation, communication skills, conflict management and content,” Baksh said.
He added that 84 businesses and guides were already licensed.
