A GUYANA Cricket Board (GCB) delegation consisting of president Drubahadur, secretary Anand Sanasie, Marketing manager Rajendra Singh and TDO Colin Stuart held discussions with the Minister of Tourism, Catherine Hughes, regarding the June 2016 ODI Tri-series featuring Australia, South Africa and West Indies, among other partnerships. A release from the GCB yesterday stated that the team met with Director General of the Ministry of Tourism, Donald Sinclair, and Minister Hughes.
The gathering examined possible undertakings that would boost Guyana’s Tourism industry and complement the GCB’s activities during these cricket events on the calendar for 2016 and beyond.
Minster Hughes was particularly excited about the ODI Tri-series in early June since it would be an opportunity for Guyana to further showcase its Tourism packages as it follows very shortly after Guyana’s 50th independence celebration.
She explained that the short time span would allow for easy airline and hotel accommodation and possibly encourage visitors already in Guyana to remain for the matches.
Matches are scheduled for June 3, June 5 and June 7. This series would be the first where Guyana would be hosting more than two international teams at the same time since the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup.
“Further, the first leg of the series would be played in Guyana, giving us a significant amount of days to host visitors – a distinct advantage for our Tourism industry” the GCB release said.
Strategies and ideas were discussed between the delegations and how best to promote and market these events on a joint basis. It is expected that the WICB would be having their next Board of Directors meeting in Guyana during that Tri Series tournament.
The minister was also enlightened on the GCB-organised cricket festival, April 29 and 30, in observance of Guyana’s Golden Jubilee Independence celebrations.
The festival is a T20 one and would feature teams from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. Minister Hughes said she was willing to work along with the GCB for the promotion of the event.
The GCB officials sought other partnerships between the GCB and the Tourism Ministry. Minister Hughes was optimistic that these ventures can be realised; noting that they were definitely stimulating ideas which were indeed positive and exciting that her Ministry can embrace.
The Secretary of the GCB also took the opportunity to present a copy of the recent Economic Impact Assessment study that was conducted by an independent firm on the tour of England to the Caribbean in 2015.
The minister shared some statistics regarding the value and importance of tourism to the economy of several states and acknowledged the growing importance of sports tourism to our country and the need for diversification from our traditional products.