–President Ali says, points to boost in hospitality, tourism industries

SMALL and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are seeing massive spin-off benefits from the ongoing Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 cricket tournament and concurrent carnival in Guyana.

The CPL, which is one of the Caribbean’s largest sports and entertainment events, began in August with several matches being played across the region. The final lap of the tournament is being held at the National Stadium at Providence.

Joining thousands of patrons at the stadium on Tuesday evening to observe the first eliminator game of the season, President, Dr Irfaan Ali in brief comments to the media highlighted that the tournament is more than just a game of cricket.

He said: “It’s not only about in the stadium…[CPL] brought so much additional spending in the economy, the small businesses benefitted.”

Dr. Ali noted that there has been exponential growth for small businesses; is a direct result of the government’s vision to promote sport tourism in Guyana.

In March of 2022, President Ali broke the exciting news that not only will Guyana be hosting the CPL final from 2022 to 2024, but that the celebrations will also be held in tandem with a massive carnival-like event to mark the occasion.

This carnival aimed to celebrate the best that Guyana has to offer the region and the rest of the world.

“That is what I’m concerned about, how the small and medium-sized enterprises are a part of these ideas and visions and how they benefit and that is very critical for us,” Dr Ali said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in an invited comment with this newspaper, Chairman of the Private Sector Commission, Komal Singh, highlighted too that the CPL has brought about significant economic benefits to the country’s tourism and hospitality sector.

“The SMEs, the small businesses have benefitted significantly from CPL and this is directly as a result of the large amount of tourists and visitors visiting during the CPL season. And I think from a sustainability stand point, it creates a whole host of opportunity [sic] for companies to prepare themselves to capitalise on all the opportunities that CPL brought,” Singh said.

While Singh expressed his support for his home country’s team, the Guyana Amazon Warriors, he applauded all the regional players of this year’s tournament.

He said: “From a private sector standpoint we applaud all the teams that are playing; we are very excited for them to be here and also for them to see opportunities. The presence of international teams, allows Guyana to be seen by millions of people around the world and that by itself is a marketing.”

At Tuesday’s game, the Barbados Royals advanced to Qualifier 2 when they won their encounter against Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) by nine wickets on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method in their CPL eliminator match.