The President of the Jamaican Hotel and Tourist Association is on record as saying that CARICOM should abandon the cricket visa requirements or the Jamaica should “put its national interest first and go it alone.” (Jan 5, 07 BFP story link here)
If the story below as reported in The Times Of India is true, it looks like Jamaica has found a middle path that sort of satisfies the security vs. convenience issues – and it also looks like Jamaica is “going it alone.”
From The Times Of India…
Jamaica Roots For India In World Cup 2007
Say “West Indies” and what springs first to mind is cricket. David Shields, deputy director, tourism-marketing, Jamaica Tourist Board, talks to Narayani Ganesh in Kingston about the immense interest the World Cup has gene-rated in the Windies, particularly among the Indian diaspora:
Travel trade sources say that already more than 5,000 bookings have been made in India for the World Cup to be held in the West Indies. Are you prepared?
Jamaica sees the World Cup as staging ground to access new markets. Because of love for cricket and membership of Commonwealth Association, we are keen to explore the Indian market for a long-term association that goes beyond cricket. Just last week a Jamaica-India trade agreement was signed to help us purchase water pipes for the National Water Commission. We’re seeking to forge strong air links with air partners in India since Air Jamaica flies out of Heathrow, London.
How easy or difficult is it to get a visa?
We’re trying to confirm packages to India. The Caribbean community comprises 32 countries, making up the Caribbean Common Market. Caricom intends to create a single domestic region to access all 10 participating territories. Under the sunset legislation, travel will be facilitated from February 1-March 15. Processing for children under 12 will be free of charge. But this does not include facilitation for UK/US visa, the two alternative transit points. In Delhi, the visa issuing authority for the entire Windies group of destinations is the Trinidad and Tobago high commission. If the point of entry to the Windies is Jamaica for the World Cup regardless of point of exit you can submit scanned copies of documents, download visa form from the website and courier the completed form to us in Jamaica for emergency processing. You should get an e-mail from us within two or three days. You can present the original documents on arrival when the Caricom visa will be issued @ US$100.
… continue reading this article at The Times Of India (link here)
8 Comments
February 1, 2007 at 2:10 pm
With the arrival numbers already being questioned and the outlook being lower than first expected why then are we trying make life harder for the ones that do want to come to our shores, is this another effort to help offset the cost of hosting this event?
My advice to those in authority is to have a read from the site below and see what it says and if after reading it you still want to make life hell well then go right ahead at full speed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23069-2536560,00.html
February 1, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Am I right in thinking Jamaica has put special arrangements in place?
If so, what is to stop all 10 countries following suit?
Perhaps the Caricom IMPACS team could clarify this?
If this is the case, just think of all the damage that could have been avoided.
Multiply our own experience, 4 cancellations amounting to 44 room nights and counting.
February 1, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Time is running out and the visa issue is yet to be streamlined, millions are at stake and Jamaica is trying to loose little if any at all.
February 1, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Is there any truth to the rumor that the goverment is sneeking in another 1000 Slot machines for cricket world cup?
Wonder who has been given the licence to operate these machines?
Are there locals involved or all foreigners involved with this scam?
Has the law changed with regard to the importation and operation of these machines?
February 1, 2007 at 6:41 pm
What would happen if someone turns up without the visa? Would they be turned away?
February 2, 2007 at 9:27 am
I guess the Jamaicans have one foot off the deck and are about to jump ship. Who can blame them after this VISA fiasco. It still blows my mind that we are insisting that Australia, New Zealand and most European countries pose more of a terrorist threat than radical cells in the UK, Spain or South Africa.
What a slap in the face to Australians who are still recovering after their 9-11 in Bali. But no VISA needed for countries where fundamentalists are most active.
We don’t have to look very far for our biggest terror threat. The reports of radical fundamentalist cells in the Trinidad muslim community are getting louder. I truelly hope that our security services have not taken their eyes off this ball.
The peaceloving majority Buddhists in Bali saw their economy ravaged by radical muslims from other Indonesian islands. Will the same immigration officials vigilently checking those “terror suspects” from Stockholm and Zurich apply the same level of scrutiny to radical Trinidadian fundamentalists?
February 2, 2007 at 8:25 pm
At last I have found a specific forecast of the number of cricket tourists we were/are to expect for CWC.
The BTI site (which I was navigating in connection with Cove Bay development and its anti-aging clinic) mentions under Investment Opportunities that “27,000 or more” are expected on our shores in April. Does this gybe with other current figures?
February 3, 2007 at 9:55 am
Pandora..
Its a good question!
The average stay is 6.8 nights for a long stay visitor.
We are hosting 7 days of cricket from 11th April until the final 28th with a gap of a week when the semi-final takes place in St. Lucia.
We are told the new Kensington Oval seats about 28,000. This obviously includes all the media, VIP’s, sponsor attendees etc, plus any locals that purchase tickets.
Then we have to take into account the ‘14′ or ‘18′ cruise ships that will be moored in the harbour including the BTA chartered Carnival Destiny which can accommodate at least 2,642 passengers (2 per cabin) and according to the Minister of Tourism was already ‘80% sold’ weeks ago.
Plus ‘dozens’ or ‘hundreds’ of yachts, depending on which media reports you believe.
Total long stay passsengers to Barbados last year were around 550,000 or roughly 10,576 per week or average stay.
At this stage perhaps only the individual hotels could actually tell you if the normal repeat guests are returning this year over the cricket period or missing Barbados this year or changing to other dates.
All sort of figures have been quoted for attendance numbers to the ICC 2007 World Cup series including a figure of 100,000 several times.
I am told by a major tour operator that arranges travel for the Barmy Army that ‘less than 30,000 overseas visitors including the returning expat community’ attended the 2003 South Africa event.
From a land based perspective Barbados has around 8,000 rooms in hotels, guest houses, apartments and villas. Even if you assume everyone is here from the cricket that is still only accommodation for 16,000 people.
Its clearly the foreign flagged, extra regional crewed cruise ships that are going to make a killing, helped of course by the Barbadian taxpayer US$15 million loan to charter Carnival Destiny despite already being ‘80% booked’.
Let us assume for a moment that we attract 30,000
people for the event. At least half of these appear to be staying on cruise ships and the average cruise ship passenger spend is US$60 per day (onshore). So 15,000 spread over the 17 day period where Barbados hosts games (bear in mind the BTA sponsored Destiny leaves BIM and goes up to St. Lucia). So the calculation 15,000 x US$60 x 17 days = US$15.30 million.
Then 15,000 long stay visitors spending an average of US$146 per day on a typical stay of 6.8 nights x 17 days = US$37.23 million.
These figures do not of course allow for any of these cricket fans leaving Barbados and attending matches in other islands, in which case the revenue would be reduced.
So unless I have it very wrong the total revenue Barbados can expect directly from cricket fans is likely not to exceed US$53 million.
Then you have to take away the costs directly atributed to hosting the event including the US$15 million loan to the BTA.
Maybe I have it wrong and the Minister of Tourism will clarify the figures?