Date:27/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/07/27/stories/2006072701921300.htm

Back Barbados hopes Cricket World Cup to brimmeth over

Our Bureau

Bets on better infrastructure, facilities to bring in tourists in the long term

MR CHRIS DE CAIRES, Chairman, World Cup Barbados Inc, at a meet in Chennai on Wednesday. — K. Pichumani

Chennai , July 26

The Caribbean island of Barbados, which will host the Cricket World Cup final in April 2007 besides a few preliminary matches, hopes for major spin-off benefits of hosting the event. For one, it hopes that tourism, a major revenue earner, will increase with tourists from newer markets coming in.

Barbados is spending a huge sum - as much as 10-15 per cent of its $2 billion GDP - on improving infrastructure and facilities for tourists. It expects that the benefits of this investment will keep coming long after the World Cup is over, according to Mr Chris de Caires, Chairman, Barbados LOC, World Cup Barbados Inc, the local organising committee for the world cup.

In an interaction with journalists of The Hindu group here today, he pointed out that a lot of investment on infrastructure had been brought forward in view of the World Cup. Barbados would also host six of the eight Super 8 matches and it expected anything in the range of 100,000-150,000 visitors to visit the Caribbean during the World Cup. Of this, Barbados alone expected anything from 30,000 to 50,000 visitors.

To make it easier for visitors to the Caribbean during the World Cup, the nine nations where matches would be played would have a single visa. The nine countries were also trying to see if British consular offices in those places where the Caribbean nations did not have such facilities could issue visas. The common visa, Mr de Caires hoped, would be a prelude to a common Caribbean market, on the lines of the European Union.

"We are trying to use the World Cup as an opportunity to build relationships with the rest of the world," he said.

Corporate packages

Tour operators had been contracted to sell the World Cup, with corporate packages that were meant to be used as incentives by companies either for their customers or to motivate their employees.

At least a dozen cruise ships were expected to come in during the World Cup, including one for Indian visitors.

Ms Petra Roach, Vice-President - Marketing and Sales, Barbados Tourism Authority, and Mr Joseph Benfield, Chief Financial Officer, World Cup Barbados, said different kinds of packages were available in the corporate package. There was a strong demand from Indian cricket supporters in the UK, the US and Canada for tour packages for the World Cup.

Mr de Caires said Barbados had good international airline connections, especially from the UK and other parts of Europe, and the four regional airlines in the Caribbean would charter more aircraft to ferry people between the different destinations.

The three-member delegation was in Chennai to hold discussions with the ECC Division of Larsen & Toubro Ltd, which is re-building the Kensington Oval stadium at a cost of Rs 154 crore.

He said that Barbados would also use the World Cup as an occasion to push its status as an international finance centre, in view of the 1 per cent to 2.5 per cent tax structure the country offered for companies with global operations.

Barbados had double taxation avoidance agreements with the US, UK, Canada, Scandinavia and China and was in talks with India for a similar agreement.