A survey of spectators who visited Guyana during the six Super Eight CWC 2007 matches estimated that the average visitor spent US$191 per night; and 97.2% of spectators felt that security at the cricket stadium was adequate.
And while the majority would recommend to their relatives and friends that they visit Guyana because of its hospitality, attractions, economics, climate, environment, improvements/ developments and considering it was their homeland, the few who said they would not recommend the country cited crime and traffic.
The survey conducted by the University of Guyana, DeSales University, Kutztown University and the International Co-Laboratory for Sport Tourism Research found that 51.8% of visitors to Guyana during the CWC were from the United States; 17.5% were from Trinidad and Tobago; 8.5% were from Canada; 7.7% were from the United Kingdom; 2.6% were from Barbados and 11.9% were listed as other.
Professor Michele Turco of Kutztown University gave an overview of the results of the survey at the Hotel Tower Friday evening and among those present were former Chief Executive Officer of the CWC 2007 Local Organising Committee Karan Singh and partners involved in the project – Dr Marlene Cox and Cecilia McAlmont of the University of Guyana and some of the UG students who conducted the survey.
Asked their primary reason for visiting Guyana during the CWC 2007 period in Guyana, 79.4% said they were there for CWC; 9.3% said they were on vacation; 5.9% were visiting friends and relatives and 4.4% said they were on business.
CWC visitors averaged three persons in group size and stayed 7.65 nights compared to vacationers who generally arrived in twos and stayed 9.73 nights; visitors for other reasons including visiting friends and relatives were 2.20 persons and stayed 10.86 nights; and business travellers in groups of 2.62 persons stayed 7.59 nights in Guyana.
Visitors primarily for CWC spent an average of US$1,902 for lodging; US$934 for food and beverages; retail shopping US$439; stadium purposes US$248; local transportation US$379; and other purchases US$475.
By dividing the average group size and length of stay by the sum of all average spending by category (excluding air fare), the survey estimated that the average visitor spent US$191 per night in Guyana during the period Guyana hosted the Super Eight matches.
Most spectators, 85.9%, had never attended a CWC match before. The 14.1% who had attended CWC matches before visited Guyana exclusively to attend the CWC matches.
For the majority of overseas spectators – 61% – attending the CWC was their first live exposure to an international sports championship. The interviewees were 58.6% Indian; 2.1% Black; 14% White; and 5.3% Other.
Of all the ethnic groups 76% reported that their primary reason for visiting Guyana was to see the CWC matches.
Attendance for the entire 2007 Cricket World Cup was 570,000 with an average of 11,176 per match. In Guyana, the total number of visitors to the Guyana National Stadium at Providence was 43,861 with the average attendance over the six matches being 7,210. However, the survey noted that the total number of visitors who came to Guyana for the purpose of attending CWC is not yet available and acknowledged that the majority of spectators were local residents.
Sport tourism
In his introduction to the survey, Professor Turco noted that sport tourism was big business and the stakes were high for cities that vie to host sporting events. Millions are wagered to win the rights to host an Olympic Games or football, rugby or cricket world cup matches with the objective of luring tourists, investment and sponsorship spending.
He noted that sport tourism events have attracted considerable research attention over the past two decades, contributing to a body of knowledge on economic impacts and sponsorship effectiveness.
Little is known, however, about the characteristics of sport-event tourists in the Caribbean as the region has not hosted an international event on the scale of the CWC 2007.
The research involved visitors being interviewed at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence during selected days on which matches were played; and the departure lounge of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri and were conducted by tourism students of the University of Guyana.
They were questioned on a number of areas, including their perception of safety at the stadium; plans to return to Guyana; willingness to recommend Guyana as a tourist destination; and general comments on their overall experience in Guyana.
A total of 394 overseas spectators were interviewed and of that number a total of 97.2% reported that security measures were adequate. Almost 77% indicated that they would visit Guyana again; 4% would not visit again; and 10% were not sure. The majority of spectators – 87.8 % would recommend to their relatives and friends to visit Guyana and 12.2% would not.
On reasons why they would recommend that others visit Guyana, the positive reasons heavily outweighed the negative and apart from the comments on hospitality and attractions some simply said that “Guyana is adventurous”, “Beautiful country and friendly people”, “Place of contentment” and there was one comment that said “Rum is my reason”.
Comments about why they would not recommend that their relatives and friends visit Guyana included “Too expensive”, “Too many bad drivers – great risk to lives”, “They do not have much recreational facilities”, “Place is dirty and police are corrupt”, “Our taxi to the airport was stopped and a bribe was demanded from the driver to the police” and “Bad drivers on the road – need traffic lights: Government should provide these.”
