aWhile the hundreds of visitors expected to be in Guyana for the August 22-30 Carifesta X will provide welcome patronage for the struggling urban hotel sector, businesses in the capital’s commercial centre are not anticipating that the week of cultural activity involving local, regional and international artistes will be marked by a spending spree.
Since late last week Stabroek Business has been conducting a random survey among various categories of businesses in the city – including hoteliers, general retailers, souvenir vendors, restaurateurs and resort operators.
The responses secured from the hotel sector indicate that several of the city’s smaller hotels and guest houses are already fully booked while some of the larger hotels still have available rooms. A source at the Carifesta Secretariat has told this newspaper that more hotel bookings are expected in the two weeks remaining before the start of the regional cultural festival and that some visitors will be taking advantage of accommodation with friends in Guyana.
Meanwhile, this newspaper understands that competition among smaller hotels for guests for the regional festival has seen some facilities offering special room rates and entertainment-oriented events including steel band performances.
Among the city’s restaurants and snackettes preparations are underway for mostly ‘night dining’ and some popular eating houses have told Stabroek Business that they are preparing to offer ‘one night’ dining opportunities, featuring dishes from across the Caribbean. Some of the smaller delicatessens and snackettes have told Stabroek Business that they are in the process of preparing special Carifesta advertisements aimed at attracting daytime visitors.
When Stabroek Business visited the City Mall earlier this week there was evidence of an increased number of locally produced souvenirs on display and vendors with whom this newspaper spoke were upbeat about visits to the Mall as part of what they anticipate will be several city tours by visitors from the Caribbean and further afield.
Stabroek Business also spoke with several jewellery stores and jewellers in the city some of whom anticipate a brisk trade in local gold jewellery during the Carifesta ‘season.’ “What we are likely to benefit from is the reputation that Guyana gold and Guyana gold jewellery already enjoy in the Caribbean and elsewhere.
Some visitors are likely to take advantage of the strength of other currencies against the Guyana dollar to make jewellery purchases here,” a city jeweller told Stabroek Business. Other jewellers reported that they had already received “advance orders” from persons who will be in Guyana for Carifesta and some say that they will be displaying new “Carifesta designs” for the occasion.
Stabroek Business also spoke with a number of street vendors who said that they too will be on the streets during the week-long festival. Asked whether she expects that street vending will attract the visitors one Regent street vendor said that since street vending is also popular elsewhere in the Caribbean the visitors are likely to “take to” the street vendors here. “People will want to see Guyana and if they can see some of the country and shop at the same time they will come to us,” she said.
Asked about the items that they are expected to have on sale during Carifesta several vendors said that they will be offering local souvenirs including T-shirts, hats and memorabilia.
Stabroek Business understands that souvenir producers wishing to use the official Carifesta logo on souvenirs and memorabilia for commercial purposes will require the permission of the Secretariat.
This newspaper also understands that the official Carifesta souvenirs will also go on sale prior to the start of the Festival.
Meanwhile, the responses of two city tour operators have cast doubts on the extent to which Carifesta visitors will take advantage of their stay here to visit the country’s nature resorts. According to one operator while “some bookings” have already been received for advertised trips to the Kaieteur Falls, the prevailing view in the sector is that the period for Carifesta is probably too short and the Carifesta programme too packed to allow for a surfeit of visits to interior locations. “Kaieteur, by its very nature, will be an attraction. The other tourist facilities, except perhaps for some closer to the city, are less well-known and may therefore not be heavily subscribed by visitors for Carifesta,” one tour operator told Stabroek Business.
Businessmen in the downtown retail trade are less optimistic about the likelihood of a Carifesta windfall. Of the twelve retail traders with whom Stabroek Business spoke three – in the electronic goods sub-sector – said that the relatively low value of the Guyana dollar compared with the US$ and other Caribbean currencies may encourage some spending on items like cellular phones. However, the eight general retailers who spoke with this newspaper said that it was likely that many visitors from the Caribbean for Carifesta X are likely to be facing some of the same economic difficulties being experienced in Guyana and were likely to be conservative in their spending.
