MAJOR hotels in the Jamaican capital, Kingston, were booked to capacity yesterday as tourists flocked the city for today's first match of Cricket World Cup 2007 at Sabina Park between West Indies and Pakistan.

The Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, which has 300 rooms, was completely booked, while the Hilton Hotel, a 303-room property, was also fully booked.

Claudette Kenlock, director of sales and marketing at the Hilton, told the Observer that the occupancy rate at the hotel increased from 60 to 100 per cent between Sunday and yesterday. "The guests are coming from the Caribbean, because we have a lot of former cricket dignitaries, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada," Kenlock said. She added that most of the guest from the United States were Pakistanis who reside in the US.

"We started getting guests for Cricket World Cup from the first week of March and then the major influx started on the weekend because we shuttled a number of guests to the opening ceremony (at the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium)," said Kenlock.

Meanwhile, the Courtleigh Hotel, which is sandwiched between the Jamaica Pegasus and the Hilton Hotel on Knutsford Boulevard, yesterday had about 98 per cent occupancy rate, but the hotel said they were expecting occupancy to reach 100 per cent by today. Courtleigh has 143 rooms.

Greg Sewell, a front desk agent at Courtleigh, told the Observer that guest staying at the hotel mostly came from England and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, a representative from the Knutsford Court Hotel, located on Chelsea Avenue in New Kingston told the Observer that the hotel was fully booked until Thursday. Knutsford Court has 127 rooms.

But while hotels in Kingston have seen a significant jump in their bookings, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) Horace Peterkin said properties outside of the Corporate area had not recorded a significant increase in bookings, given the number of guests who are in the island to attend the ICC Cricket World Cup.

At the same time, the Bed and Breakfast programme has reported that only 40 of the more than 500 available rooms have been booked.

Peterkin, in an interview with the Observer yesterday, said bookings at properties outside of Kingston, where Cricket World Cup matches were being held, were about the same as last year. "I don't see that we are going to run any significantly higher occupancy than we did last year," he said.

He said hoteliers in Ocho Rios, Montego Bay and Trelawny reported that they have only been able to identify a handful of guests who are here for cricket. "We have identified a group of Irish nationals who are staying in the Sunset Beach in Ocho Rios, another from Australia staying at one of the five star hotels in Montego Bay and a group of Indians at the Sunset Beach, also in Montego Bay and a few others here and there," Peterkin said.

The JHTA president said that unlike Barbados, where hotel rooms have been totally booked, Jamaica will not see the same results based on the game schedule Jamaica has received.

"Barbados has had to bring in cruise ships to act as hotel rooms because their hotels are over booked and this is because of the fantastic package they received, which includes the finals," he said.

He added that although the opening ceremony in Trelawny was a success, there was not a significant number of cricket fans from outside the region in attendance.

Meanwhile, Gerry McDaniel, communication manager at the Ministry of Tourism, said although 40 appears to be a low number of bookings for the bed and breakfast programme, it was not only for Cricket World Cup, but also beyond as tourists mainly from Europe prefer this type of accommodation.

"There has been a lot of interest in it and so in a couple of months we will see what will happen," he said.

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