KINGSTON, CMC

Cricket World Cup 2007 Inc.'s Chris Dehring does not anticipate any major fallout for next year event, as a result of last week's uncovered terrorist plot in Britain.

Speaking after British intelligence uncovered a plot to blow up several United States-bound aircraft last Thursday, the managing director and CEO said the March 11 to April 28 event would still remain an attractive spectacle to foreign travellers.

"We hope there will be no dramatic fallout (from terrorism) across any tourism market, but we certainly don't expect it to impact the demand for the Caribbean for the Cricket World Cup," Dehring said.

"Many people view coming to CWC 2007 as visiting the Mecca of cricket - there is a very special attachment to this event being held in the Caribbean which will overcome all those obstacles."

Exploits

Next year's Cricket World Cup will be held in the Caribbean for the first time and is expected to draw a large influx of visitors from the United Kingdom and the United States.

English supporters especially are expected to comprise a large amount of the visitors to the Caribbean as they follow the exploits of England, who along with Kenya, Canada and New Zealand, will be based in St Lucia for the preliminary round.

Dehring also said that he expected the "tourism demand" for CWC 2007 Inc. to continue to be great as cricket fans were "highly motivated" to experience the event in the Caribbean.

He said, however, that CWC 2007 Inc. would continue to monitor the travel situation.

"We took that into consideration. It's early days yet but we certainly discussed it . at the board meeting (last Friday) and we certainly will be looking at it from a managerial perspective as we see how it unfolds," Dehring said.

"It's always unfortunate when these things occur but what tends to happen is that the value of hosting mega-events is heightened as people see how world tourism markets can be negatively impacted by such occurrences."