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Hotels in Antigua are crying over low occupancy during World Cup matches, and a minister says the reason is India’s early ouster from the tournament.

Tourism Minister Harold Lovell said Antigua and the whole region over-prepared themselves because they did not want to be caught under-prepared and also because they had been told thousands would pour in to see the games.

Speaking to Caribbean Media Corp, Lovell identified India’s failure to qualify for the Super Eights round as a factor which compounded the situation and which impacted negatively on the hotel sector.

“I spoke with the hotel association and the report is that there have been several cancellations from journalists, from fans and mainly Indians and you know India is a very big factor in the World Cup,” he said.

“And the involvement is not only from the point of view of the support base that travels with the Indian team, but also the sponsorship. If you look at the main sponsors for the World Cup, at least three of them are from India. So India is heavily involved … when India was eliminated from the competition, a lot of the Indian fans decided that they would pack up and go away,” he concluded.
Source:The News