Society

Hotels ready for Carnival

LA PRENSA

Party time: Carnival is big business for the country’s hotels, which are generally full for the event.966596

Carnival may be a time for parties and forgetting about work, but for organizers, the weeks leading up to the grand events are hardly cause for celebration.

That's because they are scrambling to organize events and find the money to pay for them.

Mingthoy Giro, president of the Junta del Carnaval Capitalino, said the organization had to come up with $1 million in corporate sponsorships for this year's event. That’s because the government approved only $2.5 million of the organization's $3.5 million request.

"The truth is that we have received a lot of support from private enterprises," Giro said. "We are trying to keep costs low."

Celebrations in the interior are less lavish in terms of budgets, and often have to rely mostly on private donations.

In Las Tablas, the carnival and parade committees have combined budgets of $580,000. These funds come mostly from concessions paid by businesses to sell food and beverages at events. The parade eats up the majority of the funding, costing $500,000 and is considered the premier event of its kind in the country.

While no expense is spared during Carnival, the celebration generates large revenues for restaurants and hotels.

Las Tablas hosted approximately 75,000 people for each day of its four-day celebration, which added millions to the area's economy. Hotel operators in the region said they are mostly booked for this year's event.

The same is true for many other towns, with hotels reporting solid bookings for carnival.