Even before applications for CARICOM visas for next year’s Cricket World Cup opened last Friday, the visa website registered tens of thousands of hits.

From January 15 to May 15, 2007 the nine host countries will become one travel space and a single visa for US$100 will be issued to allow “hassle-free” travel across borders for the games.{{more}}

The countries are Barbados, St Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, St Lucia, Grenada, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica.

The process is being coordinated by the CARICOM Community Implementation Agency for Crime and Security.

The BBC quoting Minister of Economic Development of Barbados, Mia Mottley, said the agency’s website (http://www.caricomimpacs.org) had registered 90,000 hits from 42 countries which resulted from a mass e-mail, sent to over 30,000 people outside the region.

Visa issuing sites would also be located in Toronto, New York, Miami, Delhi Sydney and London.

Mottley said that although passports will not have to be presented or stamped, travellers will, however, have to complete immigration and Customs forms used to collect passenger data.

She said that any visitor seeking to stay in a country beyond the World Cup dates would have to re-apply to immigration authorities.