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A temporary athletes' village is planned for Beau Sejour when Guernsey hosts the 19th NatWest International Island Games this time next year.
Organisers hope that up to 700 sportsmen and women will live in glamping tents on the sports field next to the States' leisure centre while competing in the Games between 8 July and 14 July.
The island will welcome thousands of athletes and officials from more than 20 islands around the world to compete in 14 sports and additional temporary accommodation is necessary to supplement beds available in hotels.
Organisers showed off one of the glamping tents as delegates of competing islands toured Guernsey's sporting venues yesterday. It was part of a three-day visit timed to coincide with the launch of the one-year countdown to the Games.
Pictured: The sports field at Beau Sejour which is earmarked for an athletes' village during the 2023 Island Games.
Wayne Bulpitt, who is part of the local Organising Committee and leading preparations for the athletes' village, said that several venues were considered as potential host of the glamping site.
"We looked at greenfield sites; we looked at Rue Mainguy; we looked at commercial sites; we looked at Foote’s Lane," said Mr Bulpitt. "After all that evaluation, we came back to the idea of hosting it at Beau Sejour.
"There is a really exciting opportunity for us to create an environment around the facilities that already exist at Beau Sejour and it provides access to an easy network for most of the sports to get to their venues around the island.
"We are very grateful to the local softball community, which has made some changes to its season so that we can use the field they normally use throughout the period of the Games."
Pictured: Inside one of the tents which will host athletes next summer.
Organisers' initial plans are to confine the athletes' village to the grounds of Beau Sejour but they are not ruling out the possibility of trying to extend it in the coming months.
"We can accommodate up to 700 participants here within Beau Sejour," said Mr Bulpitt. "If we need to do more than that, we’ll need to talk to our neighbours, such as the Constables about Cambridge Park. But, at the moment, 500-700 is the number we’re planning.
"The purpose of the [current] visit is to talk to the delegations and it's an opportunity for us to judge their interest in things like accommodation as well as showing them sporting facilities.
"They will get tours of self-catering and hotels as well. We’ll then sit down and come up with a proposal to put to them for Games week."
Pictured: Wayne Bulpitt is calling on his extensive experience as a leader of the Scouts to make preparations for a glamping village at Beau Sejour for the Island Games.
The glamping site at Beau Sejour is expected to accommodate fewer than a quarter of the total number of athletes and officials expected in Guernsey for the Games.
"In the next month or two, we will have more clarity about how many the islands will be sending and we will then know how many we need to cater for," said Mr Bulpitt.
"Our working assumption is 3,200. That is just athletes and officials. There will then be families of athletes and some supporters no doubt, who may want to make bookings in smaller hotels or 'air b and b' or private lets or whatever."
Pictured: Foote's Lane is among the sporting venues which will host the Island Games next year when Guernsey welcomes thousands of athletes, officials and supporters from islands around the world.
Mr Bulpitt's main responsibility on the Organising Committee is to recruit, train and support 1,500 local volunteers who are needed to make the Games work - from team attachés to minibus drivers to helpers at venues and much more besides.
A call for volunteers yielded hundreds of responses when Guernsey was originally due to host the Games in 2021 before they had to be postponed because of the covid-19 pandemic.
"We have 700 volunteers still registered with us," said Mr Bulpitt.
"But we know that when we have come to talk to our attachés – the first group of additional volunteers supporting the delegates this week – for some of them their circumstances have changed and so we will shortly be going out to appeal for more volunteers as the date gets closer.
"We have plans later this year for recruiting days. We’ll take over Beau Sejour and we’ll use one of the schools and we will invite people to register.
"Then we will have three training days – 200 days out from the Games, 100 days out and a month before they start. At these days, we will share with the volunteers some of the fun and excitement that we believe Guernsey 2023 will bring."
Pictured top: One of the dozens of tents (inset) which organisers hope will accommodate up to 700 participants in an athletes' village at Beau Sejour this time next year.
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