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LOC secures 28,000 rooms for 2010
Government and the Local Organising Committee have contracted at least 28,000 rooms so far, to accommodate football fans expected to flock to South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
This comes as a result of collaboration between the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Tourism Enterprise Programme, Tourism Grading Council of South Africa and the FIFA accredited events management company MATCH.
The partnership has managed to contract 22,000 hotel rooms and 6,000 non-hotel rooms such as bed and breakfast establishments.
Speaking at the launch of the FIFA Tour Operator programme workshop on Monday, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said apart from the contracted rooms located across the country, 157 are in Botswana and 329 in Swaziland.
“I believe that a further 6,000 rooms are in the process of being contracted. These numbers continue to grow daily,” he said at the workshop aimed at ensuring that the benefits of the world cup were felt by all sectors of the business community.
Minister van Schalkwyk announced that in South Africa the largest concentration of rooms was in KwaZulu-Natal at present.
The department has set a minimum target of 10,000 non-hotel rooms to be signed up by May 2008.
Given the global reach and enormous viewership expected from the world cup, the minister said the tournament would provide the country with a wonderful opportunity to grow the global awareness of South Africa's tourism attractions and products.
The Hibiscus Coast in KwaZulu-Natal is the first area to obtain MATCH satellite accommodation status with over 500 non-hotel rooms having been contracted in this area alone.
The contracts for a further 3,600 rooms in KwaZulu-Natal are currently being finalised.
Minister van Schalkwyk said this was an excellent example of how business and government had come together to benefit more small and medium scale enterprises bringing the benefits of the world cup to more businesses in more areas of the country.
The world cup accommodation sign-up representatives will be traveling around the country between November 2007 and March 2008 to sign up further MATCH contracts for 2010.
Article published courtesy of BuaNews
