The soccer world cup will kick off on the 11th June and the final game will take place on 11th July. The Period between March and July 2010 will be an exceptionally busy period with the pre-and post-arrangements.

This major sporting event will have a massive affect on the travel industry for the international, domestic and Business traveler.

The Volume of Travelers expected

The World Cup is approximately 15 times bigger than the 1995 Rugby World cup!

All indications are that around 220 000 international, 180 000 visitors form Africa and an average of 150 000 local supporters will attend. On any match day it is envisaged that 100 000 travelers will need to use a travel service i.e. flights or road/rail transportation.

An additional 2000 busses have been imported (overload on road transport) to carry these supporter. It is predicted that supporters will watch their team play every 3 or 4 days. When their teams are not playing, supporters will frequent the Fan Parks or embark on tours within the city of their choice.

Fan Parks
Fan parks are situated in central areas so that general public can watch all the games. Entrance to the Fan Parks is free and it is expected that these Fan Park will attract a lot of visitors.  In Germany 2006 one Fan Park attracted 500 000 spectators to watch one game. To avoid large transport infrastructure expense, training venues will also double as public viewing sites.

Flights
Domestic flights prices will skyrocket during June and July – To date airline has not released any prices or strategies for the world Cup Period.  Low cost airlines are already charging as much as R4000.00 for a return ticket from Johannesburg to Cape Town.

World Cup teams will use charter aircrafts and plan to use 2nd tier airports however their supporters will use the general airports. These airports will focus on scheduled international and domestic flights.

Accommodation
All the major hotel brands within South Africa have contracted with MATCH at a pre-defined room rate and therefore the normal corporate rates will not be available during this period.  According to FIFA there is an approximate shortfall of 18 000 rooms for the world cup.  This supply and demand scenario allows B&B’s/Guesthouses to offer rooms at a premium.

Car Rental
It is most likely that all car rental companies will go on “stop-sale” for the period of the World Cup and rental cars will be scarce.

Road closures
It is indicated that will be limited access and in some instances complete road closures in the areas surrounding the stadium and fan parks.  This will make it difficult for travelers to move freely between offsite meetings.

Critical Date
The next critical date for the WC2010 is the 4th December 2009 when the poll draw is completed. This draw will indicate where the teams will ne based and where their supporters will be spending most of their time.

TRAVEL TIPS DURING THE WC2010

• Do not travel unless it is critical to travel.
• Plan trips well in advance
• Try not do changes to a tickets it will be extremely difficult and very expensive.
• Attempt to make appoints at a location that is in the opposite direction of a stadium/fan park
• Take flights during mach times(13:30,16:00 and 20:30)
• Allow for a minimum of 2 hours to get to the airport in Cape Town and possibly 3hours for Johannesburg.   Plan for delays.
• Parking at the airport will be virtually impossible to get someone to drop or collect you from the airports. Transfer companies will be busy with tourists and will also be very expensive.