So today we celebrate the 100 days until kick off for the 2010 World Cup of Soccer. Whoo Hoo!!!! Everybody is so excited and cant wait. Well that is what they said on the radio this morning. Everybody was supposed to be wearing something in the South African colours, however there were very few people who where wearing something South African. Maybe its got to do with the fact that FIFA has changed its mind on the over 400 000 overseas visitors they were expecting. Maybe its got to do with the fact that thousands and thousands of tickets were returned from overseas clubs because they could not afford to travel to South Africa.
Once again the ugly side of the tourism industry reared its head. The greedy "lets take the foreigners for a ride" side. Hotels who used to charge around R1500 per night is now charging R5000 - R7000 per night. Airline tickets are reported to have gone from R2500 to around R9000 for a domestic ticket. No Wonder nobody wants to come here. Do they not realise that this "great gift" of hosting the World Cup was a mission from the get go. South Africa is not just a 2 hour flight away from Europe (the biggest soccer supporting nations), its a 12 - 14 hour flight, which means getting here in the first place is very expensive. So now they decide to price the event completely out of the market by increasing the domestic service. It doesn't matter, they pay in pounds....
I for one hope the world cup is an international flop. That way they will have to give the tickets away to South Africans, and the hotels and airlines can suffer, like they should.
But that is just my opinion.
1 comment:
Its very sad that the tourism aspect has gone all haywire??!!! I’m well excited though. I’m going to the Namibia – South Africa game tonight at our new Soccer Stadium, I’m looking forward to the experience of the stadium, I’ve not gone to explore it yet.
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