'Enough accommodation for 2010 fans'

An extensive audit has revealed that South Africa has enough accommodation for fans expected to visit the country during the 2010 Fifa World Cup™, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told the media in Cape Town last week.

"The results of the audit show that South Africa has more than 202 000 rooms available across the country and I am very satisfied that this will be enough to provide for the approximately 450 000 visitors we are expecting for the World Cup.

"This audit has given us the first comprehensive overview of its kind of accommodation establishments in South Africa, and the resulting National Accommodation Database will be a powerful tourism tool long beyond the Word Cup," he said.

According to a statement by the Department of Tourism, the audit was undertaken in cooperation with stakeholders from all nine provinces, the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa, South African Tourism, the private sector and MATCH, the professional services company appointed by Fifa to manage the official accommodation solution for the World Cup.

"The wide-ranging nature of the process has ensured that we have a very good picture of the number of accommodation establishments in South Africa, the number of rooms and where these rooms are situated.

"The accommodation database is a product we can be very proud of and the strategy we have developed for its future use will be to the advantage of the entire tourism industry in South Africa," he said.
Audit results

Van Schalkwyk noted that the results of the audit showed the following:

• There are at least 18 882 accommodation establishments in South Africa, of which 7 492 are graded and 11 390 are ungraded.
• There are at least 202 712 rooms in the country, of which 107 119 are graded and 95 593 are ungraded.
• There are at least 7 520 accommodation establishments in host cities (within a 50 kilometre radius of stadiums).
• There are at least 100 853 rooms in host cities (within a 50 kilometre radius of stadiums).

He pointed out that the 202 000 total rooms available included the 55 000 rooms MATCH has to contract to provide for the Fifa family - including the Fifa delegation, commercial affiliates, media and hospitality - and the participating tour operators and members of the general public who buy accommodation through MATCH.

"I am very pleased that MATCH has already contracted more than 48 000 rooms and that it is nearing its target of 55 000. Our audit shows that in addition to the rooms contracted by MATCH, there are at least 152 000 additional rooms available in the country for the rest of the visitors coming to the World Cup.

"I am satisfied that the supply will be enough to meet the demand during the tournament."

SAinfo reporter

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