Provincial authorities say they are lobbying hard to convince World Cup football teams to use the Western Cape as their home base during the 2010 tournament.
Provincial World Cup co-ordinator Laurine Platzky said so far Paraguay and Japan had confirmed they would be staying and training in the province, and France had indicated their first preference for Knysna.
Another 12 teams still had to confirm where they would be staying, she said.
But the Western Cape was forced to lobby against two factors over which it had no control: altitude and rainfall.
"Some teams are very determined to be training at altitude because they believe they must if they want to win the World Cup final which is in Johannesburg, even though the two semi-finals will be held at sea level," Platzky said at an investor breakfast in Cape Town on Thursday.
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Teams were also favouring upcountry venues where they would enjoy longer rain-free hours during the winter months.
Meanwhile the chief executive of the company contracted by Fifa to handle its ticketing services has said a surprisingly low number of South Africans had applied for tickets for the tournament.
Of the three million tickets available for purchase, 672 000 have been sold and 361 000 have gone to South Africans.
According to Jaime Byrom, chief executive of Match, while 80 percent of ticket sales had "traditionally" been sold to local fans by this stage at previous World Cups, only 60 percent had gone to South Africans.
Briefing journalists on Thursday, he said: "South Africans have to wake up to the fact that every opportunity you have you have to take. You have to be smart."
An affordable ticket category had been set aside exclusively for South Africans with prices ranging between R140 for a group match and R1 050 for the final.
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