By Colleen Dardagan
If the South African hospitality industry does not deliver 55 000 contracted rooms for the 2010 soccer World Cup by the end of July, Fifa will start commissioning luxury ocean liners to make up the shortfall.
This was the message from Match (the company mandated to handle accommodation, ticketing and IT solutions for the event) at a meeting for bed 'n breakfast and guesthouse owners held on the Berea in Durban on Wednesday.
Non-Hotel Project Manager for Match Nicky Krugel said small, medium and micro (SMME) accommodation facilities in Mpumalanga had been the first to sign contracts releasing their properties for use during the 2010 World Cup.
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| 'we are going to have to look to other forms of accommodation' |
"The response has been very good in that area, but Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg are going to be the main areas of demand and it is important we get as many rooms contracted before July. If we don't get the required number of rooms we are going to have to look to other forms of accommodation, such as cruise ships," she said.
South Africa needed 18 000 contracted beds to win the 2010 bid and those were all hotel rooms. "Altogether we need 55 000 rooms; 23 000 are guaranteed from the hotel sector. We need to sign up at least 32 000 beds from the SMME sector," said Krugel.
While the number of contracts signed from Durban were still low, Krugel said she was consulting smaller groups of accommodation associations in the city. "We don't have time to go door-to-door, so we are identifying associations and addressing their members to iron out any concerns. This is the first time in its 76-year history that Fifa has allowed the use of private accommodation, so there have been issues we have had to work through."
Krugel said the initial contract, which had been specifically drawn up for the hotel industry, was unsuitable for the smaller accommodation facilities and a new document had been agreed to.
"Another aspect we had to contend with was the 30 percent booking fee. Bringing the World Cup to Africa is an expensive exercise and operational and logistics costs have to be covered by the booking fee. We have now agreed that B&Bs and guesthouses will charge their normal rates with a 16 percent increase factored in and the 30 percent will then be added over and above that," she said.
Peter Howlett, the head of the Berea North B&B and Guesthouse Association who hosted the meeting, urged members to sign up.
"Match requires all those wanting to sign up their facilities to be graded by the tourism authorities and I am more than happy to assist any B&B or guesthouse owners with the process.
"It is so important that we all work as a big team to give Durban the best exposure during the event. Match has covered every aspect of the process to ensure accommodation facility owners will achieve maximum benefit."
Peter Howlett can be telephoned on 031-207-4109.
- This article was originally published on page 6 of The Mercury on April 19, 2007
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