Only 10% of Kruger's World Cup places booked
 

....A tourism official said on Monday that only 10 percent of the World Cup accommodation in the Kruger National Park had been booked by accommodation agent Match.

more.....

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?fseti...4630746C271943

SV ((@))

I've always wondered about why a cup fan would stay in Kruger. How close is the nearest cup match?? Two hours if Nelspruit (if matches in Nelspruit??), six hours if Joburg??

Of course if after the (or your team) matches you wanted to do Kruger for a few nights, then sure. But maybe it's like my TA said, he doubted that many cup fans would also be keen on safari. Maybe 5% of them??

regards - tom

I thought one of the benefits for the host country is that visitors extend their holiday and take in the surrounding sights. Maybe I just don't understand the fans of the sport.

Nelspruit will indeed be hosting some matches.

Here are the matches they are hosting:
--Honduras-Chile;
--Italy-New Zealand;
--Australia-Serbia;
--North Korea-Cote d'Ivoire

The camps that Match were booking were Berg-en-Dal, Skukuza, and Pretoriuskop--all of them located on the southern border of the park, an hour or so from Nelspruit. So, they made it easy for people to visit Kruger and go to a match, and still few takers. Interesting.

Other than Kruger camps, has anyone heard about hotel bookings, any kind, anywhere, in general for cup?

regards - tom

Last month they released 400,000 rooms.

I would find it surprising if visitors that have traveled so far at huge cost wouldn't want to visit places like Kruger.

Maybe I don't understand the sport or it's fans (not too surprising), but I think many folk will visit Kruger. It's nearby (even to Jhb), and it's a fantastic destination. There aren't many wildlife spots you can get a 2-bed bungalow at less than $100 a night, or a 2-bed hut at $50 a night (basic but very adequate). Agreed that that's on a self-drive and self-catered basis, and the conservation fee is anothr $25.00 per person. But the wildlife is amazing ...

One of the reasons why folk weren't booking is that MATCH appears to have been selling the accommodation at 4 times the normal pricing. As accommodation frees up, I suspect we'll see greater interest in places like Kruger. It is, after all, one of the better known game reserves around.

Who released 400,000 rooms (room nights)? Must be the SA cup organization or some such to hold 400,000. Because it seems they will not be sold (I'd guess)?? Let's see, a little math, 30 nights of cup divide into 400,000 gives 13,333 actual rooms, Still sounds like a lot to me. Also wonder what impact the release will have on room rates in general? (Not that it impacts me much, I'm not going).

Lbj2 - started reading your trip report for Botswana Little Kwara, lots of v nice photos. Will be back there with questions.

regards - tom

Hi Tom,

Generally bookings have been low around the country. I was down near Durban last week, and one of the top holiday destinations reported almost zero bookings.

I think as prices moderate on the back of lower demand, and accommodation frees up, we'll start seeing far more interest.

No worries, Tom, ask away.

Indeed, I was meaning 400,000 bed nights. Not sure whether that is based on an occupancy of 2.

I think this opinion may get some fierce reactions but here goes anyway...

Football fans: Culture lovers, not nature lovers. To put it bluntly; they like drinking beers with lotsa friends and go to the stadium to sit in the midst of thousand of people, and make lots of noise. The only animal that interests them is the cow on their hamburger. And perhaps the chick sitting a few seats away. Preferably blonde. With huge milk glands.


Safari fans: Nature-lovers, not culture lovers. Again an "in your face" way of putting it; they like the solitude, the unspoilt. They like to stay away from crowds. They aren't people lovers, and most people don't love them (to not put human above animal is an idea that is frowned upon). The only "game" that interests safari fans is ...well, you all know the answer to that.

OK, I've put it black and white to get my point across. But if you visualize it, you may want to picture a black-to-white gradient, with the biggest concentration of football fans on one end and the biggest concentration of safari fans on the other end.

B.regs,

J.

J - don't agree much with your description of safari fans/nature lovers. But I think you may have the correct overall analysis. Like my TA said a year ago, he doubted that many football fans would be also that keen for safaris. I can understand if cup were in Rio, or London, or Madrid, etc, the draw would be huge because of the city attractions for football fans. Time will tell, I suppose.

regards - tom

@ pixelpower

Yeah...don't agree with you at all...i'm a massive football fan having been to the Euro 2004 (portugal) World Cup 2006 (Germany) and Euro 2008 (Switzerland) and planning on going to SA...

i also happen to be a Safari lover too! Let's not put everyone in the same box...

Apparently FIFA blocked almost everything a long time ago, in effort to raise prices as much as possible. Now those rooms are unused and released some pricing sanity will emerge.

However I do know that MM is pretty much solidly booked for the entire period of the world cup, with at least two teams already booked to visit. (I hope I'm never a guest when a football team turns up!)

Hi guys,

Yip, FIFA and MATCH pretty much held the country to ransom, forcing establishments to "register", and then block booking them completely.

With no takers at the inflated prices, they've released much of the accommodation, and prices are starting to reach some type of normality.

A lot of Kruger's accommodation was released back into the market, at standard rates, and you can get reasonably good deals around most of the country at the moment.

World Cup, some more info about how it is shaping up for SA, two months away now. This from a current SA leisure camping newsletter (referenced on another safari web site) - http://tinyurl.com/ydh6kuw

"The 2010 Soccer World Cup is less than 70 days away and there are frantic efforts on to add the final touches to hosting the event. Despite what many South Africans think or believe this event is not going to be moonlight and roses - we have reports that some guest houses in the townships has, as yet, received no bookings at all. It appears that some of the international visitors are only interested in doing a “tour” to the townships and not to sleep there. Where we could not get any bookings a couple of months ago for June-July in our major parks suddenly now we can get it. SAA for instance has just released 45,000 seats [at discount prices] on their flights and the reason for this is that they did not get the bookings for the anticipated demand. Our sources say that the major sponsors of the tournament has returned over 400,000 of their allotted 550,000 high end tickets and about 50% [more than 300,000] of the tickets allotted to the 32 participating teams were returned. We even heard rumours that there are more bookings for seats on aeroplanes out of the country than in during the June-July 2010 period. However, we suspect that support will pick up and matters will change depending on which teams goes through to the next rounds. Everywhere we see that the level of expectation is dropping with the accompanied disappointment and frustration. For instance all 2010 Soccer sports memorabilia and merchandise were produced in China and elsewhere and not in South Africa and thus not benefitting the South African manufacturers at all. Local artists are snubbed by the organizers for the opening event - can you blame the artists for their frustration? We expect these frustrations turning into further disappointment and anger." ... and more in newsletter

regards tom
ps - same newsletter has lot of info about camping and off-roading in Africa. Some of it a bit scary (at least to me :-) )

A personal note ... my nephew and his family are going to one of the matches in Pretoria, but could only find accommodation in Rustenburg. They did score three days at Mala Mala, though, lucky dogs! They're going there after the match.

And then Al-Qaeda threatens to bomb WC. This link to British news article - http://tinyurl.com/y5ho5md

regards - tom

I have no idea whatsoever about the average football fan, if there is such a thing. I have never understood the appeal of watching overpaid grown men kick an inflated ball around a pitch for an hour or two. I really, really don't get it!

But I must say that, whilst wildlife travel is my favourite type of holiday I also love city breaks (which I'm sure count as culture, right, even if I don't spend much time in museums) and driving holidays exploring the countryside, food and smaller scale sights of countries like France.

I love love love people and am extremely sociable in everyday life. On wildlife trips, my husband and I do seek the opposite, we look for peace, solitude and the selfish opportunity to share the wilderness with as few others as possible, excluding the camp staff who look after us and make our trip so special.