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The World Cup is a tourism thingAre we about to commit a massive own goal? Have we, through stupid, shortsighted greed, given ourselves the ultimate red card?
This is not another of those World Cup articles, this is actually, in part at least, a factual look at some of the things we have done or are doing and how that may limit the massive potential that the world’s largest sporting event may have on South Africa in June and July.
Neither is this an anti-Fifa tirade, although it may be charged with being an accessory ‘before’ the fact.
No, this is simply a note to say to people: wake up, smell the roses, see the medium- to long-term potential and don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg!
Ask yourselves at this point: what single thing does the World Cup have most to offer?
The answer has to be an audience of two billion, watching a one-month television advert on South Africa.
It’s a tourism thing, plain and simple.
So what is the last thing you should do, particularly if you have spent R20 billion of taxpayers’ money on a one-month worldwide TV advert?
Answer – alienate the tourists before, during or after the event itself.
I am a Pom, and I think I know something about football. I know how soccer fans and normal guys think – and they are the people we want to attract from around the world to make up 90% of the visitors.
Soccer fans are not middle-class Rugger Buggers, but they will have mates who experienced the World Cup cricket in the West Indies, which was a disaster!
Why was it so bad? It forced the guys to travel around expensively to different locations and then they were ripped off further by hotels and bars everywhere.
So let South Africa beware: do you think those cricket fans are good adverts for the West Indies today? Quite the contrary!
So as Match and Fifa hand back all their Kruger Park accommodation because allegedly some wanted eight times their normal rates, look at this simple information that I feel amounts to profiteering.
You and I can fly return with South African Airways (an airline funded on taxpayer funds) from Cape Town to Johannesburg, or Cape Town to Durban on 4 May 2010 for R2 010 or R1 540, respectively. Not bad.
So will you be flying the same flights on 4 July 2010, while the World Cup is in progress? If so, you will have to pay R7 280 for either of these tickets! This is a 260% or 370% rip-off – what are they thinking?
In the same vein, we could fly from Cape Town to London on 1 April for R9 160. So will you be flying that route on 1 July for R13 600, a 48% penalty?
The average person in the United Kingdom believes he/she can fly to South Africa for £750 economy return.
So when they find out the price of an internal flight, for one match only, is the same amount, will they: (a) rush out to book, or (b) laugh, check their Sky Sports subscription, get the beers in and organise the boys around for a barbecue?
Don’t forget, it is Europe’s summer during our winter.
We need to react now, kill off the image of greed being shown by TV stations around the world, and play the decent host.
Playing the games all over South Africa was a stupid Fifa idea; it may work in Europe where the visitors are locals, but South Africa should have insisted on all group games being based in one place. People are travelling far enough simply to get here!
As it is, the boys may arrive, but I think it will be for shorter trips during the knockout phase.
That’s three tickets and possibly two flights, certainly not in the visitor numbers predicted – numbers already slashed by nearly 70% by Fifa from 450 000 to 150 000!
Let us stop, think and start planning to be great hosts; our payback will be over the next 10 years, rather than what can be grabbed in one month!
Ian Kilbride
For more articles, visit www.iankilbride.com
