The South African government had predicted four years ago that the 2010 World Cup would attract almost half a million international tourists while creating new jobs for more than a quarter of its people currently without work. But just 80 days before kick off and in the midst of a global economic recession things do not look as promising any more. The expected economic growth has been cut in half boosting South Africa’s gross domestic product by a mere 0.5 per cent, and the tournament’s officials are struggling to find a solution.
South Africa spent over 4 billion US Dollars so far to host the first FIFA World Cup in Africa and build ten brand new football stadiums with the highest standards. But ticket sales are the lowest ever, big sponsors are returning huge amounts of travel packages and luxury box seats due to low demand, and the overall visitor estimate has been dramatically decreased to around 150,000. More than 600,000 tickets are still unsold (out of 2,9 million total) mostly of the lower budget level available to locals. From the 130,000 jobs that were created so far for the World Cup 30,000 workers are back on the streets, and the overall unemployment rate of the country is at 24% - the highest in the last five years.
To put things in perspective, for the 2006 World Cup in Germany all tickets would be already sold by now and over 2 million tourists attended the event bringing over 300 million Euro in extra profits for retailers and the economy. According to South African officials the huge cost of international flights is hurting them the most, a 5 day trip from England with flights, hotel and tickets to just one game of the group stage will cost around 3000 Euro. Also the fact that South Africa is well known for some of the highest crime rates in the world does not help either. Despite all that organisers are still optimistic hoping for a last minute rush to attend the tournament. Operators are finally bringing down the prices, and a new marketing campaign is starting that aims in bringing more tourists to South Africa.
