Tourist invasion
With 150 000 bed nights and 49 000 international tourists expected in KZN, over R3-billion will be spent in the province during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. And as the countdown to kick-off speeds up, the City and District cannot be caught off guard when the flood of tourists enters Zululand. That was the message when various stakeholders attended the uThungulu District Municipality 2010 Strategic Readiness Forum in Richards Bay on Friday. While Durban has been identified as ‘Matchville’ City during the grandest gathering of football, Richards Bay and St Lucia have already been identified as primary routes for Inter-city Travel Demand. As the average visitor watches 3-4 matches and spends about 3-4 weeks in any city, Andrew Dhebideen of NDA Consulting Engineers said tourism spend was set to treble in the province during the soccer showpiece.‘Most MATCH B&Bs and hotels expect more than 90% occupancy and popular matches have already been sold out,’ Dhebideen said. ‘There will be 346 flights per day over two weeks on the national grid. ‘Almost 100 000 will be coming out of the border posts from Swaziland/Mozambique into Richards Bay. ‘Cruise ships will be arriving. Only major airports throughout the country will function and shuttle services will be utilised from other cities including Richards Bay,’ said Dhebideen.
Bus tours
Primary routes identified include Wild Coast Sun to Durban, St Lucia/Richards Bay to Durban and Howick/PMB to Durban. ‘Over 29 operation days, there will be 180 seats booked between Durban and Richards Bay with two trips per vehicle per day in 22-seater buses. ‘As a top-up plan over seven days, there will be 236 seats in 65-seater buses. ‘Transport providers must obtain operating licences before the end of February to run shuttle services,’ said Dhebideen.
However, local tourist operators said they had received no joy to date when attempting to apply for the operating licence, as the local traffic offices and KZN Department of Transport had no knowledge of the legal requirement.
Base camps
Meanwhile, all eyes are on the Local Organising Committee, which is set to make the official announcement of 32 base camp selections in the next two days.
Only two teams have confirmed their choices, with Algeria choosing the Zimbali Lodge on the North Coast and Greece picking the Beverly Hills Hotel.
The other teams to most likely choose their base camp in KZN include Portugal, Cameroon, Australia, Brazil and Nigeria.
Richards Bay has its fingers crossed for the Nigerian soccer outfit, which has already scouted the city with positive feedback and will spend three weeks here training prior to the official camps. ‘Whether we receive a team or not, the readiness of the tourism fraternity, police, disaster management, etc must be in place,’ said uThungulu District Deputy Municipal Manager, Danie Lubbe.. ‘Construction of the stadium is 90% complete and the delivery date for the FIFA spec training camp will be the first week in March. ‘If we don’t secure a base camp, we would have still secured funding for a much-needed facility for youth in the years to come.’
