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Web Exclusive: World Cup visitors to stay on cruise ships
September 23, 2009
Thousands of visitors are expected to stay aboard two cruise ships chartered by a German travel company during the soccer World Cup.
The visitors that are expected to use their ships as floating hotels are likely to mainly come from Germany and other parts of Europe but also from South America and Asia.
By staying on the ships the soccer World Cup visitors will be saving on air fares by sailing between Port Elizabeth, Durban and Cape Town to see the matches played in those cities and going on sightseeing trips inland between the games.
Meanwhile, new hotels are expected to open in time for the World Cup and domestic airlines plan to put on additional flights to the cities hosting the most popular games, once these have been decided by the draw to take place in Cape Town in December.
The two ships, each with more than 950 cabins, have been chartered from the Holland America line by One Ocean Club, a subsidiary of Moltke Promotion, based in Munich.
The One Ocean Club has extensive experience in using passenger vessels as floating hotels during sporting events such as the Olympic Games in Sydney and Athens.
It has partnered with a Cape Town -based tour operator, IKapa Tours and Travel, to provide tours for the passengers in the Western Cape and also around Port Elizabeth and Durban.
Kobus van Heerden, managing director of IKapa, said few if any of the passengers staying aboard the ships were likely to do so for the entire period of the World Cup.
"They will come in waves, staying aboard for three or four days. Some will book for two waves but we don't expect them to do so for longer than that and the cabins are being marketed in South America and Asia as well as in Europe. The ships will sail here from Barcelona, to supplement the amount of five-star accommodation available in Cape Town and Durban and to make up for a shortage in Port Elizabeth."
Tours in Cape Town will include Cape Point and the Winelands and the city itself. Those in Durban will include the Valley of 1 000 Hills,and Shakaland and one "In the footsteps of Gandhi." All three will include cultural tours.
Cape Town Tourism, which says the city has sufficient accommodation for the World Cup, objected to a request to moor the huge Queen Elizabeth!! in Cape Town harbour for several months, including the period of the World Cup, on the grounds that it would take business away from the permanent hotels.
The harbour authorities refused the request on the grounds that it would occupy space needed for normal shipping.
But van Heerden said that the cruise ship the MS Westerdam would not stay in Cape Town for more than a few days at a time but would be in Port Elizabeth for the first 14 days of the tournament and would then be cruising between there and Cape Town.
The second ship, the MS Moordam, would be based in Durban but would visit Port Elizabeth twice - for the quarter final and for the play-off for the third and fourth place.
Mango, the low cost division of SAA, announced this week that it intended to charge normal fares during the World Cup. Low cost airlines 1Time and kulula.com said their fares would be decided by the level of demand.
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