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Web Exclusive: Cape Town to benefit from World Cup draw in December
October 22, 2009
Cape Town will be the first city to receive concrete benefits from hosting the 2010 soccer World Cup when media representatives from all over the world and other visitors converge on it on December 4 for the draw that will decide where each match will be played.
Airlines, tour operators, accommodation providers, bus and taxi operators and others involved in the tourism industry are all waiting for the results, on which their arrangements for next June will be based.
Once these are known, the cities where the most popular teams are playing will be able to start preparations to deal with the influx of thousands of fans.
The airlines will be able to plan their flight schedules, diverting capacity to where it will be most needed, quoting fares, accepting bookings and supplementing their normal services with charter flights. Airports, hotels, restaurateurs, retailers and other providers of accommodation and services will be able to plan for the numbers expected.
And the areas less likely to be visited while the matches are on will intensify their campaigns to attract visitors who want to see the rest of the country once the tournament is over.
Dirk Elzinga, managing director of Cape Town's International Convention Centre, said this week that the draw would be the biggest international event to be held there this year.
Exhibitors at a destination expo in Cape Town on Thursday included some from surrounding countries including Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland who all expected to host an overflow of fans who could not all be accommodated in the host cities near their borders or would tour southern Africa afterwards.
Mariette du Toit Helmboldt, chief executive of Cape Town Tourism, said that fans all over the world would be watching the draw on December 4 on their local TV programmes. "This is not a moment to be missed."
Whatever the result it was certain that eight of the games would be played in Cape Town "and on December 4 we'll know which flags to fly when."
The occasion would be celebrated in the city with a street party in Long Street, which would be "ablaze with excitement” and offer an atmosphere hard to rival anywhere in the world.
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