MORE than 60% of accredited accommodation providers in the Western Cape have not signed up with Match, the official accommodation and ticketing company for the 2010 World Cup, according to Brent Walters, chief director of policy implementation support at the office of the Western Cape Premier.

Speaking to industry at a Back2Business event in Cape Town recently, he said this suggested that most owners of accommodation establishments were not releasing their stock because they were confident their rooms would be filled in 2010. Nationally, there was still a shortfall of 22 019 contracted rooms. Match required 55 000 contracted rooms, while currently only 22 508 hotel rooms and 5740 non-hotel rooms had been contracted to Match with 4 733 contracts pending. In the Western Cape, 5 532 hotel rooms and 308 non-hotel rooms had so far been contracted. Walters said the province had actioned the development of a database of non-accredited and accredited accommodation to meet potential demand, which would be updated on a six-monthly basis. It was estimated that Cape Town could expect 150 000 visitors per day during the peak of the World Cup, he said. This would create additional business tourism opportunities, such as accommodation in outlying areas like Hout Bay, Blouberg, Durbanville, Somerset West, Simonstown, the West Coast and the Karoo. Business should also focus on pre- and post-World Cup conferences, meetings and events, he said. At the moment, Cape Town had 16 000 rooms within a 45-minute driving radius of the CBD. Some 7 000 rooms were within a 15-minute driving radius of the stadium in Green Point and 3 500 of these were within a 15-minute walking distance from the venue. New hotels to capitalise on 2010 were a new Taj Hotel and an Express Hotel by Holiday Inn, both on St. George’s Mall; 15 on Orange in Gardens; the One & Only under construction and a further two hotels at the V&A Waterfront.