South African Tourism Minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, has stressed the importance of protecting South Africa’s reputation as a value-for-money destination in the run-up to next year’s Soccer World Cup.

Speaking at a media briefing at Parliament in Cape Town, he said he was unaware of any attempt on behalf of accommodation providers to hike rates over the tournament. “Fedhasa (Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa) is working with us to ensure we protect our reputation and at the moment we don’t detect any attempt to hike prices,” he said. “If billionaires are paying exorbitant prices for private homes, as has been reported in the newspapers, this is a question of supply and demand and has nothing to do with general accommodation rates.” Concerns that accommodation providers and airlines will fleece soccer fans during the World Cup recently emerged in local and overseas media. However, Jaime Byrom, executive co-chairman of MATCH, FIFA’s own accommodation agency, told journalists the 30% commission it was charging contracted accommodation suppliers was “standard”. Establishments contracted to MATCH have agreed on terms based on their published rates of 2007 plus 16% inflation. He said smaller establishments (SMMEs) such as guesthouses and B&Bs, 12 000 of which have for the first time been included in MATCH’s inventory, were charging their normal peak season rates plus a 30% MATCH surcharge. Byrom couldn’t say why airlines were not subjected to the same rate-capping scenario as accommodation providers. Byrom said all participating teams now had found good facilities for their base camps and training.  Of the 48 000 rooms contracted to MATCH, 64% were hotels, 15% were SMMEs, 8% were team base camps, 6% were timeshare, 3% were apartments and 2% were SANParks and new developments respectively. The majority of MATCH’s contracted accommodation was in Johannesburg (23%), Cape Town (16%), Durban (14%) and Port Elizabeth (12%). Some 32% of MATCH inventory would be available to the general public, 15% was designated for team hotels, 14% was block booked for MATCH Ville participating tour operators, 18% was for the media, 14% for commercial partners and 7% for FIFA officials.  MATCH Ville packages, including airport shuttles, base camp accommodation, domestic air transfers and shuttles to matches, would operate from Gauteng, Rustenburg, Durban, Cape Town, the Garden Route and SANParks (Kruger National Park). MATCH Ville packages from Mauritius depended on an air transport solution.  More than 100 authorised tour operators from around the world were participating in the official tour operator programme and, following a recent workshop in Cape Town, had expressed their satisfaction with arrangements to date, Byrom said.  He said MATCH had contracted about 100 000 air sectors between SAA and BA/Comair. There would be up to 10 flights on each route in each direction per match in the “golden triangle” of JNB/CPT/DUR with night flying included for return sectors. MATCH seats will be sold in minimum blocks of 20. He said SAA would wetlease 20 aircraft to operate on routes outside of the “golden triangle”.