“Football fans are choosing Johannesburg as their World Cup destination. We are fully booked for the whole period of the World Cup,” said Cloete. “We have had many queries from potential visitors interested in having Johannesburg as their base World Cup city due to its on accessibility to stadia, matches in the area and easy connection to venues in other provinces.”
Cloete explained that Johannesburg's central positioning to three of the big stadia is a huge factor in its favour.
“Johannesburg and Pretoria's three World Cup stadia: Soccer City (90 000), Ellis Park (60 000) and Loftus (45 000) can accommodate up to 200 000 fans in one day, while Cape Town's Green Point stadium can only host a capacity of 68 000 fans, Port Elizabeth's Nelson Mandela stadium can host 50 000 fans and Durban's Moses Mabhida can host 70 000 fans in one day.”
She said that the industry in Gauteng and its surrounding provinces are furthermore benefitting from the high number of matches that will be played in the area, as well as the high profile of some of these matches.
“Not only is Johannesburg's Soccer City hosting both the opening match extravaganza as well as the final match for the World Cup, it also gives its visitors access to 15 first-round matches in the Johannesburg and Pretoria area. For those willing to travel a few hours it is a gateway to a further 15 first-round matches in Rustenburg, Nelspruit and Polokwane. Stadia in Johannesburg and surrounds will further host three second-round matches and two quarter-final matches, which gives fans access to the most games played in a single geographical area,” said Cloete.
Another positive factor for hotels is Gauteng's strategic positioning as a doorway to the other provinces nearby.
“Fans who want to travel to see a match at the Peter Mokaba stadium will more often than not stop over in Johannesburg and from here travel to Polokwane. Due to the limited availability of the airports in these provinces fans cannot always fly direct to Rustenburg or Polokwane and they have to connect via Johannesburg to travel to these stadia nearby.”
A final trend that Cloete has observed is that Johannesburg is popular with businessmen and women who want to combine their soccer and business interests in the region. “For many this is an ideal opportunity to explore business networks and conduct business meetings while also attending the World Cup. Johannesburg is considered the economic capital of Africa as it contributes 10 percent to the GDP of the entire African continent; a very alluring factor for serious businessmen and entrepreneurs,” concluded Cloete.
