Hoteliers hoping to inflate accommodation prices during the World Cup and who refuse to sign up with Match Hospitality, Fifa's official accommodation service provider, are doing themselves a disfavour, tourism authorities have warned.
The lack of interest by independent establishments to sign up with Match has prompted Fifa's official hospitality partner to approach neighbouring countries to supply rooms for the upcoming event.
Mauritius on Monday became the latest country to supply 3 700 four- and five-star rooms for next year's soccer showpiece, becoming an official "Matchville".
Announcing this at the Tourism Indaba in Durban, 2010 local organising committee chief executive, Danny Jordaan, said the geographic proximity and quality of its hotels were ideal to develop packages to allow fans to fully explore the diversity of the southern African region.
The popular holiday island joins Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and Swaziland, which have all made rooms available for the tournament.
Tourism experts say hotels, B&Bs and guest houses that are "holding back" and refuse to sign up with Match could be in for a big surprise in 2010.
Michael Tatalias, chairperson of the Southern African Tourism Service Association (Satsa), said a number of hotel owners were holding back so that they could inflate their prices to rip off tourists.
He said Match needed more than 65 000 rooms for the World Cup, and that a number of these were not in South Africa.
"Greedy hotel owners, who are holding back and not signing up, could be the biggest losers," said Tatalias.
"They are stupid not to sign up. Match will be giving them tourists for that period, they will ensure that their hotels are full and will supply their guests with transport.
"The only reason so many independent hotel owners are not signing up is because they want to hike their prices for that period.
"What they don't know is that Match won't be sending any spectators to their establishments."
Hannelie du Toit of the Tourism Enterprise Partnership (TEP) said the organisation was trying to get as many businesses and hotels signed up with Match Hospitality as possible, to ensure a standard fee was charged for accommodation across the board.
She said there were, however, some establishments that were refusing to sign up.
"We want to warn such businesses and hotels that the World Cup is not a get-rich-quick scheme," she said.
Last month Fifa reported that 64 percent of rooms had so far been secured for the World Cup.
- Meanwhile, SANParks yesterday unveiled its 2010 World Cup plan at the Tourism Indaba in Durban.
SANPark's managing executive tourism and marketing Glenn Phillips said its plans for the tournament were based on three principles which would ensure a sustainable business way beyond the World Cup.
"At the onset our strategy is all about sustainable development, secondly we would like to see optimal occupancy in all national parks over the event period, and key to this is the retention of our committed client base as the event falls during the extended school holidays," said Phillips.
Phillips said the Kruger National Park had dedicated three of its camps to the event.
New mobile tented products within the camps at Kruger National Parks would also be used, he said.
This would add an additional 420 beds to the inventory required by Match Hospitality for 2010.
"If all goes according to plan, it means the value of inventory sold to Match per day is in the region of R1.4m and this over the event period will amount to R52.5m based on two people per unit inclusive of dinner, bed and breakfast and activity," he said.