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Plan your lives around the 2010 World Cup
The countdown to the World Cup has begun with less than a 100 days to kick-off. While South Africans are excited about welcoming the world, some problems are expected during June and July.
Dave Varney, CEO of www.footballnights.co.za; an online hospitality service providing accommodation to international guests travelling to South Africa, says a few disruptions and inconveniences can be expected during the soccer World Cup and South African’s should prepare in advance.
Schools will be closed for almost four weeks; air tickets to Cape Town (for example) will cost about R8 00 per seat as some flights have to leave same night after the games due to accommodation problems in Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein and flights will operate 24 hours a day, adding to an increase in noise and traffic outside of normal peak hours.
“Traffic will increase by about 30 percent at the times of the games as fans go to the grounds or ‘Fan Parks’ (games start at 13h30, 16h00 and 20h30 hrs). ‘Fan Parks’ will be a huge attraction and traffic to and from those areas will be extremely congested and dangerous.
“At one Fan Park in Germany 500,000 people arrived consuming during the events three million sausages and one million litres of beer. It’s expected that 550,000 people will be travelling to/from matches and road areas around stadiums will be closed off so one should really limit travelling during this time,” said Varney.
“With regards to flights, the best time to fly is while matches are on. Plan your trip well in advance; changes to a ticket over this period will be extremely difficult and very expensive. Keep in mind that there will not be parking available at airports, so arrange drop offs.”
Varney added that one should allow for a minimum of two hours to get to the airport in Cape Town and possibly three hours for Johannesburg as the congestion on the roads both to and from the airports is going to be chaotic.”
