Monday, May 24, 2010

Foreign fans don't want to go to South Africa for World Cup

The World Cup is set to be a major financial disappointment for the host nation South Africa, after it became clear that international fans have decided to stay away and their tickets are being sold cheaply to South Africans. Organizers have revised visitor estimates – and thus tourism income – down from an initial 750,000 to 200,000. Airlines, hotels and guesthouses are slashing their prices. On 15 April, 2010 hundreds of thousands of cut-price match tickets went on sale in South Africa, in a bid to fill 3.2 million seats at 64 matches. At the taxpayers' expense, municipalities and state-owned companies such as Telkom have bought thousands of tickets to give away to employees or offer as prizes.

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