South Africa: 2010 Invasion Has Organisers On the Hop

The number of visitors projected to visit Cape Town during the 2010 World Cup has increased more than five-fold, triggering a hunt for extra accommodation and transport.

Organisers are now looking to the Southern Cape and winelands regions for accommodation for international teams and their spectators.

After an analysis by the pro-vince over the past four months, between 250 000 and 300 000 visitors are expected to descend on the city during the World Cup, and at least 150 000 of these will be staying in city hotels.

Initially the number of visitors was estimated to be 50 000, but has since gone up by 200 000 after more studies were done.

Provincial 2010 project director Denis Lillie said organisers had to realign their transport plans to accommodate the growing number.

He said authorities were looking at using the integrated provincial and municipal transport plans that promote the co-ordination of rail, buses and taxis to get people to and from the stadiums.

“We have to make sure the transport action plan is up and running and responds to these numbers.

“Some of the best teams will be coming here and we need to ensure that we offer people a better service,” Lillie said.

This would also see some of the 700 new buses that had been ordered for the event transporting people as far as Southern Cape towns such as Kynsna, site of the popular Oyster Festival, which will coincide with the World Cup event during July 2010.

Lillie said these buses would be released into the public transport system after the event.

“We are beginning to understand exactly what we should be expecting during the event and how to respond to that.

“We have spoken with previous World Cup and Olympic organisers, such as the 2012 London Olympics Committee, for advice. We are moving ahead and are getting ready,” he said.

The province was also looking at securing land and getting national government approval to build depots, plazas and parking facilities for the 2010 luxury buses.

A piece of land has already been identified in Khayelitsha to build a bus depot.

At least one big depot and five small supporting depots are being considered.

The issue of non-availability of depots was recently raised by Golden Arrow Bus Service, which raised concerns about the little time left for planning for the soccer extravaganza.

Golden Arrow’s general ma-nager, Francois Meyer, said there seemed to be a lack of support on how the luxury buses, set to operate for about 18 hours a day, were to be maintained, whether any new depots were to be built for them and where the extra drivers would come from.

But Lillie said this was being looked at, with drivers and mechanics set to be trained once it became clear what kind of buses were to be brought in.

“In terms of operational plan we are ready to go ahead… It’s just a matter of getting final approval from the na-tional government and getting funding,” he said.

Source: Cape Argus