{"id":6922,"date":"2010-02-24T11:05:09","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T09:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=6922"},"modified":"2010-02-24T11:05:09","modified_gmt":"2010-02-24T09:05:09","slug":"world-cup-accommodation-pricing-to-be-investigated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/accommodation\/world-cup-accommodation-pricing-to-be-investigated\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup accommodation pricing to be investigated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, has announced that he has contracted Grant Thornton to conduct a survey of accommodation prices during the June\/July World Cup period, and to benchmark these against the prices of accommodation in countries that previously hosted FIFA World Cups, reports www.iol.co.za<\/a>.\u00a0 The survey is to be conducted, despite\u00a0the tourism industry body Tourism Business Council of South Africa and FIFA’s MATCH accommodation agency denying that World Cup prices are excessive.<\/p>\n

The survey comes amidst international criticism that accommodation pricing is excessive and\u00a0deemed to\u00a0be “rip-off”.\u00a0\u00a0 Van Schalkwyk said that “the survey would help safeguard the reputation of the South African tourism industry, since South Africa is a ‘value-for-money destination’\u00a0 Price-hiking could damage the reputation of our tourism industry”, he said.<\/p>\n

Van Schalkwyk did make it clear that tourists could not expect to pay normal low-season rates during the World Cup : “……June and July 2010 will be high season in South Africa”.<\/p>\n

The Grant Thornton survey will only be conducted amongst professional accommodation establishments, and will exclude private homes.<\/p>\n

The Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA),\u00a0which claims to be ‘the official umbrella body for organised business in the South African travel and tourism industry’, and MATCH, FIFA’s accommodation agency, have made a joint statement that the industry\u00a0pricing is not rip-off\u00a0nor excessive, reports S A Tourism Update.<\/strong>\u00a0 The TBCSA chairman Mmatsatsi Marobe praised the tourism sector for not charging “exorbitant prices as they understood the long-term effect on tourism into South Africa, but it was the doing of a few small suppliers that put South Africa in a bad light”, she said.\u00a0\u00a0 The MATCH Chairman, Jaime Byron, came with the following brilliant logic about pricing: “…the 2010 FIFA World Cup was expected to be more expensive than previous tournaments because it was a long-haul destination.\u00a0 This makes South Africa inherently more expensive”, he is quoted as saying!\u00a0\u00a0 It was noted by them that the media should be careful about attacking the World Cup pricing, as it had to be accurate about what exactly was included in the prices quoted in such media reports (e.g. accommodation, tickets, transport).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The TBCSA\/MATCH statements\u00a0are ironic, as MATCH has been blamed for excessive “rip-off pricing” since it started recruiting accommodation for the World Cup four years ago, demanding a 30 % commission from accommodation establishments initially, and now just adding\u00a0this commission percentage\u00a0on to the already high accommodation rates!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, has announced that he has contracted Grant Thornton to conduct a survey of accommodation prices during the June\/July World Cup period, and to benchmark these against the prices of accommodation in countries that previously hosted FIFA World Cups, reports www.iol.co.za.\u00a0 The survey is to be conducted, despite\u00a0the tourism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[7,124,21,11],"tags":[3642,3644,32378,18,530,3646,3647,1576,23,1318,3648,1323,32388,5,3643,3645,531],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t