Pretoria - Is Match, the exclusive agent for football governing body Fifa's Soccer World Cup, the fly in the ointment preventing South Africa from holding a successful tournament?
This question is increasingly being posed by business people in the tourism industry, although few wish to criticise Fifa's accommodation, travelling and ticket agent openly.
It is becoming clearer that foreigners' interest in attending the tournament is less than hoped for. This is apparently because of the high cost - for which Match is partly responsible.
Match is calculating how many bed nights it will release to the market this week. The figures will be announced by the end of the week, an official has declared.
The organisation previously returned 450 000 of the 1.8 million bed nights it had originally reserved to the market.
South African Airways (SAA) also recently withdrew from an agreement to reserve 45 000 domestic flights for Match.
Match was apparently unable to say exactly how many tickets it needed and SAA did not wish to hold on any longer while it was being accused of exorbitant pricing.
Hidde Salverda, 2010 coordinator of the Dutch soccer federation (KNVB) said that disappointingly few Dutch soccer fans were coming to the tournament. The KNVB has scaled its original expectation of 10 000-12 000-10 down to 5 000.
Match's grip on tournament tickets, which it offers together with travel packages, is the reason for the poor interest, Salverda said.
The fact that Fifa itself is not happy with the state of affairs became evident in February when its secretary-general Jérôme Valcke said that the ticket-selling mechanism would need to be changed before the next World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil in four years' time.
In the first place the system was based on the internet and it was particularly cumbersome. It clearly is not appropriate for a developing country where few people have credit cards or internet access.
By, for instance, reserving accommodation early on Match wanted to prevent service providers fleecing the market with outlandish prices.
But the opposite has happened in South Africa. Match's 2010 prices were determined in 2007, when the market was frothy. A mark-up was added to these, which were already high, to determine the 2010 prices.
Then came the economic crisis. The global tourism industry came to a virtual standstill and is only now recovering. But Match did not drop its prices to adapt to changing market conditions.
It should have taken this decision long ago, says a hotel manager with years of experience in the tourism industry.
He says Match's rigid business model has prevented the local tourism industry from adapting quickly enough. Foreigners have the perception that it is too expensive to travel to South Africa.
Matsatsi Marobe, CEO of the Tourism Business Council, said that Match's accredited tour operators began marketing in earnest only after the December final draw, when it became evident where and when the matches would be held. The results of this marketing are only now coming in.
There's still time before the first whistle is blown on June 11 to persuade foreign tourists to come to South Africa for the tournament, she said.
Salverda said one would have to see whether Europeans are prepared to undertake a long-distance journey at such short notice amid all the negative reporting on the safety situation in South Africa
