Kruger plays in SAfrica World Cup plans
Alexandra LESIEUR
Lounging peacefully on the terrace, watching the elephants, leopards
and antelopes gather at the watering hole.
That’s how hundreds of football fans will relax in South Africa’s
Kruger National Park on “soccer safaris”, after taking in World Cup
matches in the nearby city of Nelspruit.
With 100,000 people, Nelspruit is among the smaller of the host
cities and doesn’t have enough accommodation for the fans expected to
arrive here in June 2010.
So organisers are tapping resources in the tourist magnet of Kruger
game park, just a two-hour drive away.
The game
“Any person who comes so close to Kruger would definitely come to see
the game. You cannot miss it if you’re that close to it, especially
coming from Europe or Asia,” said Stephen Nel, a manager at the Berg-en-Dal
rest camp.
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An elephant eating during a game drive at Kruger Park.
During the World Cup, the camps of Skukuza, Berg-en-Dal and
Pretoriuskop will host nearly 2,000 fans in search of South
Africa’s “Big Five”, elephants, buffalo, leopards, lions and
rhinos. AFP |
About 1.3 million tourists each year visit the park, which is about
half the size of the Netherlands and has a highly developed network to
accommodate guests.
During the World Cup, the camps of Skukuza, Berg-en-Dal and
Pretoriuskop will host nearly 2,000 fans in search of South Africa’s
“Big Five” - elephants, buffalo, leopard, lions and rhinos.
FIFA partner responsible for accommodation, Match, is offering
packages that include lodging, transport and safaris, which could mean
pre-dawn drives to catch the animals at sun-up, twilight hikes, or
dinner in the bush.
Guests
To allow the guests to see the football matches, Kruger is reworking
its rules. The park currently closes at 6:00 pm, and some games at
Nelspruit’s Mbombela stadium will only kick off two hours later.
Armed rangers will escort the fans back to their lodges and tents,
“to protect them from lions, elephants and other dangerous animals,”
according to South African National Parks.
“They’ll probably change the opening times of the restaurants as most
of our guests would be for the World Cup,” Nel added.
He said that the camp had welcomed guests from the rugby World Cup in
1995, but that was on a smaller scale that what organisers expect in
2010.
The World Cup will be the biggest event ever held in this rural
province, with Nelspuit building a 46,000-seat stadium for the occasion.
“Initially, there was a shortage of accomodation,” said FS Siboza,
operations manager for the city.
But he said the new guesthouses have opened in the city, and two
other towns are helping to ensure enough beds are available during the
tournament, he said.
The city expects new hotels will be built, while some homeowners plan
to leave on vacation and to rent out their homes to the tourists.
Organisers are even considering creating tented campsites for visitors,
spread around a 200-kilometre (125-mile) radius, including in
neighbouring Swaziland and Mozambique.
Expanded
FIFA wants to ensure that 55,000 rooms are available across the
country during the World Cup. Right now there are 34,000, making
Kruger’s model an appealing option that could be expanded to other
national parks.
The only requirement for the “soccer safaris” is that guests can
actually see the matches. At Berg-en-Dal, they will be housed in simple
cottages built in 1985, without televisions.
The camp is thinking about setting up a TV in a conference room so
the fans can watch games in other towns... if they find generators to
keep the electricity running.
KRUGER PARK,
South Africa, Friday, AFP |
