Janet Silvera, Senior Tourism Writer

Durban, South Africa:

South Africa's Local Organising Committee (LOC) is estimating that close to 400,000 visitors will converge on nine of its major cities for the FIFA World Cup tournament in 2010.

MATCH, the company appointed by FIFA to deliver accommodation and ticketing solutions, has already contracted 27,000 rooms in graded establishments and is well placed to meet its target of contracting 55,000 rooms by 2010.

Offering the biggest marketing opportunity for the country, the overall cost for staging the tournament is estimated at 26.6 billion rand. Funding will come from the government, private sector and FIFA and will be used for the construction and upgrading of 10 stadiums, infrastructure development and preparation work.

Over eight billion rand has been set aside for the construction of five new stadiums and upgrading of the others, in order to accommodate the matches which will be held in Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Nelspruit, Pretoria, Polokwane, Port Elizabeth and Rustenburg.

Boasting a proven track record of hosting successful major international sporting events, including the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the 2003 Cricket World Cup and the Women's World Cup of Golf in 2005 and 2006, and in January 2006 the only street race in the inaugural A1 GP World Cup of motorsport, the country says it is in a state of readiness.

QUESTIONS

However, Football World Cup, the world's biggest sporting event after the Olympic Games - in terms of television audience - is in a class of its own and even after presenting such an impressive résumé, there are still questions pertaining to the country's preparedness, safety and security.

Responding to questions from journalists at the Global Media Face-Off at Indaba 2007, in Durban, on Sunday morning, Tim Modise, executive director marketing and commercial affairs of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), said the infrastructure will be delivered by 2009, when the dress rehearsal takes place.

Confident that he and his team will deliver nothing but first-class service, the LOC executive said it was also a question of national pride for the South Africans. He argued that the country has the capacity to host this event, otherwise FIFA would not have given them the right to their most prestigious tournament.

"Our planning and that of government is well under way and we are confident that the 2010 FIFA World Cup will be a tremendous success," Modise said.

LOST COOL

In the meantime, safety and security of fans came under scrutiny and police divisional commissioner, Arno Lamoer, almost lost his cool when he was pressed by moderator, award-winning former BBC foreign correspondent, Tim Sebastian, for answers relating to his security plans.

The divisional commissioner stated that 11 billion rand is to be spent on safety and security, which will see the addition of 40,000 police officers by 2010 to the existing 156,000 strong force.

He assured the media that most of the crimes in the country were of a domestic nature and not against tourists. In addition to the police officers to be recruited, there is a plan to utilize private security firms.

Like the success achieved by the Germans who hosted the Games in 2006, the South Africans anticipate that the tournament will provide the country with a number of opportunities, especially in their fastest-growing industry, tourism, which welcomed 8.4 million visitors in 2006.