Vuvuzela South Africa

Today it is exactly 30 days before the 2010 World Cup kicks off. With Fabio Capello just having announced his provisional England squad and with teams already arriving in South Africa, there is bound to be a build of of people who are going to make last minute decisions.

I can tell you that yesterday it was 29C in Durban – this is why we are marketing our city as the warmest place during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I am sure there are still tickets available, but even if you cant get tickets, come over for the vibe – the Fan parks are going to be amazing.

Hout Bay, Cape Town

Cape Town – Fan Walk and Fan Park on the Grand Parade

Cape Town is going to have a Fan park on the Grand Parade and has established a special  2.4-km Fan Walk that will operate on the eight Cape Town match days, taking pedestrians safely from the CBD to the Cape Town Stadium, along a route filled with some of Cape Town’s best pubs, clubs, restaurant and retail experiences.

In Durban the main Fan Park will be right on the beachfront on Durban’s Golden Mile.

World Cup Accommodation

But what about World Cup accommodation, where can you stay when you come to these two popular holiday destinations?

South African Villa Rentals has two great choices for you – Villa Toich in Hout Bay and Toich Penthouse in Umhlanga – both are less than half an hour’s drive from all the action. And both are situated in picturesque coastal villages.

Lighthouse at Umhlanga Rocks

Villa Toich in Houtbay has six large en-suite bedrooms with studies and balconies overlooking spectacular sea or mountain views, enormous covered and open terraces, heated swimming pool, two lounges, dining room, spacious kitchen and conference room with breakout balconies.

The Toich Penthouse  in Umhlanga, near Durban (14 kms) is within walking distance of the beach, shops, hotels and restaurants.

For more information, availability and bookings take a look at South Africa Villa Rentals Website

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The FIFA World Cup is occasionally called the Football World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup.

Over the eighty years of the ultimate footballing tournament, over 31 million spectators have attended over 708 matches and witnessed the scoring of 2 063 goals.

So much has changed since the first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930.

For the 2010 FIFA World Cup over 852 matches will take place before the 32 teams  that will contest the finals in South Africa are announced. The final draw will be held at the new Green Point Stadium in Cape Town on 4 December 2009.

World Cup in 36 laguages?

How would you like to be able to say World Cup in 36 laguages? Well, I never thought about it until I saw a post by an enterprising blogger Daryl, on World Cup Blog, who seemed to have looked them all up. I see only two of our 11 official launguages there, so how about we add the other nine and help Darryl extend his list?

And as this is an African World Cup, what about some more African languages?

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We are so involved with the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa that we almost forget that September is going to be a big month for some of the teams who are playing important matches in the qualifiers.

World Cup Bafana Bafana 2010, a blogger from the UK, is writing some great blogposts  – looking ahead to the 2010 World Cup activity during September.

Why not also check out the Groups and Standing for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa and see if you can predict who will be the 31 teams besides South Africa who will be there at the final draw in Cape Town on 4 December.

Photo: Madiba (Nelson Mandela) holding the World Cup Trophy at the announcement that South Africa won the bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup – fifa.com

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Durban and Cape Town are two of the Host Cities preparing themselves for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.

I have just read two articles in bizcommunity.com about the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. Both interesting and important, but they made me smile because the stories so reflect the general attitudes of the two cities involved -  Cape Town and Durban.

Cape Town Tourism Survey

Well, the Cape Town story is about the success of the FIFA Confederations Cup. Cape Town Tourism commissioned a survey. According to Dr Nikolaus Eberl, of the 323 international visitors canvassed, only one said he would not recommend South Africa as a holiday destination. 3.68% of respondents answered ‘maybe’, resulting into an aggregate brand advocacy score of 96% for destination SA.

In terms of destination branding, this is the highest brand advocacy score achieved by a FIFA World Cup host yet, beating the benchmark set by Germany in 2006 by almost eight percentage points, he says.

Now Durban, on the other hand has gone a bit lower on Maslow’s pyramid and put safety and security centre stage with less than a year to go before kick-off to the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.

Safety and Security in Durban for 2010 World Cup

In Durban, a joint initiative has been established to boost safety and security during the football tournament. Safety and security planning is being co-ordinated between the South African Police Force, Durban Metro Police, Durban Beach Law Enforcement and independent security companies with deployment as a joint initiative.

Julie-May Ellingson, head of Durban’s Strategic Projects Unit and 2010 Programme, says, “Durban already has an enviable record for hosting large international events including the Cricket and Rugby World Cups, IPL 20/20 cricket, the FIFA preliminary draw, A1 motorsport and the Comrades Marathon and will be calling on that experience to ensure the same level of safety and security prevails during next year’s tournament.”

Ellingson says, “a joint operations centre will mobilize and reallocate resources and the overall safety and security planning will be collated by the Provincial Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (JOINTS). This structure will report directly to a national structure to allow for consistent and unified safety across South Africa.”

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Dombeya Wines, Helderberg, Stellenbosch - currently Number one.

Well soccer fans, Spit or Swallow and Blow Me probably sound like you have strayed into a red-light district, but this is a clean blog and these two websites are just tongue in cheek (oops)  names of … let me explain.

Spit or Swallow is an online wine club in the Cape. Members rate wine farms around Cape Town  as well as wine routes. So I would certainly recommend that any soccer fans planning to come over to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, who are spending some time in the Cape, should take a look at this site – they will get some good information about the top Cape Wine routes and  the best Wine farms to visit.

In line with their risque name, Blow me is a Vuvuzela tribute site – You “blow” a virtual Vuvuzela! Go on try it…

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