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Furnishings & DecorDURBAN hoteliers have embarked on a big marketing campaign to win back their regular upcountry holiday-makers after 60% of the province’s rooms provisionally booked for the World Cup were released back onto the market last week by Fifa.
Fifa’s hospitality arm, Match, booked a “good stock of rooms” in KwaZulu-Natal for the World Cup four years ago, but that fell through on Wednesday.
And now the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry says it is aiming to lure Gauteng tourists back to the sea during the winter holidays.
The chamber’s tourism manager, Jane Pillay, said it was assisting holiday accommodation providers to secure bookings at much lower rates.
“There was an expectation created and, at the last minute, Match pulled out, so we have to do everything possible to rope in our usual crowd as people are under the impression that Durban is fully booked for that time,” she said.
“We want to let people know that Durban is open for business.”
She said hoteliers previously felt little need to publicise their winter specials but, with only 10 days to go until the World Cup kick-off, the pressure is on to attract holiday makers.
“It’s short notice, but we’ll pull it off. I’m confident,” said Pillay.
She said that most Durban hotels were fully booked for match days, but that some would have days on which bargains could be found.
Many hotels are advertising rooms for the five-week period.
The Elangeni hotel has rooms available for the whole of June and July, except for three days on which it is fully booked.
However, when The Times tried to find out what The Elangeni was charging for a week in June, staff would not answer, saying there was a “specific team dealing with the World Cup pricing”.
Sun International spokesman Sue Klerck said: “We have packages available for the winter school holidays.”
Reynard Pretorius, of Durban’s Bluewaters Hotel, said the hotel was “slowly but surely filling up” for the World Cup.
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