Official tour operators for the 2010 FIFA World Cup have managed to secure more tickets to the event amid growing demand from Australian travellers.
Interest in the event has heightened since the release of the official draw last month (Travel Today, December 9), despite concerns over air capacity from Australia.
Warren Livingstone, founder of The Fanatics, said interest in the past couple of weeks had been “relentless”.
“We have taken more tickets. We now have the capacity to take 2000 people, and we have sold over 1500 already.”
Due to overwhelming interest, and an increase in accommodation rates, the company has organised a custom-made tent city to be built at a Durban cricket ground to cater for Australian travellers. Australia will play its first game against Germany at a nearby stadium.
Livingstone said that one of the biggest concerns has been air capacity.
“There is not the capacity to cope with the number of people wanting to travel on the key dates. People are having to go a lot earlier or later to fly direct, or fly through Asia if they want to travel on key dates,” he said.
Sportsnet Holidays boss Rob Cecconi said the company launched a new tour yesterday, having already sold out its original ticket allocation.
“The tour is slightly different to our original tour, but still four-star. We released it yesterday and have already had 30 bookings out of 100 places,” he said.