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Polokwane - The sleepy town of Polokwane, tucked in rolling farmland that reaches to the Zimbabwe border, is bracing for its moment in the World Cup spotlight and scrambling to make sure fans can spend the night.
South Africa's major cities are well served by major hotels, but places like Polokwane and Nelspruit have had to get more creative, co-opting student housing, preparing tented camps and recruiting residents to offer up guest beds for the expected surge in visitors.
The new 46 000-seat Peter Mokaba Stadium will host four group-stage matches in the tournament, just 100 days away on Tuesday, with the biggest draw likely France playing Mexico.
With just a handful of hotels in this town of 500 000, the city has managed to secure more than 30 000 beds - many through homestays with local families.
"Realising that we might not have sufficient accommodation for this major event, we thought maybe the best thing is to identify a travel agent [for] registering houses as home stays," said Mike Tauatsoala, Limpopo tourism spokesperson.
A travel agency has lined up families willing to rent out a room or an entire house, and is handling bookings for visitors, Tauatsoala said.
Polokwane will also set up a tent city at a smaller stadium, providing backpackers with bathrooms, water, and even gas heating to take the edge off June's winter chill in a town at an altitude of 1 310 metres, he said.
The University of Limpopo will also lease out some of its nearly 7 000 beds in student housing, but these will be mainly used by extra police and emergency personnel who will staff the games, Tauatsoala added.
Hoping to cash in on the tournament is Nondlandla Masuku, who three years ago transformed her home near the town centre into a four-bedroom guesthouse, after seeing the demand for accommodation in Polokwane.
Her crisp white linens and chic African decor have won her an award as the country's best guesthouse, and she works with major hotel chain Southern Sun to secure bookings.
"I've had several enquiries from different people especially from France. I am working together with Southern Sun hotel and tourism department to transfer the enquiries into tangible bookings," Masuku said.
Vivienne Bervoets, an accommodation manager at Fifa's hospitality scheme known as Match, said she was confident the smaller host cities had enough rooms to meet the World Cup's needs.
"In an event the size of the FIFA World Cup, there will always be a challenge with accommodation over peak matches, and people will expect to travel into and out of these cities on the same day if they are unable to source accommodation," Bervoets said.
Match had hoped to contract 55 000 rooms, but ended up with 48 000 that it markets directly to fans. About three fourths of those rooms have been booked, according to FIFA.
The surge in demand during the South African winter, typically low season for tourism, has also sent prices soaring.
Last week Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said an independent survey would be conducted to determine whether the perception of high prices was accurate.
Even major cities like Johannesburg and Durban have plans to cater to fans on tight budget, with tented camp sites planned for parks and university housing being upgraded for tourists.
- Sapa-AFP
