Expect business disruption during World Cup

ED RICHARDSON BUSINESS IS going to be disrupted during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with varying impacts on companies and whole sectors, bid organisers have warned. First is the disruption in the work place, with management and staff wanting to either be at the matches, or to watch them during working hours. Next will be a shortage of aircraft seats. Former Manchester United goal keeper and part of the South African 2010 bid, Gary Bailey, warns that fans will be flying between the various cities and that it will be extremely difficult to obtain flights during this period. Reports from Germany show that sectors which suffered were non-soccer related tourism and conferences. One hotel, which was fully booked by the police department, suffered a loss in revenue because its guests only used their rooms to sleep and spent little money at the hotel itself because they were deployed at the stadiums. “In Korea-Japan 2002, most hotels were underoccupied. Some bars and restaurants actually did so badly that they went out of business. Post-games analysis indicates that this was due to a combination of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, and the introduction of cheap, high quality large-screen TVs for homes. If you can have a bunch of mates around to a big screen in your home, with cheap booze and comfort, why would you drag yourself down to a sports pub? Neither of these two events seems to have been on the hospitality industry’s radar,” says Bailey.