Southern Africa Travel’s 2010 FIFA World Cup Experience

How was Southern Africa Travel involved in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa?

The story began four years ago, when the first Soccerex Exhibiton was hosted in Johannesburg in 2007. Both Sean Kritzinger and Murray Gardiner embraced the marketing opportunity and so began their amazing journey…

Today, there are some astounding stats to look at but no one would have guessed, at the time, that the Southern Africa Travel team would need no less than:

• 75 charter flights in Boeing 737’s and MD’s
• 100 coach charter movements
• Over 20 000 room nights

Southern Africa Travel was fortunate to have clients from Mexico, the USA, UK, Germany, Sweden and Australia and the likes of Coca Cola, Nestle, Bacardi, HSBC, Toyota, Ford, NAB, Chevron and BHP Billiton as well as Qantas to take care of.

We were also fortunate to have partnered with David Solomon and his team from the Pepper Club, Jacques Osse and Manja Jaspers from the Strand Towers and Leisure Group.  And because FIFA and MATCH had tied up 90% of the large hoteliers like Protea, Southern Sun and Sun International plus many private hotels, the new hoteliers and Giltedge made a ‘pact’ that they would stick together for the World Cup no matter what. And stick they did, with hard-hat site visits and constant communication throughout the entire building process, as these hotels were not in existence in 2007. In the end, all the hotels opened their doors to the world on June 11th, 2010 to celebrate the World Cup.

CEO Sean Kritzinger tells some of the behind-the-scenes tales:

‘Our Mexican group were by far the largest booking and one dedicated staff member took the responsibility of communicating with Mexico as they came online at 4pm until midnight for over a year, working weekends and even visiting Mexico to help plan itineraries.

Happily, the very cohesive Southern Africa Travel team managed to coordinate a large part of the logistics at the last minute as more supporters arrived than expected.

Here’s some of the drama:

• A 747 that the client had contracted was suddenly not available two days before the opening game. Literally overnight, we had to find, contract and pay for four 737’s to replace the 747. 
• The team survived on two to three hours sleep a night at times, with some staff permanently stationed at airports and others securing exclusive airport exit areas especially for their clients. Staff also managed boarding passes for the airlines who struggled with triple first names or double-barrelled surnames, in some cases.
• We had to buy tickets from different airlines at last minute as more passengers showed up at the airports than we had confirmed seats for. 
• Dinners were booked and cancelled, tours for up to 40pax booked at 11pm at night to depart at 9am the following morning with companies such as Illios, Avis and Hylton Ross coming up trumps.’

‘Our staff went beyond the call of duty to ensure that we managed the World Cup project in true Giltedge style!’ Read testimonials….