World Cup packages not a big draw

Travel agents think many fans are making their own arrangements to secure cheaper deals

Football fans in the UAE are turning their backs on package tours to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa and are apparently waiting to snap up cut-price deals for the month-long tournament. About 370 packages - costing between Dh12,000 (US$3,267) and more than Dh39,550 per person for tickets, hotel and air fares - have been sold through MMI Travel, the official World Cup tour operator in the country.

But Grant Salter, the Dubai-based general manager of the leisure consultancy Grant Thornton, said the high-cost of package tours, coupled with the economic downturn, had deterred some football fans. As of April 7, about 2,919 World Cup tickets had been bought online by as many as 900 UAE fans at prices ranging from $20 to $900. "People are waiting for a better deal," he said. "I think that a lot of people were scared off by the pricing. Not necessarily by the ticketing, which is set by FIFA, but the hotel pricing and the airline pricing, which has moderated significantly over the last two months."

Travel and tour operators in the Emirates say, however, that fans are booking packages but that they have not sold out yet. Mayank Dhingra, the general manager of MMI Travel, a subsidiary of Emirates Airline, said demand was picking up as the event neared and the tour company hoped to sell 400 packages for the football tournament that starts next month. "It's been robust so far," he added. "Like everyone else in the world, we had a slow start to it. And traditionally, this is a last-minute market, and we see the demand now."

Premjit Bangara, the travel manager at Sharaf Travel in Dubai, said there was an initial flurry of fan interest, which then petered out. Sharaf had sold a "decent" number of packages, but flights to South Africa for the World Cup still had empty seats, he added. "This is what I expected. I didn't set the bar very high," he said. "All the people could argue that, hey, the UAE is soccer crazy. But many people make do on their own. Many people have their own connections in South Africa and [are] buying their own tickets."

Michael Freeman and his friends are planning to do just that. A member of the Dubai Reds, a local supporters club for the English Premier League team Liverpool, said the Reds planned to stay with family and friends or book online into the smaller, cheaper hotels. "People want to go but also don't want to spend thousands," he said. "So, when you look at the travel agents, what they charge, overall, the expenses are nearly double what you can find in the market."

Mr Salter estimates that the cost of flights and hotels in South Africa has dropped by an average of 30 per cent since the peak a year ago. [e-mail]