The costs involved in hosting the World Cup are huge as South Africa is witnessing in first place. They have in fact already forked out over €4.5 billion – that is 34 billion rand to host the event and build the many world-class stadiums needed.

Unfortunately, the response and sales were much less than expected. The government had hoped for this World Cup to attract 450,000 international spectators which is now down to a hopeful 350,000 but only around 100,000 international air tickets have been sold so far.

These low attendance numbers are defying the government’s efforts to push tourism following a 17 years recession period. This could also be a blow to President Jacob Zuma and Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA who were both so positive of this year’s World Cup being hosted there.

South Africa was hoping that the event would stimulate employment and the country’s economic growth but this is still to be experienced. Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile commented; “When the World Cup was awarded to us in 2004, the economic situation was completely different. We have to revisit those projections and be realistic.”

The initial building of the stadiums had given a boost to the unemployment situation but now those same 30,000 workers are jobless once again.

Hopes are still there for this event to boost the gross domestic product but many are being more realistic now, quoting lack of demand for tickets and hotel stays with them being 50 percent short of the target and the tournament sponsors and partners returning thousands of tickets for premium-price seats in luxury boxes.

Some key figures, such as Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG, will not be attending the games but they were there for the 2006 event in Germany. This event had attracted about 2 million tourists and boosted the tourism industry with 300 million euros ($407 million) in revenue.

Being so close to the start of the games, it is surprising how many unsold tickets there are, whilst four years ago there were virtually no tickets left to be sold. It could be that the travelling involved and the cost to get into South Africa is a key reason for this with many Europeans wanting to go but not affording it. It is thus true that European hosting countries have that to their advantage when hosting.

Another reason would be the security issues surrounding trip to South Africa which has scared off many tourists. According to police statistics, South Africa has had 2.1 million serious crimes, including 18,148 murders during a year.

Some are still hopeful that the last-minute rush for tickets will save the day but this will be hard to achieve. However, finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is still optimistic; “There is no need to panic but rather to start selling South Africa even more feverishly.”