Online booking agent, Hostelworld.com, has released its booking figures for the period over the 2010 FIFA World Cup and bookings to destinations in South Africa are highly inflated compared with last year.
Predictably, football fanatics Argentina and Brazil came out top with an increase of 2 624% and 1 774% respectively.
Surprisingly, however, the USA up 596% and Australia up 370% were the next biggest rises, showing how much support for football is developing in these countries.
On a more general note, bookings into Cape Town have risen by 40% and Johannesburg 28% on last year.
Aisling White, Hostelworld.com representative says: "It is not unusual to see bookings into South Africa so high with the biggest sporting event of the year held there this year. However, it is interesting to see South America and Asia performing so well. Overall these figures continue to show the maturing of the budget travel industry with more people appreciating the options that hostelling gives them and is being seen as a real alternative to hotels.”
