Inflation is part of the Game

With World Cup just around the corner, the biggest sporting event in the WORLD (yes, its bigger than the Olympics), I am shocked to keep reading on message boards that people are still looking for accommodations, transportation and the like.

Sure, I over plan and maybe think a tad too much about getting things in order for any of my travel adventures, but when it comes to attending a global event where there the expectation is for the population to swell by some 400,000 people, I like to think that getting your plans in order is not a bad thing.

And then you read things like this and it makes even more sense to get your act together in advance:

Inflation of prices, especially on accommodation and transportation, are part of the Olympics and World Cup, but the South Africa 2010 World Cup may be different, as South Africa Tourism’s campaign to keep a price freeze during the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup is yielding results.

According to a press release by the body, hoteliers in the Eastern Cape part of the country have promised to freeze prices.

SA Tourism Update Online has compiled a database of tourism suppliers that are not price gouging, which can be accessed by their inbound tour operators. The rates they consider fair will be loaded into the frequently updated database.

While its nice to see that the things are trying to be corralled and controlled so that gouging is not out of control, its still makes for finding a reasonable price on accommodations a hard tickets at this point.

Good thing we have our hostels and family members booked and ready for us!