By Lihle Z Mtshali

A NEW campaign to get every South African excited about next year’s Fifa Soccer World Cup will be launched next month — exactly a year before we host the world’s largest football event.

The Football Fridays campaign is the brainchild of Southern Sun managing director Graham Wood and is now being adopted by the World Cup local organising committee.

The hotel group launched Football Fridays last month, which sees all staff members donning their favourite soccer jersey on Fridays.

Derek Carstens, the LOC’s chief marketing officer, said: “It was very generous of Graham [Wood] to share the idea with us and hats off to him for a brilliant idea.

“We are developing a programme and are looking at launching the campaign at around the time when it is a year to go before the World Cup, but people can start wearing their football jerseys on Fridays even before the launch happens.”

Priya Naidoo, general manager of communications at Southern Sun, said: “Our 7000 employees around the country interact with international guests on a daily basis and we just wanted to take control of our own environment and do something to create awareness of the World Cup.”

All staff members, including management, all frontline and back-office operations are involved in the campaign.

Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the World Cup local organising committee, welcomed Southern Sun’s initiative and said it was “a positive step towards what we want to achieve for this World Cup”.

“The concentration has been on the building of infrastructure, but the World Cup is all about the people. I think the Southern Sun initiative is important because when people arrive in the country, their first stop is the airport and the second stop is the hotel they are staying in. If the hotel staff is warm and embracing of the event, not only will it be good for the World Cup but it will also give a boost to return tourism.”

Jordaan said he hoped more organisations and individuals around the country would take up the Football Fridays campaign. “The World Cup is a South African event and everyone is part of the hosting nation and so we’d be happy at the thought of citizens doing their bit to support it,” he said.

According to Naidoo, Southern Sun has committed 80percent of its room stock to match services for the World Cup.

The hotel group is also the official team and fans hotel group for the IPL, which ends here on Sunday. The agreement has ensured 20000 room nights for the duration of the tournament for Southern Sun.

Despite the global economic downturn, Southern Sun is going full steam ahead with the construction of four new hotels, the last one of which will open its doors in May next year.

Southern Sun Montecasino in Fourways and Southern Sun Hyde Park, both in Johannesburg, will be four-star hotels, while the hotel in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, and the one in Witbank in Mpumalanga will be two-star hotels.

Source: Business Times