The World Cup and the almighty dollar

South Africans mostly rooted for Ghana during the U.S./Ghana match. This makes sense, as Ghana is the last remaining African country in a tournament that was supposed to showcase Africa’s development. However, an interesting article in today’s paper says that South Africans might rue that decision and the ouster of others such as the UK. Why? Visitors from the U.S. and UK are the two biggest-spending groups according to Visa. They now have no strong reason to stick around. While I doubt this will have too much of an impact – the price of changing an airline ticket to leave prematurely will probably keep many here for their full itinerary – it is an interesting point.

What would have probably been a more interesting exercise would be to see which nationalities booked the longest average hotel stay. Brazilians might have been more inclined to book all the way until the finals, for example, than Americans. This would give a more realistic assessment of each country’s opinion of its own chances than simply asking the man on the street.