SANParks June/July 2010 beds fully booked in 2 hours
01. Jul, 2009
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South African National Parks (SANParks) had made a special concession for the June/July 2010 holiday period that the public will be able to make a booking for both months from today (1 July 2009) because of the FIFA 2010 World Cup Soccer tournament taking place during this period next year. Normally SANParks opens bookings per month, 11 months in advance and during July, clients would have only been able to book their June 2010 accommodation. Within 2 hours of the Reservations office being opened at 07h30 today, almost all accommodation in Kruger National Park (KNP) was booked and accommodation in other parks that are popular during the winter season was reaching capacity.
According to Glenn Phillips, Managing Executive of Tourism and Marketing, SANParks did expect a rush to secure bookings this morning as it is normal for cars to queue outside the SANParks offices every year on this day, with people waiting to book for the next year’s school holidays. “The surprise came when we realised that all the main camps in the popular parks were fully booked 2 hours after opening,” said Phillips. He also explained that with SANParks being affiliated to MATCH for the 2010 World Cup, that SANParks felt the need to make the school holiday season a little easier for their local clients, many of whom regularly book in KNP, the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP), and Addo Elephant National Park during the mid-year break. As a result, the opening of bookings for two months at one time was decided upon and the message relayed to the South African public through various channels.
“We are pleased that our local clientele heeded our message to book early and came in their masses to secure their holiday accommodation today. We value our local visitors and even though we will be accommodating the soccer tourists next year, we are glad to also be able to provide for our local clients during the school holiday next year,” said Phillips.
Accommodations in the main camps of KNP are fully booked and at the time of release, bush camps in the far northern areas of KNP were still available. With Skukuza, Berg en Dal and Pretoriouskop allocated to MATCH for next year, all of the other camps in the southern region of KNP are fully booked since this morning.
The main camps of Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the Northern Cape are also booked with accommodation in the smaller camps being booked fast and the same applies at Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape, although the smaller camps are still available. Marakele National Park in Limpopo still has beds available for weekdays. Please note again that accommodation is being booked out fast.
For anyone wanting a holiday in a South African National Park during the mid-year holiday season, call SANParks Reservations (012 428 9111) or go to the website www.sanparks.org and enquire about the parks that still have availability like Garden Route, Augrabies and Richtersveld (4×4 owners only), among the other 20 parks that SANParks manages.
My name is Muzi Mohale a full-time travel blogger, your host at Travelwires.com responsible for all editorial on this blog. I blog about the travel and tourism industry in Africa. Apart from blogging about tourism, I also run 
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