SOUTH Africa will spend a staggering $5.7 billion preparing for World Cup 2010, an event expected to attract an estimated 373,000 foreign football fans and up to 40,000 foreign sex workers.
The emerging economy has spent up big on security, building and upgrading 10 stadiums and creating transport infrastructure for the event, the BBC reports.
The event - set to run from June 11 to July 11 - is also expected to generate significant economic activity for South Africa.
A report released last month by accountants Grant Thornton forecasts World Cup 2010 will add about 0.5 per cent to the country's growth.
A significant figure in a country expected to growth between 2 and 2.5 per cent this year.
The report has revised down its projected number of World Cup visitors - from 483,000 to 373,000 - but says these tourists will "will stay longer and spend more".
“Indications are that overseas tourists will stay an average of 18 days compared to the 14 days used in the original projections,” said the report's author, Gillian Saunders of Grant Thornton.
Football body FIFA will spend about $1.3 billion on this year's World Cup and expects to generate about $3.4 billion in revenue.
FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke told the BBC the organisation made no profit and any surplus would be reinvested in football programs around the world.
Sex workers also flocking to South Africa
Meanwhile, the World Cup will attract an estimated 40,000 sex workers, South Africa's Central Drug Central Authority told the Christian Science Monitor.
A hotel general manager in Johannesburg told the Monitor that the prostitutes were coming from as far as China, Pakistan, India, Hong Kong, and Venezuela."
The Monitor reports that the majority of the sex workers arriving for the World Cup appeared to be from Zimbabwe due to the high level of economic desperation in the country.
Prostitution is illegal in South Africa and church groups are urging South African hotels to ensure their lodgings are not used for the sex trade.
The church groups are also concerned about increased human trafficking and child prostitution during the month-long event.
There are also worries about the spread of disease.
An estimated 5.7 million people have HIV in South Africa and about 1000 die each year from AID-related illnesses, the Monitor reports

Wow! Some incredible figures there!
Whenever you have an impulse of half million odd people for a joyous event, no doubt the demand for most neccessarial and short-time luxurious commodities will likely increase ten-fold. Whoever said sex workers have a gap between their ears just as the gap between their legs? Sex workers realise this event is an advantageous means of increasing their revenue. Good on them!

i wonder how ppl get into the trade of slanging girls... gotta be some HUGE money...

well its good they are bringing in the WG's, you wouldn't touch a local with a 10ft pole with stats like that

When I read this report in the news, it sadden me that quite a number of wgs from Asia were going also.  Most of these girls may not have stds now, but they may have them after doing the rounds during the World Cup.  Considering Africa has a high rate of stds/hiv, there is a very high chance these girls will get infected from their customers.  

You think these girls can refuse customers?  Not very likely, especially if the girls are brought in by S. African managers.  I hope China makes it mandatory for every China national returning from Africa to submit to a blood test.   

so, most of the wgs are gonna be chinese?
well, unless they get banged by the locals there, technically they shouldn't have a higher chance of getting HIV as compared to doing their job anywhere else, eg. Beijing olympics. I'd suspect 99% of there clients rich enough to pay are foreigners. Unless some locals have been waiting all their lives to bang an asian chick

when theres that many people there will always be a need for sex, anyone that can deliver it will be paid greatly for their efforts. supply and demand!

Yes indeed like any other service,supply and demand dictate the cost. Publicity like this will in fact raise the WG's profile increasing demand and probably supply.

If you where a starving Zimbabwean woman wouldn't you consider a trip to South Africa to help empty the pockets of all those foreigners of their hard currency.

The Catholics learnt some time ago that publicly criticising some movies for example results in a big windfall for the producers in higher demand, now their criticisms tend to be more low key.

[ Last edited by  atomic3d at 16-5-2010 05:14 ]

Bro Doghead - STD is pretty high in China as well - just the same as all over the world.

"The research, conducted between August 1999 and August 2000 in 60 communities by U.S. and Chinese researchers, is the first nationwide survey to combine reports of sexual behavior in China with empirical evidence of its consequences. The survey of about 3,800 Chinese men and women ages 20-64 found that 14.6 percent of the high-income men who had sex with prostitutes had chlamydia, along with 6 percent of their partners. The overall prevalence of the disease -- 2.1 percent for men, 2.6 percent for women -- was similar to that in developing countries. Incidence was highest in the rapidly developing coastal region in the south, where 16 percent of men and 9.9 percent of women were infected. However, even rural areas showed prevalence rates similar to that seen in rural Africa, where STD infection rates are extremely high."
"Population-Based Study of Chlamydial Infection in China: A Hidden Epidemic," appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2003;289:1265-1273).

Interesting...for some reason I always thought China (along with Korea and Japan) STD rates were among the lowest in the world...especially among prostitutes.