The official hospitality programme of the FIFA 2010 World Cup was launched on Wednesday by the programme's exclusive rights holder MATCH Hospitality.

CEO Pascal Portes also announced during a presentation in Johannesburg, that MATCH Hospitality had appointed a joint-venture company, formed between Circa Hospitality and Warwick Hospitality & Events, as the exclusive sales agent for South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

Local Organising Committee (LOC) CEO Danny Jordaan said that the launch was very important for the country as it achieved the two key objectives of promoting tourism and investment in South Africa.

Jordaan said that small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) were an important element of the hospitality industry and he hoped the programme could provide impetus to the potential growth of those businesses.

MATCH Hospitality is the service provider for the sales and management of the FIFA hospitality programme for corporates, FIFA, its commercial affiliates and the LOC. Portes noted that it would manage all production and implementation of the FIFA hospitality programme.

It would provide package options to customers, namely on-site hospitality, which included the tickets for premium seats at match venues and services such as catering, entertainment, and parking. And, for the first time, full hospitality packages would be offered which, in addition to the on-site deliverables, encompassed transport to venues in South Africa and other neighbouring countries, as well as accommodation.

Portes explained that the ticket categories included the private suite - along the field sidelines and reserved for one customer - the  shared suite, which would be located behind the goals and would be shared by several customers, and the executive hospitality which affords the customers' hospitality services in the stadium or outside in temporary facilities.

The products offered by MATCH Hospitality for the event were separated into five series, namely the "big six", Gauteng, venue, final round and the "follow your team" series.

Prices for the packages range from between $380 and $1 400 a person for the venue series (four to eight matches), to $1 750 a person (for 44 matches) for the big-six series and, at the top of the scale, between $3 500 and $6 000 for the final-round series (two to four matches).

Portes noted that sales of the hospitality programme would be launched locally in June and to the rest of the world in September.