Zimbabwe cashing in on WC euphoria
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...By MIKE MAKOMO
Published: June 7, 2010
South African and Zimbabwean retailers are in for a shopping bonanza as well-heeled World Cup fans get set to splurge on everything from soccer ball cufflinks to protea-shaped diamond rings.
Current Font Size:
Designer watches worth R1 million have already been sold in Johannesburg, a proudly South African ring worth R300000 has been sold to an England fan visiting Durban.
Durban jeweller Dean Gorrie has already cashed in. A British tourist last week visited his Mark Gold store and left with an exclusively crafted Puzzle rings – a micro-engineered seamless ring with moving diamonds – worth R300000.
The renewed shopping frenzy is welcome relief for recession-hit shopping malls, exclusive boutiques and up-market jewellery stores which have taken a hammering in the last year.
Hotel bookings in Zimbabwe’s biggest tourist attraction Victoria Falls have reached 70%, a week before the start of the football jamboree.
A survey in and around Harare’s central business district on Friday also revealed that soccer enthusiasts were making last ditch efforts to buy tickets for matches, while others were making a beeline to buy generators to cushion themselves from the frequent power outages.
Television sets, satellite decoders, soccer jerseys, vuvuzelas and other football regalia were flying off the shelves of departmental stores and flea markets .
Some of the world cup euphoria has been linked to this week’s visit to Harare by the Brazilian soccer team,, who played a friendly match against the national side, the Warriors on Wednesday, which the visitors won 3-0.