FIFA 2010– Bringing Cheer To Your Palate

2010 FIFA world cup is not just about the game but it’s also the time for the hotel industry to cash in on this international event. And the fever can be seen not just in South Africa but India as well.

Whenever there is an international sporting event, it brings cheer to the hotel industry whether the event is in India or not and more than anything it’s the hype which adds to the excitement. It’s surely the right opportunity for them to extra earnings than any other reason to be a part of the event. It’s just like a day like Valentine’s Day, which made its way into India as well because of the marketing strategy by card companies and today it’s the most widely celebrated day in the country.

The way FIFA fever has gripped the entire hotel industry in the country is as if it’s India which is hosting the event. Some hotels in South India have also joined the football mania. A hotel in Kovalam is organising a food festival till the World Cup ends and its staff would be dressed in football jerseys.

In a Delhi hotel the entrance of a pub has been set as a football goal post through which one enters to a place where posters of football players and flags of different teams are put up. In Chandigarh also hotels, night clubs and even hair saloons are cashing in on the football euphoria gripping the city as the World Cup kicked off.  A five-star hotel here has is offering special dishes named after soccer jargon and its mega stars and has got a football shape menu card for the entire month besides also greeting the visitors with a life-size football at the entrance.

In Kolkata also the ongoing FIFA World Cup has entered the mouth-watering menus of hotels and restaurants. Most of the eating out joints and malls in the city are decked up with the flags and larger than life cut outs of teams and players now busy fighting for the World Cup title in South Africa. The main course dishes and starters have been renamed after the stars of sides like Argentina, England, France, Brazil and Germany. Specialty restaurants here will roll out special snacks which will be named on World Cup characters, display flags of the participating teams on each table, will distribute badges of the teams, and train its staff with World Cup anecdotes.

Any event or occasion now means business and rightly so, as that’s what the in thing is today. We as customers are also getting the feel of it sitting far away from where the action is, and it’s because of hotels and restaurants that FIFA is making its presence besides ofcourse on our television screens even if our team did not qualify for the world cup, we Indians are crazy about the game.