By Barry Moody VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - As South Africa revels in World Cup fever, its neighbouring countries, especially devastated Zimbabwe, are left lamenting dashed dreams of a rich dividend from soccer's biggest event. A year ago, neighbours from Botswana to Swaziland anticipated a flood of tourists and teams taking advantage of their high altitude to prepare for South African conditions. None more so than Zimbabwe, its economy ravaged by a decade of political conflict, violence and hyper-inflation, whose tourist officials once predicted they could make up to $100 million in World Cup spinoffs. Now industry sources say they will be lucky to get a tenth of that. Instead, hotels and tour operators at the majestic Victoria Falls, jewel in the crown of Zimbabwe's tourist attractions and once a major revenue earner, say the World Cup has damaged their business because flights via South Africa are too expensive or full during the tournament. "I thought a lot of people would come at the time of the World Cup but we actually found that it was a sort of discredit for us," said Barbara Murasiranwa, Managing Director of the big Victoria Falls travel agents Shearwater. "We don't know what the period after the World Cup will bring but for now it is bad for business," she told Reuters. Karl Snater, manager of the famous old colonial Victoria Falls Hotel agreed. "Because of the log jam of bookings and flights and increased prices into South Africa, a lot of these tours were stopped over June and July which is really our bread and butter business and that has come to a halt." "CRUMBS" "Unless there are last minutes bits and pieces, crumbs that fall off the table, that is what we can hope for," he said. Murasiranwa said Shearwater would be lucky to get half the 210,000 clients they had anticipated this year and most of these would be South Africans "running away" from a sport they did not enjoy, or who had rented their homes to foreign fans. Conditions are similar in other countries round the region. Botswana set up a special World Cup committee to exploit the tournament and hired British consultants to help. But hotels say they have no World Cup related bookings. Bruce Page-Wood, regional director of the Peermont Global chain, told Reuters: "Our hotels do not show any additional bookings when comparing with normal. So there is no positive impact from the World Cup." Other hotels told a similar story. "There is a lot of hype relating to the World Cup, but we are yet to see that hype turning into actual bookings," said Ishmale Matumba, marketing manager for the Gaborone hotel. Like Zimbabwe, tourist operators said at a conference in Gaborone this week that the soccer spectacular had reduced arrivals because of airline congestion during their peak season for safaris and hunting. In tiny Swaziland, surrounded by South Africa, commentator Alec Lushaba said: "We should not believe everything people say about this World Cup being an African thing, but the host country's event." Like other regional critics, Lushaba said South Africa's neighbours had failed to build the infrastructure of training pitches, gyms and hotel rooms that would attract teams. "A World Cup so near yet so far," he wrote. EUPHORIA All this explains the euphoria of the population and the palpable glee of officials when Brazil came to Harare last week to play a friendly -- notwithstanding the bill for this cash-strapped nation, which Brazilian media said was $1.8 million. "We still feel that those costs are nowhere near in terms of the benefits we have achieved," said Emmanuel Fundira, chairman of the Zimbabwe Tourism Council. He told Reuters Zimbabwe had approached many teams including England, North Korea, Mexico and several African qualifiers. The North Korea match was scrapped after protests over Pyongyang's training of an army unit accused of killing thousands of people in the 1980s. "I think we are more than happy that out of the 20 we tried, the one who eventually came to Zimbabwe is ranked number one in the world," Fundira said. From government officials, who certainly boosted their popularity, to fans at the match, Zimbabweans believe the game will encourage tourists by showing that the country is now safe after the formation of a power-sharing government last year. "Zimbabwe is seen by many people as a very risky country to come to, but as you can see everybody is smiling and it is a peaceful environment," said printer Dennis Muyambo at the match, where the joy of local fans was scarcely punctured by a 3-0 drubbing by Brazil. "You want to think in terms of the future. The post World Cup benefit is tremendous, just imagine having a brand icon like Brazil coming to Zimbabwe. The Google hits on Zimbabwe were so high over the last few days," Fundira said. Tourism Minister Walter Muzembi said Zimbabwe was still hoping to lure in teams that were knocked out of the tournament early together with their fans. "They will be live witnesses of how peaceful this country is," he said. (Editing by Ossian Shine)
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