It now seems that the South African Ministry of tourism has confirmed that it will investigate claims that hotels have been artificially inflating prices ahead of this summer’s FIFA World Cup. Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, the tourism minister, announced the official investigation following allegations of unreasonably high prices at some properties. Hotels have quickly denied these claims.

The tourism minister went on to say that, in recent weeks they have noted allegations that accommodation establishments in the tourism industry are not responsible and are inflating prices excessively. Until now, their impression has been that this is not the case. However, they do believe that it should be investigated, and the results of the investigation will be made public.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to kick off on June 11^th. This, the 19^th football world cup, will be the very first time that a tournament like this has been held in Africa. Some 450,000 international visitors are now expected over the duration of the tournament. They are expecting some one million guests to attend.

Allegations of price fixing in the airline industry have also come up in recent weeks. Six South African airlines are facing investigations after allegedly colluding to hike fares for local flights during the tournament.

However, experts are claiming that if these places are price fixing, they are not shocked by it. The travel and tourism industry has been through a rough few years. Just last year, many places had to close down because they were not able to keep their doors open during the recession. Now many of these places are trying to make money anyway that they can.