Pretoria - More than 456 000 international visitors have poured into South Africa in the first seven days of the FIFA World Cup.
According to Home Affairs statistics, 456 423 fans descended on the country to participate and experience an African World Cup.
This number shows an increase of 32 percent visitors into the country than in the same period in the previous year, and organisers believe more football loving fans are still to come as the tournament gets more exciting.
It's more likely that there are more Americans in the country as data indicates that they top the number of foreign ticket holders, with more than 20 000 expected to attend the tournament.
International visitors pouring into the country are expected to pump billions into South Africa's economy.
In the build up to the World Cup, organisers estimated the number of people who were likely to visit the country to be half a million. But as fears that the recession could discourage most people from travelling, the projected number drastically dropped to around 300 000.
The World Cup has also been warmly welcomed by fans worldwide. According to FIFA, the Fan Fests, organised at 16 official venues around the world, played host to more than a million excited supporters, during the first six days of the biggest sporting party in the world.
More than 800 000 fans in ten South African venues and more than 400 000 fans in Rome, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro, followed matches on the giant screens at the official FIFA Fan Fests.
The best attended venues over the course of the last six days were mostly sunny Durban with 200 000 spectators for the local Fan Fest and Paris with more than 100 000 spectators for the International FIFA Fan Fest.
The highest numbers of spectators so far have been reached on the Opening Match day on 11 June with more than 400 000 spectators across all venues.
The maximum capacity was reached in almost all venues every time the respective national team played. More than 50 000 fans were counted at the at Rio de Janeiro's famous Copacabana beach the day before, when the Brazilian team played
