The arrival of winter normally brings a chill to local car rental companies. Not so this year.

With the Confederations Cup two weeks away, car rental firms expect brisk business. The British and Irish Lions tour, which got under way on Saturday, amplifies this optimism.

Avis Rent A Car CEO Wayne Duvenage says these two world sport events should boost the car rental industry – which is hurting from the economic downturn – by up to 10 percent. The firm has seen a spike in bookings as a result of the Confederations Cup and Lions tour, with foreign inbound business more than doubling that of the same period last year.

Dawn Nathan-Jones, CEO of Europcar, formerly known as Imperial Car Rental, says the company has experienced "healthy forward bookings" due to these locally hosted international events.

Some officials, Nathan-Jones says, are already in the country and are hiring vehicles, especially the luxury and minibus sort.

High demand for coaches

She says Springbok Atlas, a sister company that belongs to Imperial Group, is fully booked - clear evidence of high demand for coaches.

Nathan-Jones said the Indian Premier League (IPL) had stoked demand for rented vehicles.

Ray Booth, MD of Budget Rent A Car, says demand for the company's rental cars emanates more from the Lions tour than from the Confederations Cup, helping boost its reservations.

About 50 000 British and Irish visitors are heading to SA for the 10-match Lions tour.

There is no indication yet how many foreign visitors the Confederations Cup will attract. It kicks off on 14 June. This year, winter, normally a bad season for the car rental business, has turned out to be a boon for it.

Booth says this period is usually quiet, suggesting that the business can comfortably accommodate rising demand when it occurs.

"We have not sold out yet."

Duvenage echoes this: "June is normally a low period for car rental businesses and rental companies have spare capacity to be used in these periods, so it is good for us and the entire tourism industry that these big sporting events are taking place in the winter." Reservations, Duvenage says, are coming in. "We have not sold out yet."

Avis Rent A Car, he says, is flexible in moving cars to areas where the demand is high. It has moved 700 cars from Cape Town to Johannesburg, which is where most of the soccer action will take place. The company has placed an order for 100 new vehicles to cover the expected rental demand.

The Confederations Cup will be staged in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Bloemfontein and Rustenburg, and matches are split equally among these cities.

Nathan-Jones says her company too is "flexible" in moving vehicles around quickly and, as an added benefit, has access to vehicles through Imperial Group's network of dealerships. "We use dealerships where we can to get maximum optimisation of fleet," says Nathan-Jones, affirming that Europcar has been ready for the sport events for some time.

Nathan-Jones says Europcar has ordered some new luxury cars and minibuses. But the company is not keen on buying fleets of new vehicles for an event that will last just a few weeks.

No change in vehicle sales expected

This does not bode well for new vehicle sales, which could have benefited if car rental companies started buying vehicles in large numbers as a result of SA's mid-year sports feast.

Bill Stephens, a spokesperson for Volkswagen SA, says he expects no change in vehicle sales as a result of these sport events, noting that car hire companies are likely to retain vehicles for a longer period.

Duvenage says the Confederations Cup will not help the group prepare for the 2010 Soccer World Cup because the two soccer tournaments have little in common from the company's perspective. "The 2010 event will be a big one for us," says Duvenage, because it is "vastly bigger and spread countrywide."

Booth disagrees, saying the IPL, Confederations Cup and Lions tour serve as "dry runs" for next year's event.

Duvenage says the length of rental will increase over the duration of the tournaments to more than two weeks, whereas the average now is around five days.

Business Day