Germany is set to host the FIFA World Cup this summer with an anticipated 3-4 million fans travelling to the 12 host cities for a festival of football and culture. As the global community descends on the host cities, they will be greeted with improved infrastructure and a greeting that has taken six years of preparation. For the host cities themselves, it is an opportunity for commerce and to showcase themselves to the rest of the world. Of course, cities such as Munich and Berlin are familiar to the global community and prominent as tourist destinations, but for some of the other host cities, this is really an opportunity to put themselves in the shop window.

With a proportion of the 3-4 million World Cup fans swelling the 600,000 population of Dortmund this June, the city has prepared in earnest since the announcement of the host venues in 2000. Dortmund has the largest football stadium in Germany apart from the Olympic stadium in Berlin where the final itself will be played. With a capacity of over 82,000, the former Westfaldstadion will host one of the semi-final matches as well as r of the preliminary round matches.

A compact city, Dortmund has seen enormous change over recent years. As a former industrial hub and centre for the steel industry in Germany, Dortmund has developed into a modern, contemporary city within the heart of the Ruhr Valley. Much preparation has surrounded Dortmunds status as a World Cup host city and visitors to Dortmund will be well catered for as they participate in the summers festival of football. Although added accommodation has sprung up in Dortmund to handle the influx of visitors, hotel rooms are thin on the ground in the run up to the event. For those looking to find accommodation in Dortmund, the area authority website ( http://www.dortmund.de ) is informative and up to date with World Cup information. Alternatively, some of the major European hotel websites may yet have availability in or around Dortmund.

Dortmund lies in the middle of Germany and has strong road links with the other major host cities. The citys airport is well served by domestic flights and travelling on from Dortmund simple either by air, rail or road. A number of the major car rental firms have a presence in the city making it easy to follow yor team on from Dortmund if they get that far!