Most Germans have by now come to terms with the fact that winning the World Cup this time around is a task the country's national soccer team likely won't be up to. A shaky series of matches this spring -- including a 1-4 loss to Italy -- has many merely hoping Germany can escape the group phase.

But as hosts of the über-tournament, expectations have also been high for the country's economy, with many hoping that millions of football tourists would empty their wallets in the hotels, bars, restaurants and souvenir shops of Germany. While the expectations for a boost to the nation's economy had always been relatively modest, the tourism, hotel and gastronomy industries had been counting on a major lift.

Now, though, with the first match kick-off just a couple of weeks away, it looks as though that hope had likewise been an empty one. Concerns are mounting that, while Germany may play host to fabulous football, the economic effects may turn out to be minimal.

High on the list of the disillusioned is the German hotel industry. Hotels in Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and in the state of North-Rhine West Palatinate are reporting many more beds still available for the four week tournament than had been expected. Reservations, in fact, are not much above what they would normally be for this time of year, says Stefanie Heckel, a spokeswoman for Germany's association of hotels.

"There is always the danger that the regular guests will be pushed away when such large events come into town," Heckel says. "A number of congresses and conventions that normally take place in late June have been scheduled for other times in the year or even cancelled altogether. There are also losers from the World Cup."

High on the list of losers would appear to be those hotels at which FIFA, international soccer's governing body, blocked out rooms for the tournament -- rooms it was hoping to sell through its World Cup Accommodation Services room finding service on its Web page. While FIFA had a contractual out allowing it to hand back unneeded rooms on April 30, hoteliers have been unpleasantly surprised at the number of rooms now being freed up. Of the 45,000 rooms originally blocked, 16,000 are now unneeded.

The results for some hotels have been hard on the bottom line. Hotel Estrel in Berlin, for example, had reserved 1,125 rooms for FIFA, according to the daily Die Welt. Sixty percent have now been returned and the hotel in June is only 50 percent booked out instead of the normal 68 percent. "Above all, we have lost a lot of our conference business," Estrel spokeswoman Mihaela Djuranovic told Die Welt. Other Berlin hotels have had similar experiences with FIFA.

Elsewhere, though, the mood is just as cautious. A new report issued this week by the German Institute for Economic Research warned not to expect much of a macro-economic effect from the World Cup tournament. There likely won't be "any appreciable economic effect," the report says. "Whether the soccer world championship creates a positive mood in the country that transfers to the shopping habits of Germans is very doubtful."

The report says that at most, German economic growth can hope for a bump of 0.25 percent from the World Cup. And even if the expected 1 million visitors spend the expected €1.8 billion, there are a number of visitors and events which are staying away from Germany to avoid the crowds. The end result, then may not be as dark black as originally hoped. In any case, the German economy is heavily reliant on its exports -- and "the effect (of the tournament) on exports is hardly larger than the chance that Trinidad and Tobago's national will win the World Cup."

In some areas of the German economy, though, a positive effect is already being noticed. Television manufacturer Loewe says that its sales jumped by 38 percent in the first quarter of 2006 according to the dpa news agency, mostly through sales of flat-screen TVs. Philips is expecting sales of flat-screens to double. Adidas is anticipating €1.2 billion worth of World Cup related sales.