The National Department of Tourism (NDT) has reported that, based on statistics and other database surrounding the World Cup, it has been a huge triumph for the country’s tourism industry.
“The tourism sector in South Africa is ready to capitalise on the success of the World Cup and the invaluable branding exposure our destination has enjoyed over the past few weeks,” Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the Minister of Tourism, said yesterday. “The tournament exposed the rich diversity of our tourism assets to a worldwide television audience with a cumulative estimated 32 billion viewers. In addition, it has introduced our country to non-traditional markets, including those in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia.
“Over the last few years, South African Tourism (SAT) made significant investments in marketing and advertising the destination, amongst others through various global media deals. The total investment in these campaigns was approximately US$100 million over the four years running up to the World Cup and it is estimated to have reached 1,9 billion people every month in key target markets.
“In addition to growing our status as a world-class leisure tourism destination, we are also positioning South Africa as one of the best sport, mega event and conferencing destinations in the world. The National Event and Convention Bureau, proposed by the National Department of Tourism (NDT) and currently being discussed with the industry, can become an important spoke in this wheel.”
Van Schalkwyk also noted that in terms of the measurement of the impact of the World Cup on tourism and the economy, the NDT would be following a responsible approach based on sound statistical analysis. “One could easily be tempted to release data in a random and ad hoc way but in the tourism sector we understand that trends and impacts need to be properly analysed in order to have a sound basis for future planning. Responding to anecdotal evidence will not take us forward.
“Government will be taking the lead in observing due process in this regard and will rely on the data collected, analysed and released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and SAT. We would caution against premature impact analysis based on ad hoc and anecdotal sources. Some of the figures recently released did not, for example, distinguish between actual tourists and day visitors from neighbouring countries visiting South Africa for reasons other than tourism,” Minister van Schalkwyk said.
The trend and impact analysis of the World Cup on tourism, of which the results are expected in the fourth quarter of 2010, will be critical in building a proper understanding of the impacts of major events on the tourism industry and the wider economy. The results will enable tourism role players to make informed decisions when preparing for future mega events.
The NDT and SAT will be collecting tourism information for the impact analysis through the departure survey conducted during June and July. Relevant World Cup questions were included in the departure survey questionnaire for this purpose.
The results will only be released once Stats SA has released the total arrival statistics for June and July 2010. As in all other countries it is normal practice to allow two to three months before the release of statistics to ensure data cleaning and analysis.
