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Lessons from the Confederations Cup
Despite an overall sharp decline in international tourist arrivals globally, there is still strong potential and lively activity in some sub-sectors of the tourism industry. The outlook for the South African market is also better than in most other parts of the world.
For the industry in South Africa, the hosting of the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup remains an important opportunity in the shorter term to ride out the storm of the present global recession. The feedback from the recent hosting of major sporting events such as soccer's Confederation Cup, cricket's Indian Premier League tournament and the British and Irish Lions rugby tour is also mostly positive.
Experience in the present European tourist summer high season of the northern hemisphere also shows that while business from some sources is down, there are also boom times for others.
Recent reports from Holland, for instance, said that so-called beach pavilions on the Dutch coast are experiencing their best season in history. The boom times are fuelled by the fact that an estimated five million Hollanders, who traditionally would have spent their summer holiday outside the country, are this year doing so closer to home.
Provisional figures from the United Nations World Trade Organization's World Tourism Barometer indicate a decline of 8% globally in international arrivals for the first four months of 2009. International tourist arrivals are down from 269 million to 247 million, compared with the same period in 2008.
The prediction for 2009 as a whole is a decline of between 4% and 6% in global tourism.
For South Africa, however, the prospects on the tourism front remain fairly positive for the short- to medium term.
The recent hosting of the Confederations Cup seems to have enhanced the country's competitiveness in the tough market conditions.
A survey commissioned by Cape Town Tourism, in partnership with the University of Cape Town, has found that 63% of the international visitors attracted by the tournament said they planned to return next year for the Soccer World Cup.
However, the survey, which was conducted in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Rustenburg and Bloemfontein, found that only 15.3% of the respondents agreed with the statement that South Africa is a value-for-money destination. More than a third also said they did not feel safe on public transport in Johannesburg, and this should be addressed before the 2010 tournament, the report states.
"But the introduction of the rapid bus transit system and other public transport developments like the Gautrain should improve safety perceptions of public transport," the report assessed.
However, 77.85% of the respondents said they felt safe at the stadiums and noticed a large police presence. More than 69% also said they felt safe in public places such as restaurants and night clubs.
Almost 50% of respondents rented cars during their stay in South Africa, while 10.42% said they used minibus taxis.
A third of the foreign tourists surveyed were travelling in groups of more than six - not only in tour groups, but also in groups of families and friends - while 16.6% were travelling alone.
Indicative of the extent to which sports tourism is becoming a growing sub-sector in the industry, is the fact that the largest portion of respondents, namely 47%, said they had travelled overseas to attend a sporting event only once before in the past five years.
Important for players in the tourism industry is to take note that most respondents (53.3%) made use of the Internet to gather information to plan their trip to South Africa.
Cape Town Tourism also reports an unprecedented number of Internet hits since the launch of its 2010 mini-site at www.capetown.travel/2010.
Of the 323 respondents surveyed, most stayed for at least 14 days and only one said he would not recommend South Africa as a holiday destination.
When asked which aspect, besides the Confederations Cup, had brought them to the country, 71.2% said they were most attracted by South Africa's culture, history and natural beauty.
Tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk recently told an event hosted by the British Museum that the Lions rugby tour attracted 40 000 international supporters, mainly from the United Kingdom, with an estimated revenue of more than R1 billion to the fiscus.
It was estimated that the World Cup would contribute R50bn to the economy from construction investment, with an estimated R15.6bn generated by tourism.
During the World Cup, the country expects 3.5 million participants, of which 1.3 million are expected to be tourists. About 445 000 participants are expected to be foreign arrivals.
