South Africa, particularly Cape Town’s tourism sector,is set to be boosted by Table Mountain’s provisional nomination as one of the New7Wonders of Nature

Friday, 11 November 2011, marked the exultant and successful culmination of a four year-long protracted campaign in which Table Mountain was provisionally nominated to be part of the New7Wonders of Nature – a highly esteemed and coveted title, indeed. A ceremony to officially inaugurate each participant is still to be held early this year.

The tri-phase New7Wonders global campaign was originally launched in 2007 as the brain child of Swiss filmmaker and museum curator, Bernard Weber. Some 220 countries entered 440 candidate sites initially, and an early voting poll pared this down to 77 candidates in the second phase of the nomination process.

A New7Wonders panel, led by former chief of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Professor Federico Zaragoza, then selected 28 candidates out of the 77, among them Table Mountain, in the final phase using the criteria of geographical balance, diversity and importance to human life.

The final round of the global poll was set to the vote; in South Africa via MXit, SMS and by phone and also via the Internet.

This saw Table Mountain (South Africa) together with the Amazon Rainforest (South America), Halong Bay (Vietnam), Iguazu Falls (South America), Jeju Island (Korea), Komodo Island (Indonesia) and Puerto Princesa Underground River (Philippines) being nominated as the New7Wonders of Nature.

It is no wonder that Table Mountain is proudly being touted by www.tablemountain.net as being the most popular mountain in the world, having beaten equally impressive mountains such as Kilimanjaro, the Matterhorn in Europe and Jade Mountain in Taipei/Taiwan. Set in the heart of Cape Town, at 260 million years old, it stands at a towering height of 1 086 metres at Maclear’s Beacon, its highest point.

Table Mountain is an awe-inspiring sight. It is considered the landmark of Cape Town, with Capetonians often using it as a beacon to navigate around the city and the suburbs that immediately surround the mountain. It spans over 22 000 hectares and is home to more plant species than the British Isles or New Zealand, housing over 1 460 species of fynbos.

n 2000, Table Mountain was awarded World Heritage Site status for being part of the Cape Floral Region, well known for putting South Africa on the map for having the third-highest level of biodiversity in the world.

Tourism is one of the major sectors of South Africa’s economy, contributing 8.3% of the gross domestic product as at 2006. It constitutes 7% of the country’s employment, and the forecast for the industry is favourable.

The New7Wonders of Nature is a highly esteemed accolade and nomination, and is set to bring exciting prospects for South Africa in terms of a boost in tourism revenue as well as tremendous employment opportunities.

Grant Thornton expects a 20% increase in tourism to Cape Town, with 70% of visitors (or 108 000 of these visitors) being international tourists due to the increased publicity surrounding Table Mountain. In the firm’s impact report – and based on the New 7 Man Made Wonders campaign of 2007 that saw over 100 million votes being cast – this New7Wonders of Nature nomination is forecast to produce R1.4 billion annual turnover in tourism for the country for the first five years pending its inclusion.

In an article by Bizpremises.co.za, chief executive officer of Cape Town Tourism Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold said that, “There are many benefits, but our biggest opportunity is the job creation potential.” An estimated 1 000 jobs are set to be created by this increase in tourist numbers.

Following a similar 2007 campaign: if the integration of the New 7 Man Made Wonders into school curricula across the world is anything to go by, then the hope is that the same will happen for the New7Wonders of Nature – in which case Table Mountain, Cape Town and South Africa as a whole will benefit from the additional publicity as a tourist destination.

Many questioned the legitimacy of turning the eminent list of New7Wonders of Nature into a popularity contest, citing that there was bound to be bias in the votes – with voters in the contestant destination likely to vote for their own; and other voters casting their ballot without even having been to, or having seen, some of the destinations.

Others criticised the title “New7Wonders of Nature” as being too broad, encapsulating geological formations such as Table Mountain and ecological anomalies such as Komodo Islands.

However, as judiciously and diplomatically pointed out in his article, “Reaction to the New Seven Natural Wonders of the World” (on Landlopers.com), Matt Long writes that although some participants were more deserving than others, all participants are worthy of honour and mention.

In the end, post-campaign and pending the final announcement this year, South Africa is well poised to reach new tourism frontiers with this benediction.