Hospitality Business
Food Solutions
Beverage Solutions
Catering Equipment
Hotel Solutions
Furnishings & Decor .jpg)
THE influx of visitors for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ is proving to be a boom for the local economy.
.jpg)
Visitors from the US are proving to be some of the big spenders in South Africa
Despite some uncertainty in the economic climate, a report from Tourism Outlook: South Africa shows a marked increase of 34 percent in inbound tourism spending in South Africa during the first quarter of 2010.
Spending by Visa cardholders increased to about $566-million (about R4,28-billion) in the first quarter of the year, a sharp increase over the same period in 2009. In that year, travellers spent $179-billion in the full 12 months while visiting South Africa. Tourism Outlook: South Africa is an annual report that analyses Visa cardholder spending.
While tourism activity in 2009 slumped in many countries, with double-digit drops in inbound tourism spending, Visa cardholder spending by international visitors to South Africa decreased by only 2,7 percent from $1,84-billion in 2008 to $1,79-billion in 2009. The decline was attributed to the global economic meltdown.
The increase in inbound tourism spend is likely to increase because of the World Cup, which is proving to be a big gain for the tourism sector. Between kickoff on 11 June and 20 June, about 45 000 Visa transactions were recorded.
The major spenders came from the United Kingdom, with a total spend of about $25,3-million; visitors from the United States spent $25,2-million, Australians contributed $6,2-million, the French spent $4,7-million, Brazilians spent about $4,1-million and the Germans spent $3,9-million, or about R30-million.
The money spent by international visitors on their Visa credit, debit and prepaid cards in the first 10 days of the football tournament increased 81 percent over the same period in 2009. Visa spending data indicates that the United Kingdom contributed about 26 percent to this, with the United States spending about 15 percent.
According to Visa, more than 90 percent of the spending was in "typical leisure and business travel categories", including accommodation, restaurants, retail, car rental and air travel.
Tourist spend
"You can see it for yourself on the streets and in the shopping malls of the nine host cities and now we're seeing the real-time data. The international visitors have come and they are spending with their Visa cards. The spending is spread right across the 120 000 merchants that accept Visa in South Africa," comments Michael Lynch, the Visa Inc global head for sponsorship management.
.jpg)
Spend by visitors to South Africa during the World Cup is expected to be over R90-billion
"The sponsorship of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa is working extremely well for Visa with promotional activities occurring in close to 100 countries, involving 500 financial institutions and merchants. We also have approximately 4 000 competition prize winners coming to South Africa for the tournament and the first waves of those have had a great experience."
Just a month before the World Cup kicked off, Grant Thornton projected that about 370 000 foreign visitors would flock to South Africa for the tournament. The month-long competition was expected to gross about R93-billion.
Joburg is a key host, with 15 of the 64 matches being played in the city, including two Rounds of 16 matches, two quarterfinals and the final. Already 13 matches have been played here. The 14th is on 2 July and the last is the final on 11 July at Soccer City. Several of its stadiums are serving as training venues.
On average, overseas tourists would spend about R30 200 per trip and attend an average of five football matches per person, Grant Thornton anticipated. It extrapolated that about 105 000 of the 373 000 World Cup visitors would be without tickets, 85 000 of whom would be from Africa.
In addition, the independent accounting and consulting firm notes that Bafana Bafana's failure to make it into the Round of 16 stage will not have a negative effect on the Cup or on any of the economic data projected thus far for the tournament.
"Sadly, South Africa's 2-1 win against the French was not a big enough margin for the national squad to qualify for the Round of 16 stages. This may be disappointing for our local supporters, but it does open up one extra space for a foreign team [in this case, Mexico] to go further in this event," says Lee-Anne Bac, the director of strategic solutions at Grant Thornton.
"This in turn, means that we will have additional foreign tourists in our country for a while longer who will be spending more money, filling hotels and attending games either at fan parks or in the stadiums."
User Login
