| BA passengers tip CT – 28/07/2010 |
Cape Town is now the favourite destination for British Airlines (BA) passengers worldwide, and the airline is starting a new daily flight to Cape Town as from November. Fin24 reports that BA says its new Boeing 777 will be introduced for the route. Sue Botes, BA’s commercial manager in South Africa, says demand for flights to Cape Town was on the rise even before the 2010 World Cup tournament. Passengers throughout the world who fly BA have identified Cape Town as their favourite destination.
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Full Fin24 report
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| WC a boost for winter tourism – 23/07/2010 |
Tourism in Cape Town during the World Cup had not lived up to short-term expectations, but the long-term benefits were expected to be significant, according to Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, the chief executive of Cape Town Tourism. According to a report on the IoL site, hotels and B&Bs were on average about 55 percent full throughout the football tournament - about 15 percent higher than last winter, but still well below what some had anticipated.
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Full report on the IoL site
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| 90% of tourists recommend SA – 16/07/2010 |
Nine out of 10 foreign visitors in South Africa for the World Cup will recommend the country to family and friends as an ideal holiday destination, according to a survey released recently. A total of 722 tourists were interviewed in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria, African Response, the company that conducted the survey, said. It investigated perceptions of the various elements of the South African experience, including roads, accommodation, stadia, policing and safety.
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Full Sport24 report
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| PE still on a WC high - 14/07/2010 |
Tourists and football fans have streamed into Port Elizabeth in ’unprecedented’ numbers since the start of the World Cup, Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism (NMBT) said. ’Particularly on the day of a match played in the city, and on the day before and after, most establishments have been fully booked,’ said NMBT spokesperson Titus Chuene. Tallies were still being made and official figures would only be available towards the end of the month, ’but it appears visitors have come here in unprecedented numbers’, he said.
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Full report on the IoL site
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| SA tourism to reap the rewards – 13/07/2010 |
South Africa’s investment in the 2010 World Cup will lead to increased tourism, trade and more investment after the country’s successful hosting of the sporting event, President Jacob Zuma said. ’We are sure that the investment we have made will contribute to increased tourism, trade and investment. This will ultimately create new opportunities and bring in the revenue for us to address social challenges,’ said Zuma. According to a report on the IoL site, he said South Africa was looking forward to years of long-term positive interest from people abroad after the month-long World Cup
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Full report on the IoL site
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| Positive WC coverage a boost for SA tourism – 07/07/2010 |
The positive global media coverage South Africa has received during the 2010 World Cup has exceeded all expectations and will benefit the country’s tourism industry long after the tournament ends. According to the Department of Tourism, the World Cup has showcased the country to an international audience of approximately 32 billion viewers and introduced South African to non-traditional markets in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia.
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Full press release
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| Big 5 attracts WC fans - 06/07/2010 |
As the sun set over the savannah at Kruger National Park, a football fan unfurled a banner from the side of an open-air safari truck. Sport24 reports that the guided tour was about to set out in search of Africa’s ’big five’ – lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards and Cape buffalo – and the Argentina fan seized the moment to convey a message to the world, or any animals that might be watching. ’Whatever happens, no matter what,’ the banner said. It showed a picture of Argentina coach Diego Maradona lifting the World Cup – a dream soon killed by Germany as they sank their teeth into the Albicelestes in their quarter-final on Saturday.
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Full Sport24 report
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| Tourism costs ’a mere drop in the ocean’ - 06/07/2010 |
South Africa invested about $100-million in tourism marketing in the build-up to the World Cup, the Tourism Ministry said. ’The total investment in these campaigns was approximately $100m over the four years running up to the 2010 World Cup’, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said. ’It is estimated to have reached 1.9-billion people every month in our key target markets.’ According to a report on the IoL site, Van Schalkwyk said this was a ’mere drop in the ocean’ however, compared to the benefits to tourism of positive reporting on South Africa during the World Cup.
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Full report on the IOL site
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| Scramble for flights to SA - 05/07/2010Scramble |
European airlines are making emergency arrangements to cope with the demand from football fans. FIN24 reports that the 2010 World Cup is now almost a purely European affair. In the semi-finals, Germany will play Spain on Wednesday, while the Netherlands and Uruguay battle it out on Tuesday. The interest in flights has increased and KLM is doing its utmost to accommodate the augmented demand, Saskia Kranendonk, KLM press officer, says.
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Full FIN24 reportFIN24
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| One million tourists enter SA - 04/07/2010 |
The number of foreign visitors entering South Africa during the 2010 World Cup period has now risen to one million, the home affairs department said.
’This figure is expected to rise further as the World Cup enters the semi-finals and the final phases of the tournament,’ said spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa in a statement. The Movement Control System (MCS), which was launched by Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and linked to Sars and law enforcement agencies, had enabled the country to monitor movements of persons entering the country, particularly during the period leading up to and during the various phases of the 2010 World Cup.
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Full report on the Sport24 siteFull
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| Lesotho visitors top the WC list - 01/07/2010 |
Lesotho nationals top the list of foreign visitors entering South Africa during the World Cup so far. Home Affairs Deputy Minister Malusi Gigaba, briefing the media in Pretoria, said 188 702 Lesotho nationals had entered the country, while 173 043 had departed SA. The Daily Dispatch reports that he attributed this to Lesotho’s close proximity to South Africa.
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Full Daily Dispatch report
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| WC sidelines sardine run - 30/06/2010sidelines |
The ’greatest shoal on earth’ was being sidelined as the 2010 World Cup entered the quarter finals, fishermen and netters said. ’There have been absolutely no tourists of any sort this year. This World Cup has definitely dampened things,’ said fisherman and netter Morgan Vadivelu. He said the tourists and documentarians, who usually visited the province to get a glimpse of the slippery catch, were not there this year. ’Everyone is so excited for the soccer that they are forgetting about everything else,’ he said.
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Full report on the News 24 site
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| WC investors lose out – 30/06/2010 |
Several investors and schools in the Cape Peninsula have received only disappointment and debt instead of soccer tourists and fat cheques as payback for their expensive contribution to a national tourism scheme. Sport24 reports that at least 30 entrepreneurs from Mitchells Plain, Eerste River, Grassy Park and Khayelitsha, who hoped to coin it big during the 2010 World Cup, have lost at least R90 000 each. The mastermind behind the national tourism project, Channon Merrick from Merricks Empowerment Consultants, reportedly had to flee from a meeting that was held earlier this month with furious investors from Soweto who had invested heavily in the same scheme and wanted their money back.
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Full Sport24 report
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| Durban a big hit - 29/06/2010 |
An estimated 30 000 visitors have flocked to KwaZulu-Natal since the 2010 World Cup started, the provincial tourism department said. ’We had a target of 25 000 tourists visiting our province and we exceeded this. We have also noted that during match days the province attracts about 30 000 fans,’ MEC for economic development and tourism Mike Mabuyakhulu told journalists in Durban. According to a report on the IoL site, Durban’s FIFA Fan Fest was the most popular in the country, attracting more than 200 000 since the start of the tournament.
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Full report on the IoL site
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| Big names bring windfall - 29/06/2010 |
Halfway through the World Cup, tourism officials say football fans have already brought an economic windfall that looks set to keep rolling as a raft of big countries play in the second round, notes a report on the iafrica.com site. Business is booming with foreign fans at bars and restaurants, which are also boosted by plenty of local support for big guns like England, Portugal and Brazil after hosts South Africa bowed out.
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Full report on the iafrica.com site
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| Cape Town: Robben Island covered with soccer passion - 28/06/2010 |
Among the tourist attractions in South Africa on World Cup football fans ’must-do’ lists, one of the most notorious penal colonies of the last century is right up there. SPort24 reports that Robben Island, a barren outcrop off the Cape Town coast, is best known for being home to political prisoners jailed by the old apartheid government, most famously former leader Nelson Mandela and current president Jacob Zuma.
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Full Sport24 report
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| Hundreds of fans denied entry into SA - 27/06/2010Hundreds |
Six hundred and thirteen travellers have been barred entry into South Africa during the 2010 World Cup, the Home Affairs department said. Spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said that since the beginning of the month, the travellers were denied entry because their names appeared either on the Interpol, FIFA or South Africa’s Visa and Entry Stop List, notes a Mail & Guardian report. ’The 613 foreign travellers were detected through South Africa’s movement control system launched in May this year,’ he said.
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Full report on the Mail and Guardian site
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| Canadians spending big at WC – 25/06/2010 |
Canadian soccer fans are spending up a storm at the 2010 World Cup. Canadians are not spending as much as other countries, notes a News1130 report. But, considering Canada does not even have a team on the field, Canadians still made the top 10 list of counties shelling out the dough, coming in ninth behind Mexico. US, Australia, France and Brazil are the strongest spenders so far. Visa card carriers have already contributed $3.4m during the first week of the tournament.
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Full News1130 report
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| Durban surfing the WC wave – 25/06/2010 |
It may be winter in South Africa, with Arctic temperatures swirling around Johannesburg for evening World Cup games, but the Indian Ocean city of Durban is thriving in its sub-tropical climate, notes a report on the IoL site. ’The warmest place to be,’ boast the posters promoting the 2010 World Cup of Durban, host to seven matches including a semi-final. Well, they weren’t lying, and bar a couple of monsoon-like downpours, it is winter in name only. Surfers ride the waves, football and cricket games dot the wide sandy beach, and others merely content themselves with a gentle stroll in temperatures that can surpass 25 degrees C in the day.
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Full report on the IoL site
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| SA impresses tourists – 24/06/2010 |
2010 World Cup visitors have been so impressed with South African hospitality they will become the country’s tourism ambassadors when they return to their countries, Durban’s mayor said. Sport24 reports that Obed Mlaba said he met many visitors who had been singing the host country’s praises. ’They will go back with a different view of our country. Many came here thinking that they were visiting a very harsh and hostile country. They have been treated well and they are happy.’
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Full Sport24 report
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| 34% increase in tourism spending - 17/06/2010 |
South Africa saw a 34% increase in inbound tourism spending during the first quarter of 2010, and anticipates additional growth opportunities around the 2010 World Cup. The Herald reports that this is according to Tourism Outlook: South Africa, an annual report released by Visa which analyses cardholder spending over the past two years. VisaVue Travel data indicates that South Africa weathered the economic head-winds which impacted on international tourism during 2009 better than most countries around the world.
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Full report in The Herald
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| WC runaways flood Mozambique - 13/06/2010 |
While some embrace the World Cup craze, other South Africans escaped the crowds on holiday to neighbouring Mozambique. ’We have quite a lot of South Africans coming up who aren’t interested in watching the World Cup,’ said tour operator David Kimber. ’It’s unusual. People are looking to get away in the five weeks of school holiday.’ Bookings at holiday resorts were up compared to the same time last year, said Kimber.
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Full Sport24 report
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| WC to expensive for fans - 13/06/2010 |
Two-thirds of soccer enthusiasts in 23 nations feel the first World Cup finals on African soil has become too expensive for fans to enjoy, notes a Mail & Guardian report. Hosts South Africa kicked off the 2010 tournament on Friday with a 1-1 draw against Mexico who scored an equaliser late in the second half, breaking the hearts of fans in the Soccer City stadium who had hoped their underdog team may have begun the competition with a win.
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Full Mail & Guardian report
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| New tourism strategy for CTRU – 07/06/2010New |
In response to the lower than expected bookings in Cape Town and the Western Cape during the 2010 World Cup, Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) has spearheaded a tactical marketing campaign to encourage last-minute travel to the destination, notes a CBN report. The campaign is focused on football fans based in Gauteng as well as domestic market travelers looking for vacation options during the long school holidays.
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Full CBN reportCBN
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| Traffic-stopping campaign to promote city – 01/06/2010 |
Joburg traffic is likely to slow to a snail’s pace when bikini-clad babes and hunks in board shorts, carrying surfboards, take to the streets to hand out bottles of sunblock at major intersections. The initiative is part of a 2010 World Cup marketing campaign spearheaded by the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and is aimed at convincing the city’s core domestic tourism market to travel to Durban from Gauteng as usual during the World Cup period. The campaign comes in the wake of the hotel occupancy crisis facing the accommodation industry in Durban and KZN.
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Full report in The Mercury
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| Free Internet for visitors - 31/05/2010 |
The V&A Waterfront has recently announced that it will provide its visitors with free Internet access during and after the World Cup. ’The initiative is being driven in collaboration with HipZone and is part of the V&A Waterfront’s commitment to continuing to offer world-class services to its visitors,’ the company said in a press statement. Chantelle Kidd, Marketing Executive at the V&A Waterfront says, ’While free Wi-Fi has become the norm overseas, it is still relatively new in South Africa.’
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Full MyADSL.co.za report
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| Recession blamed for low turn-out - 31/05/2010 |
Tourism organisations blamed the global recession and high airfares for the lower than expected turnout of World Cup tourists. ’We believe that under a different economic climate, demand would have extended to areas outside the host cities and to the wide variety of non-hotel accommodation options available in South Africa,’ said the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (Fedhasa) and the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa) in a joint statement.
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Full Fin24 report
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