Cape Town : It's about investing in Africa's Tourism Future

With the excitement around the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final Draw almost touchable, Cape Town and the Western Cape province of South Africa is at Soccerex in Johannesburg to promote its remarkably beautiful and diverse city and province- not only as an impertant part of the 2010 visitor's intinerary, but also as a travel destination that will inspire countless future return visits to South Africa and Africa.

When in 2006 the FIFA World Cup was organised in Germany, many of the international visitors said that they would recommend Germany as a travel destination to others. I chose this article because I would like to draw the intention of the impact of such events on tourism. On the one hand I think that the World Cup in South Africa will benefit the tourism industry. Not only do they expect a huge number of people who will be attending the FIFA World Cup, they also expect a larger number of tourists for the following years. Besides , the people who will come to see the World Cup , will also spend a certain amount of money in South Africa during the event.

CTR(Cape Town Routes Unlimited) came up with a plan to invest in Africa's tourism future.They have a marketing campaign called"Beyond the 90 Minutes". They would like to encourage visitors to experience Cape Town as much as possible. Because there is so much more to see than just the FIFA World Cup. I think it's a good thing that they promote the country ,because it has so much more to offer than just the World Cup. They should take the opportunity to attract more tourists and to show the world what the tourists can experience there. All the organisations should work together to promote the destination.

So I think we can say the the FIFA World Cup offers a great opportunity to the country to present itself as a tourism destination and an investment destination.

We have to consider of course that the country will have to invest in the infrastructure. But this will only improve and strengthen the country. Whether the local habitants can benefit of the situation is a whole other question! I think we all know that it's not that easy. Allright there is going to be more employment but is it really the local inhabitants who are going to benefit from this??According to me the winners will be the big companies, the sponsors and the touroperators.But like I said this is a whole other discussion.

bron : traveldailynews 2/12/09