Tourism big bucks

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Tourism brings in the big bucks

Tourism from the World Cup is expected to rake in an estimated R27-billion.

The week before and after kick-off, spending by international visitors on Visa-branded cards was up by 54 percent over last year.

All this is thanks to a R100m marketing campaign in the four years leading up to the World Cup to ensure that international tourists came to the tournament.

The World Cup had been a fabulous opportunity to showcase the country in totality and has given the country the opportunity to do away with stereotypes.

Furthermore the international guests had largely been surprise at the country’s world-class infrastructure.

SA Tourism is waiting to reap the benefits of the World Cup after the tournament when guests returned to their own countries.

South Africans will continue to support the World Cup tournament even if its team goes out in the early stages as South Africa will not be down.

Tourists spending have boosted the SA economy and during the period up to the kick-off of the event and the first week of the tournament matches, spending by international visitors in South Africa on Visa brand cards exceeded R97million, up 54 percent from the same period last year.

The number of transactions was up 60 percent compared to the same period in 2009.

Visa spending data indicated that the UK, followed by the USA, Australia, France and Brazil had been the strongest contributors to tourism spending to date and these five countries alone accounted for 51 percent of spending.

More than 90 percent of spending was in typical leisure and business travel categories, accommodation, restaurants, retail, auto rental and air travel.

It was very evident from the numbers on the streets and in shopping malls of all the nine host cities, and now we’re seeing the real-time data.