FIFA World CUP TM 2010 in South Africa: Short- and long-term impacts on tourism

Table of Contents

Rights Protection

List of Figures

List of Abbreviations

1. Introduction

2. Tourism Destination: South Africa
2.1 Current Status and Future Outlook
2.2 Tourism Statistics and Forecasts

3. Sports Tourism
3.1 Definition
3.2 Major Sport Events
3.3 Impacts on tourism
3.4 South Africa and the hosting of sport events

4. The FIFA World Cup
4.1 FIFA History and the World Cup
4.2 Prerequisites for hosting the FIFA World Cup

5. Tourism Plan South Africa 2010 – short and long-term impacts
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Opportunities
5.3 Key Challenges
5.4 Key Tourism Initiatives

6. Tourism Plan 2010: Current Situation

7. Conclusion

List of References

Appendix

Rights Protection

FIFA has developed and protected an assortment of logos, words, titles, symbols, and other official trademarks.

The most important trademarked terms include, but are not limited to:

illustration not visible in this excerpt

For the full list of FIFA’s trademarks in relation to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, please refer to the South African Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO) at info@cipro.gov.za or seek advice from a intellectual property attorney.^[1]

In the following paper “2010 FIFA World CupTM in South Africa: Short- and long-term impacts on tourism” I herewith declare that I acknowledge the protection rights of the FIFA as mentioned below. For reasons of clarity and readability the trademarks have not been set in the subsequent chapters. I apologise for any inconveniences caused and thank you for your understanding.

List of Figures

Figure 1: International Tourist Arrivals and Tourism Receipts (2006- 2008)

Figure 2: Types of impacts of hallmark events

Figure 3: Selection of agreements between SA and FIFA

Figure 4: Objectives and Key Functional Areas of 2010 Tourism Plan

Figure 5: Impacts of FIFA World Cup 2010

Figure 6: Impacts on tourism and key focus area of initiatives

List of Abbreviations

Rights Protection

FIFA has developed and protected an assortment of logos, words, titles, symbols, and other official trademarks.

The most important trademarked terms include, but are not limited to:

illustration not visible in this excerpt

For the full list of FIFA’s trademarks in relation to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, please refer to the South African Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO) at info@cipro.gov.za or seek advice from a intellectual property attorney.^[1]

In the following paper “2010 FIFA World CupTM in South Africa: Short- and long-term impacts on tourism” I herewith declare that I acknowledge the protection rights of the FIFA as mentioned below. For reasons of clarity and readability the trademarks have not been set in the subsequent chapters. I apologise for any inconveniences caused and thank you for your understanding.

1. Introduction

After the era of apartheid, events, festivals and conferences provide exciting opportunities to market South Africa (SA) and its provinces, cities and towns as preferred tourist destination and to generate benefits for the local economy. The hosting of mega-sport events, such as the FIFA World Cup 2010 serves in addition with excellent public relations opportunities to attract tourists before, during and after the event. The exposure to international media and their audiences will have significant impact on the country’s tourism industry and will contribute to increase growth and job creation, transformation and the alleviation of poverty. As a growing sub-sector of the tourism industry, the staging of events is also a great way to reduce the effects of tourist seasonality and is therefore becoming increasingly competitive.

With a very positive forecast for tourism influx in 2010, SA requires in the preparatory phase and during the event a high level of professionalism to ensure the country’s readiness and show its responsibility towards its people, neighbouring countries, soccer fans and the event itself. To induce sustainable benefits from staging the FIFA World Cup 2010, SA’s stakeholders elaborated initiatives and programmes to support the countries overall economic objectives. SA will face challenges and setbacks, but it will prepare for the event diligently and host what is known the world’s biggest soccer festival.

In the following paper I will present the current position and future outlook for SA’s tourism industry in chapter two. Chapter three will clarify the terms sport tourism and its general impact on the tourism industry. SA’s experience with hosting sport events will also be depicted. After an introduction to the FIFA and the FIFA World Cup 2010 in chapter four, I will conduct a detailed presentment (chapter five) of the predicted short- and long-term impacts of this mega-event on the country’s tourism industry. Herewith I will identify the related challenges and opportunities. Furthermore, in chapter six, the reader will get an elaborated summary of the current preparatory phase for the FIFA World Cup 2010, launched initiatives and projects focusing on tourist, economic and socio-cultural impacts in SA. With my conclusions in chapter seven I will complete the paper.

2. Tourism Destination: South Africa

“Tourism is one of the driving forces of our country’s economy, a major catalyst of socio-economic transformation in South Africa, and one of the most important means for South Africa to build its global brand and image.”^[2]

2.1 Current Status and Future Outlook

Within the region of Southern Africa, which stretches from Angola to Mozambique and from Zambia to South Africa (SA), the success of the regional tourism industry mainly depends on a stable political and economical situation in SA. After the era of apartheid and related isolation (early 1990s), SA rose to be the major tourist generating country in Africa and it is awake to its responsibility to empower development progress on this continent. Guided by the Tourism Act from 1996, the country identified community empowerment and spatial development, sustainable tourism, educational as well as a safety and security campaign as the key challenges for its tourism industry, which accounts for over 8% of the GDP and around 1 million jobs.^[3]

A warm climate, sites and products of cultural heritage, a mostly excellent road network and a wide variety of national parks and game reserves serving a diverse flora and fauna, provide visitors with a lifetime experience and an almost ideal environment for outdoor recreation. Although domestic tourism demand accounts for almost two-thirds of all tourism in SA, the international arrivals (mostly from UK, Germany and the US) for VFR, business and leisure purposes is steadily growing.

Over the last almost 20 years, sports tourism has played a significant role in international tourism arrivals in SA, especially since the Rugby World Cup in 1995. The impact of sports is expected to further increase with the hosting of the FIFA World Cup in 2010.^[4] Gillian Saunders, Director at Grant Thornton Strategic Solutions formulated it this way: “Although the World Cup is only 96 hours of football, it is actually 4-6 solid weeks of tourism.”^[5]

The future growth of tourism in SA is above all dependent on the national stability in terms of politics, security and economy. As the so-called “Rainbow Nation”, SA has to maintain a fair allocation of resources and opportunities to all ethnic groups
(13% of the population is of European origin, 11 % of Asian and mixed race and around three quarters belong to different black-African tribes). ^[6]

2.2 Tourism Statistics and Forecasts

Additional funding for tourism and targeted marketing promotions (especially related with regard to hosting the FIFA World Cup 2010) boosted SA tourism figures to an increase in international arrivals by 6% in 2008. According to the UNWTO, SA is the leading holiday destination in Africa with a market share of almost 25%.^[7]

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Figure 1: International Tourist Arrivals and Tourism Receipts (2006- 2008)^[8]

In the Forecast 2020, UNWTO predicts that SA will remain Africa’s number one destination with over 30 million international arrivals (Inbound Tourism) and highest growth rates of 8% per year on average for the forecasted period 1995-2020. This growth will not only be attributed to arrivals from neighbouring countries but also from international, long-haul source markets. SA’s market share in tourism within the African region is estimated to increase from 22% to 39%.^[9]

Furthermore, SA is the principal tourist generating country in Africa. UNWTO predicts a growth of approximately 8.3% in outbound tourism related to a relatively high disposable income in comparison to other African countries. South Africans will not only experience the Southern African region but also travel internationally.^[10]

For further details, please refer to additional figures in the appendix 1-4.

3. Sports Tourism

Since centuries people travel to participate or observe sports; however the relationship between the two have only recently become a topic for academic researches. The increasing importance and recognition of sport as tourism segment is in fact a global phenomenon. Research studies showed that 4% of the domestic tourism market in SA comprises sport tourism.^[11]

3.1 Definition

In order to understand what sport tourism encompasses, it is essential to first clarify the two components:

Sport: in this text I use the widest possible term of sport published by Standeven and de Kop, 1999: “[Sport is] …the whole range of competitive and non-competitive active pursuits that involve skill, strategy, and/or chance in which human beings engage, at their own level, simply for enjoyment and training or to raise their performance to levels of publicly acclaimed excellence”^[12]

Tourism: “It comprises the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited.”^[13]

Historically sport and tourism tended to be reserved to more privileged individuals. However, economic and technical progress helped to distribute resources and to democratize sport and tourism – establishing the segment of sports tourism.^[14]

Sport Tourism is therefore defined as “All forms of active or passive involvement in sporting activity, participated in casually or in an organized way […] that necessitates travel away from home and work locality.”^[15] Interdependences arise where sport facilitates tourism by offering a growing range of valued tourist experiences and tourism aids sports with providing participants and infrastructure.^[16]

3.2 Major Sport Events

One important category within sports tourism is the hosting of major sport events. These large scale sporting festivals are labelled as “hallmark events” including one-time or recurring events of limited duration. These events concentrate national and international attention and create interest on the host country as tourism destination.^[17] The differentiation of such mega-events is conducted by their size, scope and appeal as well as the number of sites. The FIFA World Cup belongs to the group of first-order events, which have the widest reach in terms of prestige, attendance, interest and, particularly, publicity. Speaking of participation and spectatorship, this event is the largest sporting tournament in the world.^[18]

3.3 Impacts on tourism

Sport mega-events and its extensive media coverage are considered to provide benefits and opportunities to the hosting country, especially with regard to its economy and tourism industry. Economically, the immediate advertising and media revenue as well as the increased interest and investment in domestic values and infrastructural developments carry significant short- and long-term benefits. From a tourism perspective, this type of event provides increased tourist flows and foreign investment due to expected long-term effects caused by the prominence and publicity before, during and after the event. So hosting a mega-event is generally seen as an effective means of marketing and destination positioning.^[19]

While the impacts of hallmark events are often considered in their positive consequences, there are negative effects and more categories of impacts to be taken into account.^[20] Over the last decades, scholars have conducted researches on the impacts of such events in several sectors. The identification of these effects the interdependences between the different categories as well as the complexity and difficulty to appropriately measure the impacts has been an important task for research studies until today.^[21] In order to give a complete picture, I follow the approach of Ritchie (1984) to summarize positive and negative effects of different types of impacts caused by hallmark events (refer to figure 2).

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Figure 2: Types of impacts of hallmark events^[22]

In this paper I will focus on the most significant impacts of the FIFA World Cup 2010 on SA’s tourism industry from an economic and socio-cultural perspective and its interdependences by applying the method of secondary research.

3.4 South Africa and the hosting of sport events

As it is generally agreed that sport furthers national pride and social cohesion, mega-events offer a very significant ideological dimension to the host. SA has been one of the more active African countries engaging in the international mega-events ‘market’. Since the end of the apartheid era the country constantly applied for staging sport events with the objective to positively influence its national identity. It has success-fully hosted the Rugby World Cup in 1995 and in 1996 the Africa Cup of Nations.^[23]

With the 2003 Cricket World Cup representing to date the largest event to be hosted in Africa, SA undoubtedly gained legitimacy. It displayed itself as an African country which is able to hold a large-scale sport event and seized the important opportunity to (re-)brand the country from a national and international perspective.^[24]

Although SA also made failed bids to host first-order events like the 2004 Olympic Games and the 2006 FIFA World Cup, it finally succeeded with the bid and its acceptance (May 2004) to stage the FIFA World Cup 2010.

4. The FIFA World Cup

'Develop the game, touch the world, build a better future' (FIFA Mission)^[25]

4.1 FIFA History and the World Cup

The International Federation of Association Football, commonly known by its French acronym, FIFA was founded in Paris in 1904, governed by Swiss Law and today based in Zurich, Switzerland. To date, FIFA supports 208 member associations financially and logistically through various programs. The associations, in return, commit to respect the statutes, aims and ideals of the football's governing body and promote and manage the sport accordingly.^[26] Apart from its main task to organize and steer international football as a sport running institution, Joseph S. Blatter, FIFA president, emphasizes the socio-cultural dimension as well as its economic and political power in the world due to the popularity, especially with FIFA’s flagship event, the FIFA World Cup.^[27]

In the late 1920s, FIFA decided to launch a professional football tournament with international participation (Olympic tournament was recognized as the world championships for amateur football). In 1930 the first FIFA World Cup was staged in Uruguay and ever since, although the 16 tournaments have seen only seven different winners, the global popularity and prestige of this event has constantly grown.^[28] Today the competing football loving nations are not only focusing on winning the tournament, but also on hosting this mega-event to gain international awareness and esteem.

4.2 Prerequisites for hosting the FIFA World Cup

Only nations (represented by FIFA member associations), which plan to apply for staging the FIFA World Cup, will receive bidding and hosting documents including full details on the prerequisites from FIFA officials. There are however general published requirements with regard to infrastructure and facilities that have to comply with FIFA’s highest quality and latest technological standards^[29]. Until the start of the tournament the hosting country has to have approximately 12 stadiums with minimum capacities of between 40.000 for group matches and 80.000 for the opening match and final at its disposal. In addition, transport and accommodation, TV broadcasting, information and telecommunication technology need to be facilitated at its highest standards. As a dress rehearsal the hosting country commits to stage the FIFA Confederations Cup one year prior to the event.^[30]

FIFA will grant the right to host the mega-event only if the national government commits to the delivery of 17 guarantees. These guarantees that in the case of SA are provided by various government departments cover obligations concerning the nation as a whole and the host-cities in particular. Please see figure 3 for a summary on these constraints:^[31]

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Figure 3: Selection of agreements between SA and FIFA^[32]

5. Tourism Plan South Africa 2010 – short and long-term impacts

Ever since the announcement in May 2004 of hosting the FIFA World Cup 2010, SA is diligently preparing this event to ensure its readiness. It is the first time that this major event is staged in an African country and SA is aware of related opportunities and key challenges as well as of its responsibility towards the whole region in ensuring a “world-class African World Cup”^[33]. In a detailed tourism plan the country explains its actions to foster the positive short- and long-term impacts on tourism. Results from additional studies and articles will be added to complete picture.

5.1 Introduction

In August 2005 SA launched the official preparation phase towards a successful World Cup with the formation of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) which is led by its CEO, Danny Jordaan, and directly supervised by the FIFA. Being a mammoth project, the World Cup requires a smooth cooperation of different state departments and coordination of various processes before and during the event.^[34] Therefore, the LOC established the Technical Coordinating Committee (TCC) to ensure an aligned preparation of all stakeholders^[35]. Within the TCC the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) and South Africa Tourism (SAT) were responsible to prepare the Tourism Organising Plan to guide their FIFA World Cup activities respectively.^[36] The following objectives and key functional areas were identified:

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Figure 4: Objectives and Key Functional Areas of 2010 Tourism Plan^[37]

The 2010 Tourism Organising Plan is embedded in the overall goals of SA hosting the FIFA World Cup and the SA mandate to tourism. Appendix 5 shows a summary of the goals and key functional areas to be addressed in the context of the overall goals.

5.2 Opportunities

“The biggest benefit is going to be in tourism. South Africa is conducting the right sort of marketing abroad, and can look forward to a fantastic tourism impact.” (Gillian Saunders, Director at Grant Thornton Strategic Solutions)^[38]

According to the 2010 Tourism Organising Plan, there are two main aspects of the FIFA World Cup 2010, from which SA tourism will benefit and improve its strategic position towards the main competitors (see Appendix 6).^[39]

First and foremost the event will increase tourist arrival and related tourism revenue during the event. In order to meet the higher demand, SA tourism suppliers are required to upgrade and newly develop tourism facilities naming accommodation, tourist safety, attractions, transport etc. This will in return significantly support a long-term improvement of SA’s tourism competitiveness and tourism growth.^[40]

A recent study by Grant Thornton Strategic Solutions estimates the benefits of the World Cup by predicting figures in every area from contribution to GDP and jobs created, to tickets sold and number of tourists expected. They used data generated from previous international tournaments and from local and world tourism statistics. With regard to the expected 480.000 tourists to visit the mega-event, Grant Thornton states that SA will be able to handle the influx during the low season months of June and July (870.000 tourists travel during peak season).^[41] An overview of the statistical data collected is given in figure 5, page 11.

[...]

^[1] FIFA, 2010

^[2] Moeketsi Mosola, CEO South African Tourism, In: George, 2008, p IX

^[3] UNWTO, 2000, p 23 and Boniface, Cooper, 2009, p 435

^[4] Boniface, Cooper, 2009, p 434- 437

^[5] Southafrica.info, 2008

^[6] Boniface, Cooper, 2009, p 438

^[7] UNWTO, 2009, p 9

^[8] Source adapted from UNWTO, 2009, p. 9

^[9] UNWTO, 2000, p 63

^[10] UNWTO, 2000, p 72

^[11] Ritchie and Adair, 2004, p 2-3

^[12] Standeven and de Kop, 1999, p 8

^[13] UNTWO, 1991, quoted in Williams, 1998, p 3

^[14] Standeven and de Kop, 1999, p 34

^[15] Standeven and de Kop, 1999, p 12

^[16] Standeven and de Kop, 1999, p 5-6

^[17] Ritchie, 1984, p 2

^[18] Cornelissen, 2004, p 40

^[19] Cornelissen, 2004, p 41

^[20] Ritchie, 1984, p 4

^[21] Cornelissen, 2004, p 39

^[22] Source adapted from Ritchie, 1984, p 4

^[23] Cornelissen, 2004, p 42 - 45

^[24] Cornelissen, 2004, p 48-51

^[25] http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/federation/mission.html

^[26] FIFA, 2009a

^[27] FIFA, 2009b

^[28] FIFA, 2009c

^[29] The FIFA document library contains several PDF forms dealing with topics as on FIFA statutes, codes of conduct and ethics, laws of the game, stadium guidelines on infrastructure, security and safety, media and communication and power supply (FIFA, 2009d)

^[30] FIFA, 2009e

^[31] SA Government, 2009

^[32] SA Government, 2009

^[33] DEAT and SAT, 2005, p 5

^[34] CapeTownMagazine.com, 2009

^[35] TCC members: National Treasury, Sport and Recreation South Africa, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Transport, Department of Safety and Security, Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and South Africa Tourism.

^[36] DEAT and SAT, 2005, p 4

^[37] DEAT and SAT, 2005, p 5

^[38] Southafrica.info, 2008

^[39] DEAT and SAT, 2005, p 7

^[40] DEAT and SAT, 2005, p 7

^[41] Southafrica.info, 2008