Abstract
The FIFA World Cup Soccer contest was held in South Africa (SA) in 2010. Planning the event and managing the resources were very challenging because SA did not have a well-developed tourist infrastructure. Many gaps were found during the planning stage that needed to be corrected if so the event would meet high expectations and show SA at its best. The government invested 3.15 billion Rands to make improvements for tourism needs. The largest expenditure for the government was for the safety and security of tourists. Tourism rose satisfactorily for the World Cup after a decline in 2008 and 2009. It is not clear if hosting the games brought any long-term economic advantages to SA, but the awareness and attitude towards SA were greatly improved.
Slide 1
South Africa was the first African country to host a FIFA World Cup match. In 2010 the country hosted millions of people from all over the world. The amount of preparation needed to accomplish a properly managed mega-event took years. Firstly stakeholders had to be identified. The most important group of stakeholders were the citizens of South Africa. This was their opportunity to share the sites and attractions of SA with the rest of the world. This would then lead to more tourists visiting, if the World Cup attendees were satisfied with their visit. Secondly, as many projects as possible needed to be designed for long-term use, not only for use during the short duration of the World Cup. The initiatives were prioritized into (a) those that were necessary to manage downside risk and (b) those that could capitalize on the opportunities available. Resource allocation had to be made and any barriers to access to resources needed to be overcome. One of the main priorities was meeting the needs of tourists and gaining more tourists because of the event.
Slide 2
International tourists visiting South Africa for leisure and business had dropped during the years 2008 to 2009, but the 2010 FIFA World Cup caused a recovery and the desired increase in visitors after the two year decline. The greatest difference was the increase in tourists from China. The table on the right contains the predicted change in tourist visits based on the country. China ranked 8th in 2010 but the prediction from South African Tourism is that by 2017 China will have be ranked 4th in the top eight countries visiting. The United Kingdom is expected to stay at the same levels as in 2010 whereas China, Germany, and India are all expected to grow. Decreases in visitors from the U.S.A. the Netherlands, France and Australia are expected. The year before, even the visitors from the countries neighbouring South Africa had fallen but in 2010 with the draw of attending the World Cup the number rebounded to normal according to Euromonitor International. The 310,000 foreigners who visited spent approximately R3.6 billion. The average length of stay was 10.3 nights. Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal were the most visited provinces during the 2010 FIFA World Cup receiving with more than 80,000 tourists visiting each of these provinces.
The increase in Chinese tourists was the most encouraging feature of the World Cup because during 2008 to 2009 the number had decreased by 15 percent. The increase noted by the South African Tourism department was reported as 90 percent.
The reasons for the expected increase in numbers of visitors from 2010 to 2017 from China can be explained by three major developments. (a) Beijing and Shanghai have opened new visa application centres. (b) A direct flight can be taken from Beijing to Johannesburg. (c) South Africa’s largest trading partner is China. In fact, from 2012 to 2017 the increase in Chinese arrivals is expected to be 88 percent.
Slide 3
This graph demonstrates the distribution of the government investment in SA to prepare for hosting the World Cup. The needs for Tourist Safety and Security were high, therefore about R660,000 was invested in that sector. The next highest investment was made to construct legacy projects, those projects that were needed for the World Cup but the projects would last for the long term. The residents of SA gained from the management of the money to ensure that legacy projects were made a priority. Legacy projects included railway lines, better roads, and better communication networks. The third highest expenditure was on Arts and Culture. The SA organisational committee understood that they had an important opportunity to share the culture of Africa and specifically South Africa. The management of the community mobilisation and the training of volunteers was also an important investment.
According to Maenning and Du Plessis (2007: 581) investment spending equaled approximately R15 billion “on finance World Cup-related projects.”
Slide 4
The hosting of the World Cup was a significant accomplishment on many levels. SA entered the international community on the level of culture, politics and socioeconomics. A main attraction for SA was the end of apartheid. SA had an opportunity to be seen as an example of equality and human rights. New Infrastructure, both social and economic was considered a good way to aid economic growth and development.
Government financing of World Cup Related projects: R15 billion on infrastructure
Tourism and Hospitality Sectors with overflow to other sectors
New Stadiums and Sports Arenas Pre-event preparations in the transport and construction sectors
New Infrastructure, both social & economic, to aid economic growth & development
(-)(Negative ) Stadiums are a poor investment for the nation ; best to mix private with public funding
(-/+) (Both negative and positive aspects) Workfare programmes are used in the pre-event perpetrations, short in duration and less likely to use sustainable practices,, On the other hand they offer an opportunity for skills-transfer and community involvement
(-)(Negative ) Local workers do not want pre-event construction and other jobs, because there is a perception that those jobs are for foreigners.
(-)(Negative ) Difficult to meet goals of
(+)Legacy Projects As much as possible construction was done not only to meet the needs of the World Cup game but also to be useful afterwards. The projects that were designed to fill long term infrastructure needs are called legacy projects. An example is the Gautrain Railway running between Johannesburg, Kempton Park (E.R. Tambo Airport) and Pretoria
Slide 5
Some of the critical needs included accommodations for overnight stays, good transportation opportunities, paved roads and access to Internet. The accommodations were organized so that locations that could serve for the short-term spike in tourists would help make up the gap.
Bioemfrontein and Polokwane were the only cities ready to service such a large event. The others had gaps in accommodations (a big problem), improvement to accessing information for the tourists, not enough sites and attractions, poor service skills by local vendors, and no or poor public transport. Capetown and Nespruit were the two cities identified as having a gap in tourist safety and security.
Slide 6
- TICKETING POLICY & PRICING
- Decisions for ticketing were made with the knowledge that how the distribution met the varied needs of 'demand constituencies influenced: Accommodations and Transportation Demand
- Targeting local domestic participants would lessen the demand for accommodation
- CHOICE OF HOST LOCATIONS
- Less likely to choose location with poorly developed infrastructure because the anticipated return on touristic investment is not likely to provide a good return as locations with developed tourist infrastructure
- Cost analysis: Benefit for the cities versus Cost - Larger cities are better able to benefit with existing infrastructure
- STADIUM CAPACITIES
- The key driver for overall demand within a host location. It will have an impact on accommodations
- MATCH SCHEDULE
- Significantly influences demand for
- intensity of tourism services, and
- distribution of tourism services especially for
- Accommodations, and
- Transportation needs.
- Gauteng especially sensitive because of many matches, occurring quickly one after the other.
- NON-TICKET HOLDER PARTICIPANTS
- Benefit: Increase number of tourists at the event
- Disadvantage: More load on transportation
- on and accommodations that are already stretched to capacity
- EASE OF ACCESS
- Easier access due to transportation improvements would take pressure off the accommodations demand.
- Stadium and game access provide on the Internet & virtual access to other events decreases the pressure on transportation and accommodations
Slide 7
Challenges faced to organise the World Cup in SA were mainly in three categories, recruitment, leverage and experience delivering tourist services.
- Displacement was a pressing problem because some of the tourists were not coming to SA to see the World Cup but to enjoy other sites and attractions. With so many people arriving for the World Cup the potential displacement of other tourists was a primary concern. Accommodations needed to be managed properly so everyone had a place to stay. More rooms were needed for tourists requesting overnight stays
- Distribution: Tourist information must be available everywhere
- Small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME) have limited access to channels & media markets
Many products were available for sale to the tourists but mot enough product packaging was available for so many products.
- SA wanted an unaided, natural rising of Awareness and Positive feelings towards South Africa due to hosting the FIFA World Cup. For example when tourists went home they would share good experiences and excitement so more people would know about the attractions of SA.
- Public transportation needs improvement and expansion
- More Security and Safety
- Need more infrastructure designed specifically for tourists
- Skills and service levels are too low
Slide 8
A MEGA-EVENT should use a mix of government and private spending. A focus should be on legacy projects workfare programmes, infrastructure expenditures. SA took all of those measures. Both private and public investments were used. The neighbouring countries were also stakeholders in the event. Many of the tourists left SA after the World Cup to visit other parts of Africa. The neighbours helped with the packaging of products and in other ways.
Recruitment for the following by interacting and organizing with neighbouring countries and key stakeholders to
- package products
- manage tourist displacement issue
- Develop a National Management Platform*
- Interface development for transaction booking*
- Determine how displacement will be managed*
Experience delivery refers tourists experience a safe visit. Also SA wanted to gain the most value possible from hosting the world cup. The opportunity was taken to improve tourist attractions and transportation
- Implement tourist security and safety plan, a National South African Tourism Safety Plan
- Find suitable accommodations for short duration while tourism at its highest
- Focus on Event Planning to make the most value from hosting the World Cup
- Create a South African National Volunteer Program
- Improve tourist attractions, call centre to S.A. Tourism, transportation between critical locations
In order to gain leverage CRM was used to its best advantage by finding out the profiles of people arriving in SA and the types of needs they hand.
- Use Customer Resource Management (CRM)
- software to learn about 2010 arrivals
- Form a database of information
- “Deliver the brand to convert arrivals to brand ambassadors”
