The successful football World Cup tournament offers a unique potential tourism legacy for South Africa and the entire southern region of the continent. The tournament passed off with crime levels lower than in previous European tournaments and with people of all races and nations coming together across fan parks and grounds across the whole country. The South African politicians, who brought the event to Africa, are not exaggerating at all when they describe the World Cup as a tremendous success which has the potential to change the country forever.
Initially one thing that many in the travel industry seemed to totally miss was that tourists coming to a football tournament are coming to watch football. They were urban tourists looking for cheap and convenient accommodation, but willing to spend big on match day experiences.
Regular tourism often gets crowded out by mega sporting events such as a world cup. In Germany 2006 hotels in Berlin and Munich found themselves as much as 15% down on bookings during the event at a time, which is traditionally the summer peak. There was an upside however. Germany is not a traditional holiday destination for the countries that arrived to play football. In the years following the tournament visitor numbers rose from countries such as the UK by as much as 30%. Groups of largely male football fans turned up to watch football and drink beer with friends and were impressed with the warm friendly reception they received. In the following years they brought their families over for their main summer holiday.
With close to 400,000 foreign tourists visiting South Africa during the 2010 World Cup, this is where the World Cup legacy lies for South Africa. The benefits of the event itself to the tourist industry and the wider community were relatively small, but the way the event has destabilized common negative stereotypes about South Africa will be a long term boost for the country.
Baobab Travel offer the returning tourist the chance to get out of the city destinations they were familiar with during the football matches. South Africa is blessed with a wonderful landscape that offers self-driving, trekking and wildlife viewing experiences as well as extreme sports from gorge swings to shark cage diving.
There is a wealth of cultural experiences that should not be missed either from vibrant township tours and homestays to the battlefields and histroric legacy of the colonial era. All of this is now connected by vastly improved airports and road infrastructure. Yes there are still problems of poverty and inequality in South Africa and there is a higher crime rate than most European countries. It is not a perfect country, but as the World Cup has shown it is nowhere near as dangerous as some pre-World Cup scaremongers would have you believe.
By booking your holiday through Baobab Travel you can be ensured that as much as possible of your your holiday money will stay within South Africa and bringing additional benefits. With its optimistic and friendly people, you can now carry on the Football World Cup legacy.
