After the era of apartheid, festivals, conferences and events such as the hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2010TM provide exciting opportunities to market South Africa as preferred tourist destination. The exposure to international media and their audiences will have significant impact on the country's tourism industry and will generate benefits for the local economy. These benefits include an increase in economic growth and job creation, social and infrastructural transformation as well as the alleviation of poverty. In order to induce sustainable contributions to the country's economy from staging this mega event, South Africa needs to show a high level of professionalism and responsibility in their elaboration and execution of the various planned initiatives and programmes. The country will face challenges and setbacks, but it knows about the necessity to prepare this event diligently and to not only support the countrys but also Africas overall image and economic objectives. In the following paper the author presents the current position and future outlook for South Africas tourism industry. She will clarify the terms sport tourism and its general impacts on the tourism industry as well as introduce the reader to the FIFA World CupTM history and characteristics. The author will conduct a detailed presentment of the predicted short- and long-term impacts of this hallmark event on South Africa's tourism industry, economy and society. Challenges and opportunities will be identified and the reader will be provided with a summary of the preparation phase in terms of tourism, economy, culture and society prior to the FIFA World Cup 2010TM.

Katrin Andrews was born in Heidelberg/ Germany in 1981 and started her bachelor degree in business administration at the University of Cooperative Education in Mannheim, Germany in 2001. In 2004 she was taken over by her company, a global player in the IT industry and gained national and international experience as project lead in quality management. Four and a half years later the author decided to professionally use her affinity to foreign languages, cultures and countries and applied for a post-graduate degree in International Tourism Management at Heilbronn University, Germany. She expects to successfully graduate with her master degree in autumn 2010. Her fascination for the South African culture and lifestyle, her travel impressions and experiences as well as the personal need to portray a positive image of the country and its people with regards to the FIFA World Cup 2010TM, led to the topic of the present book.

Text Sample:Chapter 6, Tourism Plan 2010: Current Situation :The following chapter will give an overview about the current situation of the FIFA World Cup 2010 preparation in SA. The research is based on data given by official institutions in SA and an interview with a representative from SAT in Germany. In order to design a comparable data concept, I first used the initiative functional areas created by DEAT and SAT:Information:The availability and access to tourism-related information concerning the FIFA World Cup 2010 is one of the key focal point in the engagement of DEAT and SAT. The following web sites and information provision was initiated:- SAT 2010 stakeholder web portal;- SAT 2010 visitor web portal;- National tourism supplier database serving providers of booking platforms.A structured allocation of tourism-related information will surely bring long-term benefit to the tourism industry. Easy to find and aligned information using internet technology will improve the information searching and booking experience of domestic and international tourists.Marketing and branding:SA has launched several marketing and promotion campaigns and already conducted major initiatives. The overall marketing and communication strategy is based on three pillars of SAs identity: Diversity, Possibility and Ubuntu (Zulu for Humanity towards others). A small selection is presented subsequent:Promotion Collateral:Campaigns (domestic and international), e.g. diski dance: aimed to show case hospitality and rhythm of the nation;Global media partner network;Sponsoring partnerships;Public Relations: Trade shows, fairs and host city stands;Digital: Mobile Applications, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter;Events naming sport challenges/ tournaments and fan fests.The marketing and branding campaigns related to the FIFA World Cup will raise awareness of SA as a major tourism destination not only before and during the event. In the form of an increasing tourism demand, positive benefits will still be sensed afterwards. The gained marketing expertise will furthermore help with future destination marketing campaigns and initiatives. The strategic character of SAs branding will assist to provide a memorable destination impression.Accommodation (sufficient quantity, appropriate quality and price):DEAT is working with several institutions to contract and grade the 55.000 rooms required for officials, teams, VIPs, media and visitors. Grading fees have been discounted and information road shows have been set-up to encourage small, medium and micro-enterprise (SMME) accommodations to sign up for the FIFA World Cup. This will be the first time that non-hotel accommodation naming national parks, bed-and-breakfasts, lodges and guest houses, will mainly supply the event lodging. It has to be understood that SAs tourism industry especially with regards to the lodging sector is structured in a different way. SA offers a wide variety of accommodation which offers the opportunity to tourists of having a unique World Cup experience. With one of the venues, Nelspruit, close to the Kruger National Park, World Cup tourists can couple their tournament day with game drives and exceptional wildlife sights. The required number of accommodation (according to estimations) is made available in all venues within the periphery of up to 2 hours (e.g. Rustenburg accommodation will be provided by Sun City (45 minutes) and Johannesburg (2 hours)). In addition to newly built luxury hotels, SA provides backpacker type of accommodation. As schools and universities will be closed for regular class during the event, dormitories are available to World Cup tourists for small money. Event benefits will therefore be spread beyond the host locations. The improved quality of accommodation supply will definitely favour future tourists in SA. The increased volume however, might lead to a high rate of business closures in case of a non-accurate tourism growth forecast.