The Soccer World Cup which kicks off next month, looks set to boost the number of travelers to South Africa considerably, according to both local and international statistics and opinions.

In it’s recently released annual World Tourism Barometer, the Madrid-based UN World Tour Organisation said Africa had “bucked the global trend” in 2009, with international tourist arrivals to the continent jumping 5%. That compared to a slump of 4% in travel worldwide last year amid the economic crisis and the swine flu pandemic.

Delivering his budget vote speech in Parliament this week, Tourism Minister Martinus Van Schalkwyk told MP’s that the World Cup would leave a tangible and lasting tourism legacy in South Africa, and that the benefits would continue long after the last whistle is blown.

He said that the local tourism industry had also outperformed world trends in 2009, with a growth of 3.6% in foreign arrivals, adding that this increase represents a 7.4% contribution to gross domestic product (GDP).

“This is a tremendous feather in the cap of the industry in a time when all other tourism markets worldwide were in a slump,” Van Schalkwyk said.

Nigel Vere Nicoll, the head of the Africa Travel and Tourism Association (ATTA), has also predicted the tournament’s impact on tourism will be “enormous”.
“The World Cup is certainly the most exciting thing to happen to Africa, not just Southern Africa, all Africans are very proud that it’s going to be there,” he said.