World Cup tourism, up to Cape Town's expectations

For almost three-quarters of the tourists who visited Cape Town and the Western Cape Province during June and July this year, the 2010 FIFA World Cup was their introduction to the city and province, and an overwhelming 90% said that they would visit the destination again.

These are the findings of a 2010 Visitor Tracking Survey commissioned by Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU), the tourism destination-marketing organisation for Cape Town and the Western Cape, and performed by GAB Consulting during June and July 2010. Altogether, 703 interviews were conducted with international and domestic visitors in the Western Cape, with most taking place in Cape Town (61%), followed by the Cape Garden Route & Klein Karoo (14%) and Cape Winelands (13%).

An unparalleled opportunity

"It was always said that the FIFA World Cup would provide Cape Town, the Western Cape and South Africa with an unparalleled opportunity to showcase the destination to new visitors and new tourism markets. Equally it would be an opportunity for our destination to impress visitors so much that they would start making plans to return there and then. We are proud to say that these survey results prove that it had done just that," said Alan Winde, Western Cape Minister for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism.

While Cape Town and the Western Cape's nightlife and gourmet restaurants were the two most popular visitor activities, 21% of all respondents, when asked about their most positive experience, said that they were overwhelmed by the friendliness of the locals. 18% were impressed with the destination's beautiful natural scenery, and to 16% the 2010 FIFA World Cup was the amazing part of their visit. Most of the visitors (71%) were in the destination specifically for the World Cup.

Cape Town most visited

The majority of the survey's respondents were from South Africa (21%), followed by the UK (15%), US (11%), The Netherlands (6%), Africa (5%), Brazil (5%) and Germany (4%). Of the South Africans, most were from the Western Cape (31%), Gauteng (28%), KwaZulu-Natal (19%) and the Eastern Cape (10%).

The area visited by most 2010 travellers was Cape Town (91%), followed by the Cape Winelands (47%), Cape Garden Route and Klein Karoo where the Western Cape's three football base camps (France, Denmark and Japan) were located (24%), Cape West Coast (20%) and Cape Overberg (14%).

Visitors stayed longer

"What was different to our normal tourism trends was the fact that 2010 visitors stayed longer. They spent an average of 14 nights in the destination, with Germans (25 nights) and Dutch tourists (23 nights) staying the longest. International visitors normally stay an average of 12 nights and domestic ones five nights in the Western Cape," said Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of CTRU.

Both international and domestic visitors mostly travelled in groups of three to six people in June and July. The average travel budget per group was R33 097, while international visitors spent an average of R19 142 each. Slightly more than half of all 2010 travellers found Cape Town and the Western Cape to be less expensive than they expected, while 10% of international visitors and 30% of domestic visitors found it to be more expensive.

Nightlife a favourite

Besides the World Cup, travellers' favourite way of going beyond the 90 minutes of the football game was experiencing the destination's nightlife (40%), followed by its gourmet restaurants (36%). The third-most-popular activity was visiting nature attractions (35%), followed by wine tasting (32%), visiting beaches (31%) and visiting flea or craft markets (31%).

"This shows us that 2010 visitors definitely went beyond the football and explored the beautiful and diverse tourism attractions and activities of Cape Town and the Western Cape. It is a strong indication that our 'Beyond the 90 Minutes' 2010 destination marketing campaign is bearing fruit and we have confidence that it will continue to do so for the next couple of years," said Itumeleng Pooe, executive marketing manager: leisure, events & 2010, CTRU.