Cape Town’s tourism industry stakeholders have taken steps to combat international perceptions of South Africa as “an expensive destination”, ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

To address this issue Cape Town Tourism have formulated a Code of Responsible Pricing for Cape Town.

“The Code is an important charter,” says Cape Town Tourism spokesperson, Lianne Burton. “The industry is eager to ensure that Cape Town’s good reputation is not spoiled by greedy individuals out to capitalize on a few weeks at the expense of a responsible sector that has worked incredibly hard to put destination Cape Town on the top of every travellers wish-list.”

The first and major guiding principle of the Code is that of ‘Fair Value’. This means that the tourism sector will create fair and reasonable rates for the 2010 FIFA World Cup that are linked to current seasonal rates.

The second principle is that of ‘Responsible Tourism’. This principle highlights Cape Town’s commitment to be a destination that values and promotes its position with regard to taking care of people, the planet and profit to the greater community.

Thirdly, tourism businesses will be mindful of ‘Sustainable Tourism’ in the interests of maintaining a legacy for Cape Town beyond the 2010 FIFA World Cup as a destination that offers good value.

Finally, the Code asks that the tourism sector advocates a strong ‘Consumer Protection’ ethic; refraining from adding hidden costs and fees that surprise and annoy consumers when they receive their bill.

A call to action asking the industry to sign up to and adhere to the Code will be driven through various participating associations and member organisations in the region.

CometoCapeTown.com is proud to participate in the new pricing code, and looks forward to helping to sustain fair accommodation & tourism prices in South Africa.

A record 10 million tourists are expected to pass through South Africa’s ports of entry this year, says Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk.

This is 500 000 arrivals more than the 9.5 million who visited the country in 2008.

With just 100 days to go to the kick off of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, van Schalkwyk said this was a “major achievement”.

Briefing the media on Tuesday as part of the Economic and Employment Creation Cluster, he said while the global tourism industry saw a decline of 4 percent, South Africa was able to outperform competitors and experienced growth, be it at a lower level after a record four years of double-digit growth.

However, he said the country could not rest on its laurels and had for too long relied on leisure tourism and needed to diversify if it was to continue to encourage more people to visit the country.

His department planned to focus more on the areas of tourism generated by business travellers and conventions, which currently make up 6 percent of foreign arrivals.

“We want to be, in a few years, one of the top 10 long-haul convention destinations in the world and to do that we will have to professionalise our approach,” he said.

Van Schalkwyk said the department wanted to launch a national convention bureau to put a stop to the country’s main conference destinations, Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg, undermining one another.

He said sporting events were a “giant” opportunity for South Africa too and presently sports events accounted for 10 percent of foreign arrivals.

The World Cup would attract about 300 000 to 450 000 visitors and Van Schalkwyk said he had “no doubt” that the country had enough rooms.

Commenting on the speculation that hotels and guest houses had unfairly inflated room tariffs for the event, he said a report was being compiled by Grant Thornton to look into whether this indeed was the case.

“It’s very anecdotal what we are hearing. I haven’t seen a general trend towards overpricing in the accommodation sector, but it’s important that we have facts,” he said, adding that the issue of aircraft pricing was being investigated by the Competition Commission.

Buanews

Cape Town’s 68,000-seater 2010 stadium is “perfect”, Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke said on Monday.

He was speaking to journalists at the stadium during a whistlestop “state of readiness” tour of the country’s 2010 venues.

Valcke said he had been asked whether Cape Town was his favourite stadium.”I will not answer the question. You can answer, I think, by yourself,” he said.

But he did say that Cape Town’s rye grass pitch should be treated as the benchmark for all World Cup stadia.

“It’s just an amazing stadium, and all the teams who play in Cape Town, they will play [in] the perfect place,” he said.

The countdown to the cup hits the 100-day mark on Tuesday.

Valcke said that from what he had seen so far on the tour, which ends in Port Elizabeth on Monday afternoon, preparations were on track.

On a scale of one to ten, the country was at an eight now. “We will be at ten on the 11th of June,” he said.

“In terms of readiness, South Africa is ready to host the World Cup in 2010.”

Sapa

A debate is raging over the actual demand for accommodation during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, after FIFA released 65,000 of its MATCH-booked rooms in the Western Cape.

Cape Town Tourism attempted to counter the perception that fewer soccer fans will travel to South Africa, due to reported overpricing by accommodation establishments for the FIFA World Cup.

Cape Town Tourism spokesperson, Lianne Burton, said: “Cape Town Tourism has taken a leading role in the pricing debate by actively engaging our members about acceptable pricing.

“We are now finalizing our Code of Responsible and Fair Pricing, which will act as an industry guideline to establish prices for accommodation and other tourism services.

“We do welcome the timeous release of 65,000 rooms by FIFA and MATCH. This is not a cause for concern as it was always likely that MATCH would release this first tier.
“It is an opportunity for South African establishments to promote their rooms on the open market in the months leading up to the big event.”

Cape Town Tourism, among other industry leaders, says it’s better to receive this news with enough lead-time for establishment owners to fill their rooms.

By late December 2009, three football teams had confirmed their bookings for base camps in the Western Cape in the Cape Garden Route and Klein Karoo regions.
The teams are, France for the Pezula Resort Hotel & Spa at Knysna, Denmark for the Simola Golf & Country Estate, also at Knysna, and Japan for Fancourt at George. The team from Paraguay has been expressing a strong interest in the Point Hotel at Mossel Bay, but has not confirmed yet.

These areas and Cape Town, Winelands and the Cape West Coast, have gone out of their way to make sure that their venues and facilities are in tiptop shape to not only host the world’s football greats, but also leave them with an impression that will draw them back for many years.

Shaun van Eck, CEO of Knysna Tourism, says, “As a top tourism destination, we are an excellent option to teams – the town boasts luxurious accommodation coupled with the wonderful lifestyle that is Knysna. The hosting of a team will be a huge boost for the town and the Garden Route and it has made the hosting of base camps a priority focus. The Knysna Council also decided to upgrade its current public sports facility, Loerie Park, should a team base themselves in Knysna.”

André Smith, senior manager of environmental affairs at George Municipality, adds that the city has established a 2010 committee to deal with teams’ and other arrangements, including beautification to create a soccer atmosphere. “We are expecting between 15 000 and 20 000 Japanese supporters in George. Extensive work will be carried out to prepare the field surface of their practice venue, the Outeniqua Stadium, for soccer purposes. Indications are that a second team might also choose George as a base camp with Oubaai as their preferred hotel,” says Smith.

More than just the game

Despite many teams opting for base camps at a higher altitude, Western Cape towns are still bidding to host teams and to position the area as a travel destination in which 2010 visitors and locals can go beyond the 90 minutes of the football game and explore a beautiful and diverse travel mix.

Dr Laurine Platzky, 2010 FIFA World Cup co-ordinator: department of premier, provincial government of the Western Cape, says, “Cape Town and the Western Cape give coaches and teams the opportunity to select from a variety of base camp propositions that include high end accommodation in both urban and rural settings. Our internationally recognised training centres offer coaches access to the latest developments in sport science and provide indoor options for team preparation supplement. The attractive accommodation and leisure activities offered by the region make the area an ideal home for media, fans and the corporate sector accompanying their teams during 2010.”

“The decision of international football teams to base themselves in the Western Cape is undoubtedly an endorsement of the province’s infrastructure excellence and irresistible tourism charm,” says Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of Cape Town Routes Unlimited. “We’re rolling out our 2010 marketing campaign, ‘Beyond the 90 Minutes’, through innovative tools such as documentary-style road trip videos in ten languages. While the idea is to sweep 2010 visitors off their feet, we also want to use this time to showcase the destination to new markets such as Brazil and Argentina and grow repeat tourism.”

Dianna Martin, CEO of Bitou Tourism, agrees, “Our destination marketing efforts have been aimed at positioning Plettenberg Bay as a world-class, desirable destination not only before and during the World Cup, but also afterwards. The area offers easy accessibility to host cities Cape Town and Port Elizabeth as well as the rest of the country. It is an ideal base from which to attend games and explore South Africa.”

South African soccer fans will be able to buy world cup tickets over the counter from April, football governing body FIFA and the Local Organising Committee confirmed on Wednesday.

The decision was taken at an executive meeting of the FIFA ticketing committee in Zurich this week.

At the moment, tickets can be bought by filling in application forms at First National Bank (FNB) branches or fans can apply for tickets online.

The process has elicited an outcry from football fans who complained that it was too complicated to secure tickets for Africa’s first world cup tournament.

“We are happy now to say that ordinary South Africans will be able to get the tickets,” Jordaan said during a media briefing.

Jordaan said indications in the last two weeks have been that there is a positive feedback from South Africans to buy the tickets.

“We are particularly happy with the support behind Bafana Bafana and the pick up in ticket sales over the past two weeks,” he said.

The South African Football Supporters Association (SAFSA) announced on Wednesday that the number of South Africans buying world cup tickets has increased by 24 percent.

South Africa was reported to have accounted for 79 percent of the total of applications received in the third phase of the ticket sales – 958,381 of the 1,206,865 applications received.

FIFA has also decided to increase the number of category four tickets available for South Africans. Close to two million tickets have been sold so far with six matches oversubscribed.

US and UK are still topping the sales followed Australia, Mexico, Germany and Brazil respectively.

BuaNews

Cape Town has received yet another accolade for best holiday destination – and this time it’s been voted for by South African’s themselves – in a heat magazine reader survey, Cape Town was voted Best Holiday Destination Ever.
This will be Cape Town’s first accolade for 2010 after numerous 2009 awards such as Best Destination by Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2009, World’s Best Entertainment/Lifestyle Destination by the Luxury Travel Awards 2009, and being nominated one of the British Airways Top Ten Travel Destinations for 2010.
heat magazine’s first summer holiday survey took place at the beginning of January 2010 when readers took part in voting for their best holiday destination ever, their favourite beaches and their least desired vacation spot (among other questions). heat found that readers voted the beach as their favourite holiday spot with Cape Town and Durban beaches emerging as favourites. A stay in Cape Town topped the log as ‘Best Holiday Ever’, with almost 20% of the total votes – up against the likes of Ballito, the Maldives, Mauritius and Thailand. A stay on a tropical island came in as second choice.
“We are thrilled to have this endorsement” says spokesperson for Cape Town Tourism, Lianne Burton, “We are so proud that South African’s are favouring a destination close to home over an international holiday. This really tells us that Cape Town is a destination with something for everyone and we look forward to welcoming heat’s readers for many years to come.”
heat is a weekly magazine with national distribution and a circulation of 50 281 (ABC Jul – Sep 2009)

Is this the finest view in the fairest Cape? Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak, creamed by wisps of Cape Doctor, all framed from inside the glittering new Cape Town Stadium.

It’s 2010. And just as we’re relentlessly dragged down by the news of another child killed in Cape gang warfare, so our spirits are lifted by this monument to ambition, celebration and peace.

Welcome to the field of dreams on which the international version of the beautiful game will soon unfold.

Arriving at the stadium, one is struck by the surrounding desolation of the old 18 000-seater Green Point Stadium – still echoing with the faint cries of triumph of athletes who sprinted, hurdled and jumped their way to the podium.

But those fading memories are now replaced with the anticipated roar of 68 000 soccer fans.

So what’s it really like to be inside, for the first time?

Those spectators with the finest view will be perched 50m into the sky in the stadium’s northern stands, their backs to Table Bay and Robben Island, facing south down the Table Mountain National Park’s peninsula mountain chain.

But for now the stadium is quiet – much the same as the hush before opening night at those other famous outdoor Cape Town stages, Maynardville and Kirstenbosch.

In 148 days, the first luxury coaches will sweep down towards the stadium’s bowels. After a short walk, the players will enter the changerooms.

No sweaty dungeons these. Instead, they match the en suite luxury of a five-star hotel, with marble finishes and gleaming taps and showerheads, all under an ambient glow of subtle lights.

Under these very showers will soon step superstars – France’s Thierry Henri, Patrice Evra and Karim Benzema; Paraguay’s Rocky Santa Cruz; Holland’s Robin van Persie and Raphael van der Vaart; Portugal’s Ronaldo; Italy’s Andrea Pirlo; Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o; and, not least, England’s pack of Wayne Rooney, Stephen Gerard, Frank Lampard and John Terry.

As they pull on their jerseys, only 10m away VIPs would have been welcomed into the airy, double-volume new foyer, before being escorted to their 68 dedicated VIP suites.

A total 2 230 VIPs can be fed and watered in the business club lounge area.

Media have the finest seats in the house – 24 media desks sit centre-stand, with space for another 154 journalists elsewhere, not including staff in four TV studios.

Ready for kick-off, the players will walk about 20m from their changerooms to the entrance of the tunnel.

Standing at the tunnel mouth, images flood the consciousness – of gladiators, armed with the finest football skills on earth, whether learnt in the elite training academies of north London, or on the potholed streets of the slums of Buenos Aires.

They will run out on to a pitch lit by 360 hi-tech globes which ring the stadium’s 36 000m178 oval roof, lighting the grass seamlessly, without shadow or glare. Surrounding them, fans at ground level are just a touch away from the action.

Despite the stadium’s 290m-long, 265m-wide dimensions, the atmosphere is intimate – and it sometimes feels smaller than 50 900-seater Newlands.

If – or when – it rains, some fans will still get wet, probably those in the south-east stands, from the prevailing north-wester blowing off the sea.

But every drop that falls on the stadium will be captured and funnelled off to water the adjacent urban park and golf course.

Fans in the eastern stands will have to contend with the setting sun towards Sea Point.

In 11 days Ajax plays Santos in the first event in the new stadium, and the aim will be to fill the lowest of the three tiers seen in the main picture above with fans – about 20 000 seats.

On February 6 the aim will be to fill the second tier too – a total of 40 000 seats – when the Stormers play Boland.

And then in March, probably for an international friendly, fans will fill the stadium.

These three events are “test events”, as required by Fifa – testing worst-case scenarios, for example. On safety, in the words of German chief project architect Robert Hormes: “A modern stadium starts with evacuation procedures.”

The stadium can be emptied, from full, in less than 10 minutes through 88 turnstiles and three main gates. Or so they hope. A total 150 CCTV cameras stare down on it all, scrutinised by officers in the Venue Operations Centre.

Exiting the stadium and staring back at history again, all is not lost for the old Green Point Stadium.

The track and main stand remain, and will be refurbished for the next generation of track and cycling stars.

The city describes its proud new creation in these words: “The Cape Town Stadium has a graceful, clean and sweeping silhouette.

“The translucent fabric mesh around the stadium exterior softens the structural elements and when lit up at night, the stadium bowl will appear to float on its base.”

Float it does indeed – and with it the hopes and dreams of billions of fans around the world, not least in the still-battered South Africa, uniting again, or so it’s hoped, just as in 1995, around a simple game.

Even if it’s just for six weeks, we will allow ourselves to lay down our burdens – and pretend that nothing is more important than the grassy travels of a thermally bonded, spherically moulded Adidas soccer ball called ‘Jabulani’.

Its meaning? “To celebrate.”

One of the most artistic football venues in South Africa, the newly-built Cape Town Stadium is situated in one of the most sought-after areas in the city of Cape Town.

The Stadium is one of the two semifinal venues for the FIFA World Cup. This multi-purpose venue is also going to be used to stage major events and concerts. Fans will be a stone’s throw from the ocean and the mountains of Cape Town will also provide the backdrop for matches. The location is ideal as it is a short walk from the transportation hub of the city. The new stadium has been partly built on land that was previously used as a golf course.

The actual estimated cost for the building was budgeted at about R2.857-billion but due to economic environmental impacts; the cost have escalated to approximately an estimated R4-billion.

The stadium, which has an exterior that is covered with noise-reducing cladding has a capacity of 70 000 and is close to completion. The Green Point Common, on which the new 2010 stadium stands, was originally much larger than what now remains, and included most of the land between the sea and Signal Hill, stretching from the city centre towards Sea Point.

After the World Cup, the City will lease the stadium to operator Stade de France for an estimated 30 years. The operating lease will include managing the urban park and Common surrounding the stadium. The top tier of seats inside the stadium will be removed, leaving 55 000 seats.

Name: Cape Town Stadium
Capacity: 70 000
Completed: 2009
Construction: New
Occupants: none
Fixtures: five group, one second round, quarter-final, semi-final

source: iafrica.com

Cape Town – Holidaymakers in the Western Cape took a shorter break, spent less, and sought value for money over the summer holidays, according to tourism experts.

However the summer period was, more or less, as busy as previous years nothwithstanding the recession, says Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of Cape Town Routes Unlimited.

Along the Garden Route, consumer spending was initially a little quieter, probably owing to the water shortage in the region, Gilfellan says. Yet from just before Christmas to New Year, holidaymakers suddenly woke up and began to arrive.

In the Overberg and the Cape Town city centre, it was quieter than in the previous season, while in the Boland conditions were as in previous years. On the West Coast, however, where value for money is more discernible, and in the Karoo national parks, it was surprisingly brisker.

Belinda van Niekerk, managing executive for finance and corporate affairs at Cape Town Tourism, says five-star accommodation in the city struggled because holidaymakers – including foreigners – increasingly focused on self-catering units.

Fortunately, supporters of the English cricket team gave the industry a welcome boost.

Up to December 28, hotel occupancies in the higher segments were 10% to 20% down on the previous year, but three-and four-star hotels did better, says Phillip Couvaras, chairperson of the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa in the Western and Northern Cape.

A more positive sentiment is gradually taking hold in the hospitality industry in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup tournament. Many businesses are already seeing better-than-average bookings for the next few months.

Shaun Mason, manager of City Sightseeing Cape Town, says that before the recession Cape Town was largely a festive-season destination for Gauteng residents, but this year many decided to stay home. Even visitors to the Table Mountain cableway were mostly locals.

But he points out that foreign visitors traditionally descend on the mother city only from mid-January onwards.

- Sake24.com