With the latest tourism figures showing that the country had its best tourism season on record last year, it would seem that hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup has been a boost for South Africa.

Now a major study, led by CPUT, analyzing the socio-economic impact of the event has drawn to a close. The research undertaken by Prof Kamilla Swart and her MTech and DTech students was celebrated at a function at the Granger Bay campus recently, where it was confirmed that the World Cup has undoubtedly shone a positive light on both Cape Town and South Africa.

Swart is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business and heads the Centre for Tourism Research in Africa. She was the Project Manager of the massive undertaking, which saw over seven thousand surveys being conducted over the period of the World Cup, in partnership with the City of Cape Town and the Cape Higher Education Consortium.

Swart praised the hard work of the collaborators, including the City’s Carol Wright, and spoke of the sleepless nights, anxiety and fun that the huge project entailed.

She also spoke of the need for a critical understanding of event impacts on the city. Results indicate that Cape Town and the country were positively profiled, with latest tourism figures backing this up.

With tourism in many other countries on the decline owing to the troubled Euro-zone, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced in Parliament in April that South Africa recorded 3.3% more tourists than in 2010, when growth of 15.1% was achieved.

By Jan Weintrob

Written by CPUT News
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The 2014 FIFA World Cup may be over, but for a team of global researchers, their work has just begun.

Prof Kamilla Swart from the Tourism and Events Management Department and Brendon Knott from the Sport Management Department, form part of a team of researchers who are studying the economic impact of the soccer event as well as spectator behavior during the tournament.

The CPUT researchers, along with the rest of the research team, spent two weeks in Rio de Janeiro where they fielded surveys among spectators and conducted interviews with representatives of national and local organizers.

The questionnaires were available in Portuguese, English, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Italian, Russian, Arabic and Farsi and more than 6 000 were completed.

The data was collected in match precincts and public viewing areas in five designated host cities, namely Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Allegre and Salvador.

“Given that the 2014 World Cup was hosted by another emerging country, Brazil, this research study has important implications for several stakeholder groups including FIFA and future World Cup host cities and sponsors,” says Prof Kamilla Swart, who in 2010 led a similar study when South Africa hosted this event.

Currently the study is led by Prof Holger Preuss, a sport economist from Johaness Gutenberg-Universtat, Germany who led the 2006 World Cup impact study.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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