Bumper tourism season for Cape Town this winter could see new tourism patterns emerge

As the 2010 FIFA World Cup reaches its halfway mark, Cape Town Tourism evaluates the impact of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on Cape Town thus far, with predictions on how the rest of the event could play out – and what this might mean for future tourism to the destination.

Accommodation
A survey conducted by Cape Town Tourism indicates that occupancy levels in the Cape Town Metropole for the first two weeks of the tournament have averaged 40%. This figure increased by 6% from week one to week two and indications are that this upward trend will continue. Last-minute bookings in Cape Town are commonplace, with establishments reporting that 25.9% of bookings are coming in just three days ahead of check-in date. 17.9% of accommodation owners surveyed reported that 91-100% of their bookings came in after kick-off on 11 June 2010. Some 28% of establishments in the Cape Town Metropole are already enjoying occupancies of 71% to 100%.

The beneficial effect of the 2010 FIFA World Cup to accommodation establishments in Cape Town has been felt to the greatest effect in concentrated areas near to the stadium, major attractions and Fan Walk/Fan Fest areas. Establishments in the City Bowl, Waterfront and Greenpoint areas have experienced a 71% average occupancy during the past two weeks, around 20% up on the same period last year. In general, establishments further from the centre have had disappointing bookings, with 39% reporting occupancy levels of below 20%.

79.8% of accommodation bookings were made by people travelling in small groups of two to four people. England and America dominate the influx-by-nation ratio with 54.5% and 38.6% respectively.

54.5% of guests are price sensitive (wanting to negotiate fees and tour prices, shopping around and trying to find better deals) and hoteliers observe that incoming tourists are selective about price because they know that they can choose from a wide range of accommodation still available in Cape Town.

The average stay is currently three to four days. This is a reflection of fan movements between the eight host cities for the group stages where there are numerous matches in close succession in various destinations. Cape Town Tourism predicts that the length of stay in Cape Town will increase as the tournament progresses. Cape Town hosts a Quarter Final on Saturday, 3 July and the Semi Final on Tuesday, 6 July 2010 and expects that visitor numbers will peak during these times.

Means of Travel
AIR
Cape Town International Airport reports that the number of international arrivals in Cape Town for June 2010 is up 44% on the same period in 2009. During the FIFA World Cup™ period thus far, the airport’s busiest day was 20 June, when just over 25 000 passengers were processed.

Domestic arrivals are up by 10% (this despite a decline in regular business travel during the FIFA World Cup, which means that the increase in leisure travel may, in fact, be even higher than 10%).

The overall increase in arrivals to Cape Town by air is up by 13% year on year. It is likely that incoming air traffic will increase, particularly if some of the bigger footballing nations do well in the next rounds. Cape Town Tourism’s UK-based representative, Mary Tjebe reports a British Airways spokesperson as saying: “Fans in England began booking flights to South Africa within minutes of England taking the lead against Slovenia. British Airways noticed a surge in bookings to Johannesburg and Cape Town at half-time of that game.”
The British Airways source said: “We saw a rise in bookings for flights to South Africa on Wednesday as the match was being played. There are still some seats left on flights on Friday and Saturday for the crucial match between England and Germany.”

LAND
Travel by luxury coach has also proven to be popular. Springbok Atlas is servicing the FIFA/ Hyundai parties (including some of the national teams) and Thomas Cook group bookings are transporting some of the international fan groups e.g. the Dutch. The rest of their fleet are offering cross-country trips.

Craig Drysdale , National General Manager of Springbok Atlas Coach Charter Division says there has been huge demand during the last two weeks. Business has increased from 55% to 95% percent and all their ad-hoc coaches are 100% full – with an average of two trips per major city centre, per day. By way of comparison, their average passenger uptake for peak summer season is 70%.

Fairfield Coaches, a luxury coach operator agreed that business was good with a ‘better than normal winter season’. Car rental companies are reporting mixed results, many saying that figures have been disappointing but that business increases around match days.

Cape Town Attractions
Cape Town Tourism’s network of 18 Visitor Information Centres reports a 16% increase in international visitors over the same period last year, with a 3% decrease in domestic visitors (indicating that the extended school holidays may have resulted in changed domestic tourism patterns).

In keeping with the trend towards shorter stays, visitors are flocking to the attractions in close proximity to the stadium precinct. The V&A Waterfront is enjoying trading similar to summer peak season levels and is reporting daily visits of between 150 000 and 160 000 people. Table Mountain Cableway CEO, Sabine Lehman, reports that their June 2010 figures are 50% up on those of June 2009 and that the average individual spend is significantly higher than usual.

Other Cape Town shopping centres, such as Cavendish Square, Canal Walk and Tygervalley have also noted an increase in visitors, compared to the previous winter period. The Cape Quarter reported high visitor traffic and excellent trade in the restaurants, but less so in the retail outlets.

All Cape Town attractions and shopping centres are commenting on the high level of optimism and energy amongst the visiting crowds.

Tours
63.4% of tour operators polled by Cape Town Tourism have experienced an increase in business of approximately 20% year on year for June, whilst 16.1% have experienced 91% to 100% more bookings than this time last year.

30.8% reported that their bookings were last minute ‘walk-ins’ rather than pre-planned bookings. English, American and German travellers accounted for the greatest proportion of tour customers.

80% of group enquiries in Cape Town were for tour bookings of no more than four persons. The most popular tours involve cultural attractions, wine or nature. Hotel concierges report that guests are most frequently requesting information about Table Mountain Cableway (74.5%), the V&A Waterfront (65.3%), Robben Island (50%) and the Winelands (52%). Cape Point and the surrounding areas are also a popular choice.

72.7% of tour operators report that their customers are price sensitive. Cape Town Tourism’s restaurant respondees report that approximately 59% of their customers are walk-ins and about half of all their guests are international visitors. Restaurants screening the matches believed they had a competitive advantage. Cape Town’s Long Street was filled to capacity over peak periods such as the kick-off and Bafana Bafana match days, as well as over the past weekend (18 and 19 June 2010).

Media Hosted by Cape Town Tourism to Date
Cape Town Tourism hosted 205 international journalists and media channels between the beginning of January and the 10th June 2010. This included British Breakfast Television show GMTV, CNN, BBC, Jornal da Brasil, National Geographic Traveller, BBC Radio, Sky Sport, UK Celebrity Magazine, GPD Associate Press Services, the in-flight magazines of KLM and British Airways, The UK Press Association, ARD German Television, Univision TV in the USA, The Weekly Travel show in Germany, Australian Channel 7, Focus TV Germany, Discovery Channel, Tagesspiegel am Sonntag and Associated Press USA. The focus was predominately on Cape Town’s readiness to welcome thousands of football fans to the city.

Since the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Cape Town Tourism has hosted 85 international journalists on tours and sightseeing excursions in Cape Town and provided content assistance to an additional 93 media channels.

The media response to Cape Town has been overwhelmingly positive. Prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, much negative reporting was targeted at Cape Town and South Africa, and a stance of Afro-pessimism pervaded international reporting. Cape Town Tourism’s international representatives – based in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands – report that there has been a complete reversal of this opinion. Well known German Sports journalist Ronny Blaschke encapsulates the media opinion of Cape Town by stating: “Cape Town is one of the most beautiful and most fascinating cites in the world, from a tourism point of view and from a journalistic point of view. Cape Town combines sights, culture and the impulse to learn something about South Africa’s political history. The city, with its huge contrasts, is a permanent repertory of interesting stories. It cannot become boring.”

The BBC chose to base their glass commentators’ box on a rooftop near the V&A Waterfront, with a birds-eye view of the Table Mountain backdrop. On Wednesday, 23 June, a critical game between England and Slovenia was watched by 10 million UK viewers on BBC alone.

EXPECTATIONS FOR REMAINDER OF THE WORLD CUP
Cape Town has proven it is able to host an event of the magnitude of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Security and organisational fears have been allayed and positive media coverage has spread a confident and optimistic message to audiences across the globe.

Cape Town Tourism predicts that this excellent media coverage, together with the current match positions of key traditional source markets, will result in a further surge in last minute bookings. Cape Town Tourism is spreading the word that Cape Town still has availability and is able to host more visitors.

A national campaign called Come to Cape Town has been launched, in partnership with low cost airlines kulula, 1Time and Mango, to attract visitors from other host cities (65% of the FIFA World Cup fans are reported to be based in Gauteng, where most of the matches, including the final, will be played). Promoted via print ads in top-circulating weekend newspapers and through the Cape Town Tourism website www.capetown.travel , the Come to Cape Town Campaign is also a joint marketing venture with several accommodation members. The customer wins – with national one way flights for as little as R 700 and a night’s accommodation at around R 500 per person. This too is expected to increase arrivals in Cape Town, particularly around quarter and semi-final dates.

Previous research (conducted by UCT on behalf of Cape Town Tourism) at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, found that the bulk of international visitors wanted to make Cape Town part of their 2010 FIFA World Cup stay. Cape Town was also found to be offering the most affordable accommodation of all host cities (Grant Thornton Survey, 2010) and it is hoped that earlier misperceptions driven by a media frenzy, and initial isolated instances of price-gourging, can be significantly and timeously counter-balanced to increase visitors in the second half of the 2010 FIFA World Cup – and also in the weeks and months after.

LOOKING AHEAD – SUMMER SEASON 2010/11
Whilst it is too early to predict figures, Cape Town Tourism is confident that a good summer season will follow the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This optimism comes with the proviso that the destination’s tourism industry focuses on pro-active, price-conscious marketing for the remainder of the year. Many visitors evaded the 2010 FIFA World Cup due to recession-fueled financial worries, while others stayed home out of fears for their safety. Once again, the positive media coverage and rich visual documentation of an incident-free event in a remarkable destination have been a priceless global advertisement for Cape Town.

Says Cape Town Tourism CEO, Mariette du Toit-Helmbold; “Many a mega-event host destination has endured a post-event depression, but so often that was based on the fact that the destination disappointed visitors with less than they expected. In our case, the opposite is true. The international media have found it hard to remain objective as they have been carried along on a rowdy but good-spirited wave of colour, vibrancy and warmth. Our efficiency, safety and all-round positive attitude have caught the attention of the world and many a jaded pessimist has been forced to revise his views. We believe that this FIFA World Cup has, thus far, been not only the greatest marketing success story we have ever had, but it has also been an essential and long-overdue turning point for the world’s perception of Africa.”

Du Toit-Helmbold stressed that the industry should not rest on its laurels; “We have to capitalise on this now. We have to follow up this first impression with real, visible, accessible offers that speak to a world still battling their way through tough times. We are in a unique and incredibly fortunate position to be the only country in the world to have seen so much positive coverage on television this year. Now it’s up to us to convert that into tangible tourism results.”

LOOKING AHEAD – THE NEXT FIVE YEARS
With around three billion people globally reported to be watching international broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup, Cape Town Tourism has projected that if just a half of a percent of those people decide to visit Cape Town over the next five years, we could grow our tourism arrivals of 1,8 million visitors per annum by a further three million visitors per annum.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup has also been critical in countering seasonality, bringing Cape Town a significantly better winter than it would have had, and proving that a winter mega event in Cape Town is possible and enjoyable.

Says Deidre Hendricks, Communications Manager for ACSA at Cape Town International Airport; “The increase in our arrivals this June can be attributed to a single event, the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and without it the passenger numbers next year will not be as high. This signifies the importance and the impact that events have on traffic in to Cape Town. What would typically have been a quiet winter has resulted in us processing passengers equal to a busier period.

A true benefit of the 2010 FIFA World Cup is that visitors have come to Cape Town in winter. If this is repeated going forward, we will eventually see international carriers no longer needing to fly seasonally, but being in a position to fly to Cape Town all year round”.

Alderman Felicity Purchase, Mayco Member Economic Development and Tourism for the City of Cape Townagrees that the hosting of major events during Cape Town’s winter season is critical to unlocking economic growth for the city. “The City of Cape Town has developed an Events Policy and is now working on a post-2010 World Cup Events Strategy with key stakeholders from the events and tourism industry,” she said. “Events can play an important role in addressing seasonality, which is one of the greatest stumbling blocks in the development of Cape Town as a year-round tourism destination.”

Cape Town Tourism, CEO, Mariette du Toit-Helmboldconcurs; “Our focus has never been on the short term benefits of hosting this event, but rather on maximising the long term benefits and changing the opinion the world has of us, converting soccer fans into fans of Cape Town. Our aim is to double the economic impact of tourism by 2020 and the World Cup will definitely make this target more attainable.”