S.Africa Aims for 10 mln Tourists Ahead Worldcup

By Reporters Posted 19 July 2006 @ 05:39 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

SANI PASS (Reuters) - South Africa is aiming for the magic 10 million mark in foreign tourist visits by 2010, the year it hosts the soccer World Cup, as it attempts to create badly needed jobs.

Click to Enlarge South Africa FIFA Worldcup ...

"Last year we passed the seven million international tourists-per-annum mark. Our objective for 2010 is to have at least 10 million international visitors in this country," Marthinus van Schalkwyk told Reuters in an interview.

"At the moment tourism is the fastest growing sector of our economy. We are now getting 10 times the international tourists that we received here in 1994 (when apartheid ended)," he said.

Van Schalkwyk was speaking late on Tuesday at the launch of a road project on the breathtaking Sani Pass, which nestles in rugged mountains on the South African/Lesotho border.

Analysts estimate that tourism accounts for around 7 percent of Africa's biggest economy but it punches above its weight because it is labour intensive in a country with an unemployment rate officially estimated at around 26 percent.

"It (tourism) can create jobs, we believe much faster and cheaper than many of the other sectors of the economy," said van Schalkwyk.

Tourism also provides entrepreneurial opportunities for lower to middle income families in areas such as bed and breakfasts and brings in welcome hard currency.

The minister said South Africa was gearing up to accommodate long-term visitors during the World Cup.

"In other countries it was possible for tourists to come for short periods of time. In Germany now, the norm was 1 to 2 day visits by supporters of soccer teams," he said.

"Here people will come for the duration of the World Cup, 40 days plus, or for as long as their teams stay part of the World Cup," he said.

He added that it was therefore important to upgrade infrastructure in rural areas and neighbouring countries such as Lesotho to give soccer tourists a range of options.

"We must have the capacity to have people attending the games, and then move them out into the rural areas, into the national parks and frontier parks," he said.

South Africa has an infrastructure unrivaled on the world's poorest continent and its beaches, golf courses and wildlife parks make it a prime destination on the global tourism map.

Its main drawback is sky-high rates of violent crime: a key concern for organisers of the soccer extravaganza.