Brand South Africa in full swing

The World Cup will leave for another continent on July 11, 2010. South Africa hopes its legacy will stay. For ever, reports Dhiman Sarkar.

The World Cup will leave for another continent on July 11, 2010. South Africa hopes its legacy will stay. For ever.

HT Image

“We are unashamedly using the World Cup as a nation-branding exercise,” said Paul Bannister, acting chief executive officer of the International Marketing Council of South Africa. He termed the June 11, 2010 (when the finals begin) as South Africa’s second defining moment, the democratic elections in April 1994 being the first.

With a full colour World Cup that’ll be “loud, proud and maybe even a little disorganised”, South Africa hopes it would happen again.

If 2006 was a time for Germany to make friends Brand South Africa’s image building exercise will have what Bannister termed ‘several moments of truth’. Through a charm offensive launched globally, South Africa would try and make a difference to visitors from the time they apply for a visa. So that the 450,000 expected visitors become ambassadors for the country where tourism contributes 12 per cent to the GDP.

“22 new hotels have come up in Johannesburg alone and 30 all over the country. We expect the number of tourists to crash through the 10 million barrier (from the current annual estimate of 9.8 million) of which 7.5 million will be land arrivals meaning they will come from neighbouring countries.”

Lack of tickets and their affordability could be a problem, but with 67 public viewing areas where entry is free and fan parks across 10 host cities, you don’t necessarily need a ticket to get up close to the quadrennial showpiece.

And to get the country into the groove, everybody is encouraged to Diski Dance, a routine of football moves performed in a group or alone.

Football Fridays, where the citizens are encouraged to wear team shirts — “every time each one of us does that we think a little bit about the World Cup,” Bannister said — and teaching the national anthem (it’s written in five of the 11 recognised languages) are other initiatives. Multiple viewing meant the 2006 finals were watched by 26.3 billion people, over four times the world’s population.

The World Cup, he claimed, would create 400,000 new jobs. And he mentioned 400 billion rand government investment on national infrastructure, second only to China in the world.

Even before it begins, he claimed the WC’s already been a success. “Over 55 billion rand has already been added to the GDP and the original bid document spoke of 21 billion rand.”