4 February 2003

South African Tourism plans to use the Cricket World Cup 2003 – which gets under way at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town Saturday – to reinforce the country’s reputation as a year-round preferred tourist destination.

Such a reputation, says South African Tourism, should be carried back home by thousands of fans and players who will be visiting the country for the sporting extravaganza, the sport’s largest competition to date.

The organisation says it plans to gain publicity for South Africa through vignettes to be televised to the 1.2 billion viewers who are expected to watch the cricket matches.

SA Tourism has signed a contract with the United Cricket Board to give the country unprecedented global coverage. It allows the flighting of themed tourism vignettes during 31 of the 33 matches being played between 8 February and 23 March.

A 30-second slot will be broadcast just before the start of each match, followed by three additional slots during the match. The vignettes – created to highlight each match location – will feature scripted commentary by individual broadcasters with some overplayed by music featuring renowned SA musicians Bongo Muffin and Mandoza.

A total of 12 venues in eight of South Africa’s nine provinces (excluding Limpopo) will host teams from 14 competing countries. Added to this are several lead-up matches being played in township locations.

It is estimated that the World Cup will attract approximately 2 000 visiting journalists and about 25  000 foreign fans.

South African Tourism CEO Cheryl Carolus said that the organisation was not only using the event to encourage foreign travellers to South Africa's shores. "We also intend – together with our tourism partners - to use this opportunity to leverage the added interest being generated in some of our lesser-visited provinces to also increase domestic tourism", Carolus said.

Urging South Africans to welcome the visitors, Carolus said the eyes of the world would once again be on South Africa. "I urge each and every South African to extend their warmest welcome to our guests, showing them once more the hospitality, warmth and friendliness for which we are renowned."

Source: BuaNews