JEDDAH, 13 February 2007 — The South African Embassy and Consulate General in Saudi Arabia will host workshops in the Kingdom to promote South Africa’s tourism and investment opportunities ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
The workshops will take place in Jeddah on Feb.18 and in Riyadh on Feb.19.
Dubbed the “Next Stop South Africa” campaign, a delegation of senior officials from the Departments of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Trade and Industry (Investment Promotion Unit), members of South African Tourism, the International Marketing Council of South Africa, as well as representatives from several Provincial Investment Promotion Agencies, will give presentations at the workshops.
“We have World Cup 2010,” the Governor of South Africa’s Western Cape Province, Ibrahim Rasool, told Arab News on a recent visit to the Kingdom. “There is going to be massive investment in infrastructure and tourism”.
For six weeks, the eyes of billions of television viewers, an estimated three million international visitors and the cream of the world’s sporting media will be focused on the southern tip of Africa.
According to consulting firm Grant Thornton, the World Cup will pump around $3 billion into the South African economy and create more than 125,000 jobs.
The indirect spin-offs of an improved image abroad could have an even greater impact on the economy. “We are giving the Arab world first opportunity for what will mature in 2010,” Rasool said.
“There are significant new opportunities opening up in the leisure and hospitality industries, as well as in the construction and engineering sectors,” Etienne van Straaten, the First Secretary Political at the South African Embassy, said.