World Cup bonanza still on

The number of visitors expected to descend on South African shores for the Fifa World Cup may have shrunk, but the good news is that those coming will stay longer.

This is according to the latest projections made by global audit and advisory firm Grant Thornton.

Grant Thornton has revised the number of expected visitors from 483000 in 2007 to 373000 currently.

The firm's revised figures follows reports in The Times this week that the number of visitors expected to the World Cup has dropped from an initial projection of 500000 to about 220000.

Briefing the media yesterday, Grant Thornton strategic solutions principal Gillian Saunders said: "Indications are that overseas tourists will stay for an average of 18 days compared to the 14 days used in the original projections.

"Average overseas tourist spend per trip is also forecast to be up, at R30200 compared to the R22000 used before."

She said the average spend projections were based on an analysis of current tourist spends in South Africa as well as dipstick surveys of potential visitors and expenditure by visitors for other sporting events such as the Lions' Rugby Tour.

Foreign World Cup visitors, she said, were expected to attend an average of five soccer matches per person, up from the 3.4 matches previously expected. This compared to an average of 2.6 matches attended by foreigners at the Fifa World Cup in Germany in 2006.

"Going to more matches means visitors are likely to stay in the country for a longer period and therefore total trip spend increases.

"It must be understood that some 105000 of the 373000 visitors to South Africa over this period are expected to be non-ticket-holders; 85000 of whom would come from Africa for a short visit. This 105000 is down by 16% on the 125000 non-ticket-holders projected previously," said Saunders.

The firm expects 228500 overseas ticket-holders, accounting for 38% of ticket sales. Ticket sales to Africans account for only 2%, translating to 11300 African ticket-holders. Originally, the firm said, African ticket-holders were expected to number 48 145, a difference of 77%.

"The gross economic impact will be R93-billion, with 62% expected to be generated pre-2010 and 38% during the course of this year. Foreign tourism will account for 16% of the gross impact," said Saunders.

Saunders said the tournament is expected to contribute about 0.54% to the country's gross domestic product.

This, she said, was significant, considering that total GDP growth this year is estimated to be between 2 and 2.5%.