World Cup leaves prolific legacy for South Africa
JOHANNESBURG, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The first soccer World Cup hosted on African soil has been appraised as one of the most successful tournaments ever hosted.
South African economists believe the legacy of the soccer tournament will benefit the country, long after the final whistle has blown. Initial results indicate that 93 billion rands was injected into South Africa's local economy during the month-long event.
Speaking at a media briefing in the country's administrative capital Pretoria last week, government spokesman, Themba Maseko, said finance minister Pravin Gordhan was still doing the final calculations of the monetary gains the soccer World Cup generated, the results of which will only be available in the coming months.
One of the most notable benefits of the successful hosting of the event is the improvement in both South Africa and Africa's global image. At least 1.4 million international visitors flew into the country to attend matches in the nine provinces and government believes that the tourism sector will grow as a result of the showcase.
"We anticipate that this will translate into an increased number of tourists in the future," said Maseko. According to the Department of Home Affair's Movement Control System (MCS) international visitors had come mainly from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Malawi and Zambia, followed by the United States, Britain, Germany, Australia, Brazil and Mexico to support their teams, as well as to explore South Africa.
Credit card company VC Inc said that according to their cardholder spending data from June 1 to June 25, international visitors in South Africa on the company's payment cards exceeded 176 million U.S. dollars (1.33 billion rands), up 65 percent form 107 million U.S. dollars (810 million rands) for the same period in 2009.
Spending data indicated that the United States, followed by Britain, Australia, Brazil and France had been the strongest contributors to tourism spending.
South African economists believe the legacy of the soccer tournament will benefit the country, long after the final whistle has blown. Initial results indicate that 93 billion rands was injected into South Africa's local economy during the month-long event.
Speaking at a media briefing in the country's administrative capital Pretoria last week, government spokesman, Themba Maseko, said finance minister Pravin Gordhan was still doing the final calculations of the monetary gains the soccer World Cup generated, the results of which will only be available in the coming months.
One of the most notable benefits of the successful hosting of the event is the improvement in both South Africa and Africa's global image. At least 1.4 million international visitors flew into the country to attend matches in the nine provinces and government believes that the tourism sector will grow as a result of the showcase.
"We anticipate that this will translate into an increased number of tourists in the future," said Maseko. According to the Department of Home Affair's Movement Control System (MCS) international visitors had come mainly from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Malawi and Zambia, followed by the United States, Britain, Germany, Australia, Brazil and Mexico to support their teams, as well as to explore South Africa.
Credit card company VC Inc said that according to their cardholder spending data from June 1 to June 25, international visitors in South Africa on the company's payment cards exceeded 176 million U.S. dollars (1.33 billion rands), up 65 percent form 107 million U.S. dollars (810 million rands) for the same period in 2009.
Spending data indicated that the United States, followed by Britain, Australia, Brazil and France had been the strongest contributors to tourism spending.