Cape Town
has received a valuable economic boost from hosting the first leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament, which has not only given the city valuable global exposure, but has also cemented its reputation as a sporting and events destination.
The City of Cape Town was able to provide support such as traffic services and cleansing, at relatively short notice to enable the opening parade to take place through the city’s streets.
Mansoor Mohammed, executive director of the Economic, Social Development and Tourism Department of the City of Cape Town said that the move of the IPL opening ceremony and opening matches from India to Cape Town within four weeks was illustrative of the City of Cape Town’s ability to host events of a global scale.
“The City of Cape Town has adopted a strategy to position Cape Town as a global events city,” he said. “The City (has) also established an event permit office and will soon be establishing a dedicated events safety and security unit. These are a few of the many efforts of the City to position Cape Town as a leading global events city and attract more tourists and create more jobs.”
Worldwide attention was focused on Cape Town for the glitzy parade, during which Bollywood stars mingled with international cricketing heroes such as Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne and Graeme Smith, and our own Kaapse Klopse.
The IPL is the world’s richest cricket league, and was moved from India to South Africa because of security fears due to India’s elections.
The tournament will boost the South African economy by between R1 billion and R2 billion, with the hard-hit tourism industry benefiting the most.
Not only will the cash injection boost the local economy too, but the exposure Cape Town is getting as a result of the tournament will also bring long-term tourism benefits.
“This has been an exciting moment and opportunity for Cape Town,” said Cape Town Tourism CEO, Mariëtte du-Toit Helmbold. “The event extends our season significantly and is a welcome boost to our local tourism economy.”
Up to 40 000 hotel rooms and 10 000 domestic flights have been booked countrywide, with 10 000 Indian cricket fans expected to visit the country – many of them coming to Cape Town.
Local media and advertising companies are benefiting from a R120 million marketing budget – the largest media spend in South African sporting history.
When the cost of tickets, food, beverages, transport, merchandise and other costs are taken into account, the economic benefits of hosting the IPL will be significant.
About 700 people came from India to work full-time on the preparations, including the events team, television and media crews, and the players, management and support staff of the eight participating teams.
Local companies were hired to assist the organisers with marketing, public relations, advertising, event management, security, entertainment, travel, hospitality and ticket sales, all of which significantly boosted local businesses.
The IPL will also provide R10 million in scholarship funds to 300 students and 32 schools across the country.
The focus for the first two weeks of the 59-match tournament was on Cape Town, with the opening parade and opening ceremony hosted by President Kgalema Motlanthe, and eight games played at Newlands Cricket Grounds.
“The IPL certainly had an impact in terms of the number of visitors, which is very important to Cape Town,” said Albert Schuitmaker, executive director: Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He said that it was difficult just yet to assess how many visitors had come to Cape Town itself, but he had heard of figures between 10 000 and 35 000 visitors.
“But when you consider that 28 000 people visited Cape Town during the Cricket World Cup six years ago, whatever figure it was is still very significant for the Cape Town economy.”
“It’s had a very positive impact on the hospitality industry and the tourism sector in the Western Cape.
“It also has resulted in the projection of Cape Town to the outside world as a positive city, and importantly, an events city.
“It’s proved that – even though we didn’t organise the weather that well – we can organise and handle such events at short notice, and can be seen as an events destination.
Du-Toit Helmbold agrees. “Sport tourism contributes significantly to our tourism industry’s economic growth, and we are ready to welcome a whole new market of sport travellers.
“We are going to make sure we use this opportunity to build Cape Town’s reputation as the best host city in the world for sporting events like the DLF Indian Premier League Cricket.”
Schuitmaker says this also bodes well for Cape Town ahead of the 2010 FIFA World CupTM soccer tournament.
“The success of this will mean that Cape Town is better known, and gets the confidence of the outside world as a pleasant, enthusiastic and well-organised place to be.”