After the era of apartheid, festivals, conferences and events such as
the hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2010TM provide exciting opportunities
to market South Africa as preferred tourist destination. The exposure to
international media and their audiences will have significant impact on
the country's tourism industry and will generate benefits for the local
economy. These benefits include an increase in economic growth and job
creation, social and infrastructural transformation as well as the
alleviation of poverty. In order to induce sustainable contributions to
the country's economy from staging this mega event, South Africa needs
to show a high level of professionalism and responsibility in their
elaboration and execution of the various planned initiatives and
programmes. The country will face challenges and setbacks, but it knows
about the necessity to prepare this event diligently and to not only
support the country's but also Africa's overall image and economic
objectives. In the following paper the author presents the current
position and future outlook for South Africa's tourism industry. She
will clarify the terms sport tourism and its general impacts on the
tourism industry as well as introduce the reader to the FIFA World CupTM
history and characteristics. The author will conduct a detailed
presentment of the predicted short- and long-term impacts of this
hallmark event on South Africa's tourism industry, economy and society.
Challenges and opportunities will be identified and the reader will be
provided with a summary of the preparation phase in terms of tourism,
economy, culture and society prior to the FIFA World Cup 2010TM.
