South African Tourism gave a presentation on the Soccer World Cup on September 18 at JATA World Tourism Congress & Travel Fair 2009. The enthusiasm and confidence in the FIFA World Cup slated for the next year in South Africa were expressed by Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism of the Republic of South Africa joined by Toru Furusawa, Chairman, South Africa Working Group and General Manager, International Relationship, JTB Corp.


During the presentation, Bradley Brouwer, Country Manager Japan, South African Tourism, gave an introduction to Toru Furusawa, who made a briefing on the activities of the South Africa Working Group. The Group was launched in March 2007 and, already in November of the same year, Furusawa traveled to South Africa to inspect the planned site for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Commenting on his personal impression of Johannesburg’s security concerns, he stressed that as long as one sticks to the itinerary and listens carefully to the local tourist guide, basically there should be no problem. There is a certain district in downtown Johannesburg where a traveler should not walk about alone, but even for that matter, risks are extremely small, “considering such a vast area of South Africa,” he added, hoping for the concerns to be erased. A seminar on South Africa for the travel industry held previously in Tokyo and Osaka attracted as many as 100 participants at respective venues, which “just proves the country’s growing popularity and the current travel trend.” Capitalizing on the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, the tourism exchange with South Africa is expected to definitely increase and, in view of this, he urged each travel agency to continue its untiring efforts to boost travel to South Africa, concluded Furusawa of JTB.

Also, Schalkwyk, Tourism Minister, gave a comment on the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 3.4 billion people are estimated to watch the games on TV, 3.5 million people are actually going to watch the games in South Africa, of which 450,000 will be visitors from overseas. The estimation remains the same as before in spite of the current global economic downturn. The city of Johannesburg now rushes to rebuild the infrastructure investing as much as 340 billion yen. Construction of new facilities at the airport, road maintenance and construction of the main stadium are all well underway, thus gradually but surely getting ready to welcome visitors from overseas to the World Cup in South Africa. In November, the stadium is scheduled to be completed and ready for an inspection in December by the FIFA Chairman. Everything is expected to be completed and fully ready for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa which is slated for the duration from June to July next year.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa is not an event just for South Africa. As it is considered as the Festival of Africa on the whole, there has been a sufficient cooperative structure established among the African countries, indicated Schalkwyk. For accommodations, for example, the Republic of South Africa has enhanced a tie-up with the neighboring countries. It enables foreign visitors to enjoy watching the wildlife in the morning, watch the game in the afternoon and then, in the evening, return to a place of overnight in a neighboring country. It is indeed the “African way” of enjoying activities and quite recommendable, he said, stressing further that the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa is absolutely a unique event as the “African World Cup”, not just an event to be held in South Africa.


(Note: This article translated from Japanese into English)