Tuesday 29 June 2010

So what does the world cup mean to you?

We all got into the spirit somehow and now, with Ghana left int he cup, we all support our African team. But what does the world cup mean to us? I believe that the value is two fold - positive publicity for future tourist and purely money brought into South Africa.

These figures were sent out on Classic FM last week. In the last 3 weeks the following figures applied:

Amount of overseas visitors passports processed at South African airports: 700 000
Amount of money spent on VISA foreign credit cards only: 400 million rands.
Amount of VISA foreign card transactions as day: 25 000 more than last year day on day.

My local shopping mall, Brooklyn Mall tells me that they are experiencing tracing densities close to Christmas shopping. Only in May were they 15% up day on day on last year. Admittedly they have Pretoria's FIFA ticket office in the mall, but as you walk there you are astounded by the amount of tourists and languages floating around. The traders in the mall are more than happy. And guess who are making the most money? Woolworths has huge trading volumes due to the supporters gear that they stock. The restaurants are doing fast trade.  And then the jewelery shops - my word - the one was so full on Tuesday morning with American tourists you could not step inside it. I am talking high class shops here too.The one assistant tells me they are selling a lot of diamond jewelery.

But talking of which, I thought Brooklyn Mall's advertising campaign for the world cup was great. In stead of doing the typical players etc, they got the "real people" of the mall involved. They shot a series of "Soccer supporter" pictures with well known mall faces - owners of shops, shop assistants,  the center manager, one of the cleaning staff, one of the security guards , etc. People whose faces you know if you get there often - original, viby and really creative. I also love the makarapa exhibition.


12 comments:

  1. Very cool post..
    It means to me...Italy lost..lol..just kidding..but we are Italia fans here. I am hoping for HOlland now.

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  2. I was at Menlyn on Sunday and you could hardly navigate through all the people and a lot of them were tourists as well

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  3. INteresting entry Cat...funny to see the new dark skinned models for woolworths.

    I wish I had taken more photo's of the German World Cup ~ that was also very impressive....

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  4. Marcelle, these are the Brooklyn Mall people posters, not Woollies.

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  5. Not being in the City myself i haven't noticed it at all.

    But when listening to our local radio station, the tourists are flocking to the Eastern Cape and big money is being spent. My jeweller (in EL) had the entire Italian rugby team in his shop on Saturday shopping up a storm for their wives - yes i know it's rugby - but if it wasn't for the soccer currently happening Italy wouldn't have played in EL.

    So i think that it is great for SA. I'm just hoping that this is the beginning on unity wrt the political situation within our Country.

    Great post Cat.

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  6. I have enjoyed seeing my friends here get excited about it. I even had fun explaining soccer to Yaya one day while we watched it together. She liked watching the men attempt to get the ball in the goals too.

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  7. Wow!! Those statistics are impressive!!

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  8. Pretty neat! looks like a nice mall!

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  9. How fun! I love seeing how you all celebrate!

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  10. LOVE this, and now I know how to pronounce the name of those horns, too!

    :)

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  11. What a great idea for those posters!

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  12. I am so disappointed that we missed the World Cup. :( Looks like it has been such a blast.

    However, I try to look on the bright side. Coming home has been the right thing to do for Graham I think. We have been able to find out what's going on with him and the therapies here are quite a bit more aggresive I'd say.

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So what's on your mind?