Eastern Cape government officials, tourist industry leaders and community organizations will meet in Port Elizabeth on 18-19 June to kick off a project to ensure the province uses the coming FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa to create a solid basis for reducing poverty, through a lasting boom in tourism.
The 2010 Tourism Readiness Stakeholders Conference is organized by the provincial Department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs, together with the Genevabased International Trade Centre (ITC). ITC, an agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, has wide experience in business development in Africa. It has already worked with communities in the Eastern Cape province to create new jobs through exports.
Investment in lasting jobs The province has high levels of unemployment and has seen a heavy exodus of people in search of jobs from rural areas to the country's big towns and cities. It sees the expected tourist influx as a business development opportunity. The region has substantial but largely untapped tourism potential in natural resources, wildlife, culture and history. The World Cup is expected to bring some 3.5 million visitors to the Eastern Cape. The province will host six matches, and may also provide base camp and training areas for two teams from other countries taking part in the six-week competition. The aim of the project is to ensure that the people of Eastern Cape benefit from the revenues that the World Cup will engender, through sustainable job and business creation. "The hosting of the FIFA 2010 World Cup in our province provides an exciting opportunity to promote unity among our people and communities, creating sustainable economic opportunities to promote it as a destination of choice,"Â Eastern Cape's Premier Nosimo Balindlela said recently. The Eastern Cape administration last year asked ITC to help design a programme that would get existing and potential local businesses, including community-based enterprises, up and running well in advance of the World Cup.
With this prospect in mind, participants in the Port Elizabeth conference will work along
ITC guidelines for "partnerships for pro-poor trade"Â. They will look at how business and government can join with local people and investors from across South Africa and beyond, to put the Eastern Cape firmly on the international and national tourist map.
Says Patricia J. Francis, ITC's Executive Director, "Cooperation among all the stakeholders is essential to draw up this blueprint, and ensure that it is implemented on the ground. We are confident that ITC participation will attract interest from potential investors."Â Part of a broader plan Eastern Cape officials say the purpose of the conference will be "to agree on a shared vision of opportunities, issues, responsibilities and resources required"Â and to create an implementation mechanism with a lifecycle structure that will take the project forward in time for the World Cup.
On the first day, the focus will be on reaching consensus on the areas to which
resources should be dedicated - product development, tourism infrastructure such as hotels and transport, training in tourism skills, branding, communications and safety and security.
On the second day, the conference will establish a Facilitation Platform, a two-tier
management structure with a steering committee and task teams, to provide strategic
direction and manage projects. A wide range of stakeholders will be represented at both
levels.
The gathering is part of the province's overall 2010 Tourism Readiness Programme. In
September, at a Tourism Summit, the province will launch its implementation plan for the
period up to the World Cup, as well as a wider Eastern Cape Tourism Master Plan covering
the period 2007-2014.
In terms of overall development efforts, the provincial government identifies this project
as a "high-impact priority project"Â.
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For more information:
Contact: Ms Natalie Domeisen, ITC Senior Public Information Officer, tel.: +41 22 730 0370;
e-mail: domeisen@intracen.org
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About ITC
The International Trade Centre is the joint technical cooperation agency of the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). -ITC
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