|
| Essentials • This Week's Paper • Advertise • More Sections: editorial | politics | columnists | letters |
|
| Top News > sports |
|
 |
1/22/2010 By Peter Adrien Winning, the only Attraction! Win! Win! Win! A winning team; a winning organization; a winning culture; a winning history; a winning posture ; wining, the time-tested successful formula is rapidly placing South Africa on the international sporting stage, and bringing in much-needed foreign exchange. The business environment is buzzing in the Black Continent, with the hosting of the FIFA World Cup in Mandela Country. The most sought-after sporting destinations, bidding cities, resorts and hotels, sporting organizations, tour operators and event organisers, international media and elite buyers are establishing business deals, entering into and sourcing new contacts and markets and gaining invaluable insights from industry leaders to maximize returns from the global event. And the high-quality performances of the sporting teams is increasing the attractiveness of the destination, adding to the market capacity for boosting demand, and , with the emergence of the new technologies, are providing the domestic market with a continuous priceless promotional and marketing opportunities. In fact, this week started with dominating performance by the team, when it sent England crashed to defeat by an innings and 74 runs in the fourth and final Test in Johannesburg which allowed them to draw the series (1-1) and retain the Basil D'Oliveira Trophy. England scored 180 and 169 lost to South Africa 423-7 declared by an innings and 74 runs. The somewhat demoralised English team went from 48-3 the day before to 169 all out as the South Africa wrapped up the match before lunch on the fourth day at the Wanderers. England, having already lost its top order in the 13 overs available on the third evening, needed star batsman, Kevin Pietersen to help them get through the first hour of Sunday's play but he fell to a wide delivery which sealed the victory. This ended a somewhat dreadful series for Pietersen and a poor one for batsmen, Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior. The cricketing victory was really a reflection of the performance of the sport business and sport tourism in South African since 2009. First, South African rugby teams finished the year as holders of the World Cup title, the Tri-Nations title, the Super 14 crown, and the IRB Sevens World Series title. The Springboks were crowned the IRB Team of the Year in 2009 despite a remarkably difficult season, which was possibly the toughest in their history: three matches against the British and Irish Lions, three matches against New Zealand, three matches against Australia, and end-of-year tour outings against France, Italy, and Ireland. The two biggest challenges were the series against the British and Irish Lions, who had beaten the Springboks 12 years previously in 1997, and the Tri-Nations, which featured the teams holding down the top three places in the International Rugby Board rankings. South Africa won both. In the Tri-Nations, South Africa won five of their six matches. They beat New Zealand three times in succession for the first time since 1949 – 28-19, 31-19, and 32-29 – and defeated Australia 29-17 and 32-25, before losing 6-21 in Brisbane. At the end of the year, losses to France and Ireland, either side of a win over Italy, by a tired-looking team took some gloss off of the Springboks' achievements, but the fact that they had won the two toughest challenges outside of the World Cup in the same year ensured they were named the IRB Team of the Year. Fourie du Preez and Francois Steyn earned nominations as the IRB International Player of the Year. Second, South African swimmers excelled in 2009 after failing to win a medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Cameron van der Burgh, South Africa's swimmer of the year, proved himself to be the fastest breaststroke swimmer in the world. In August, at the World Championships in Rome, he finished third in the 100 metres, but followed that up with victory in the 50 metres in a world record-setting time of 26.67 seconds. Later in the year, he finished as the overall winner of the Fina World Cup for the second year in succession. During the course of the five-stop series, he set world short course records in the 50 metres in 25.25 seconds, and the 100 metres in 55.61. Roland Schoeman finished second to Van der Burgh in the World Cup overall standings and also swam the 50 metres freestyle faster than any man in history at the South African Short Course Championships in Pietermariztburg, clocking an astounding time of 20.30 seconds. Other South African winners during the course of the World Cup included George du Rand, Darian Townsend, and Kathryn Meaklim, who all set world records, as well as Gerhard Zandberg and Chad le Clos. Chad Ho became the first South African to win an open water medal at the World Championships when he placed third in the five-kilometres. Terence Parkin, the winner of a silver medal in the 2000 Olympic Games, dominated the Deaflympics, winning seven gold medals in Taipei to take his career total to an astounding 29 in four Deaflympics. Third, South Africa could make a strong claim as having been the focus of world cricket in 2009. The country hosted the ICC Champions Trophy, the Indian Premier League, and series featuring the Proteas against Australia at the start of the year and England at the end of the year. The series against Australia was round two of an away and home face-off. After winning Down Under for the first time, and handing the Aussies their first series loss on home soil in 16 years, the tables were turned in South Africa, with Australia winning the series 2-1 for a 3-3 share of the spoils. There was some consolation for the Proteas in the final test; they thrashed the visitors by an innings and 20 runs to hand Australia its first innings defeat since 1998. The Indian Premier League, hosted at short notice, proved to be a massive successive with jam-packed crowds throughout despite the 59-match schedule. Combining show business and cricket, with many of the owners having links to Bollywood, it was cricket with a funky twist and South African cricket lovers lapped it up. The final outcome of the event was very surprising as the Deccan Chargers, last in 2008, claimed the title after a six-run win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final. In late September, South Africa played host to the biggest ICC event of the year, the Champions Trophy. It didn't go well for the Proteas, who entered the event ranked number one in the world in the 50 overs a side game, but for Australia, whitewashed by England in England just before the Champions Trophy, it was a chance at redemption that they seized with both hands as they claimed the honours. Fourth, in golf, Retief Goosen, after a gradual slide down the Official World Golf Rankings, found his game again in 2009, winning two titles, one in the USA and one in South Africa. He captured the Transitions Championship for his first win on the PGA Tour since 2005. He also took the honours in the Africa Open in East London. And speaking of the Africa Open, it has become the latest South African event to be included on the PGA European Tour; the first co-sanctioned tournament takes place in early January 2010. James Kingston, the winner of the South African Open in 2008, an event co-sanctioned by the PGA European Tour and Sunshine Tour, claimed his first European Tour win on European soil. In addition to the economic benefits derived from these events in 2009, the first World Cup to be hosted in Africa will provide tremendous business opportunities for the travel and tourism industry of South Africa in particular. Some five million tourists are expected to visit South Africa during the month-long sporting and the travel and tourism industry will experience an economic boom. Apart from revenue generated from transportation, catering, and room sales, the demand will be high for South Africa’s breathtaking mixture of unique cultures and traditions, beautifully stunning scenery and exotic wildlife. What are the lessons to be learnt? South Africa teaches cutting-edge business lessons for developing and nurturing the sport business and sport tourism industry. One lesson stands out – winning is the secret to sport tourism! |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Contact
Us | Privacy
Policy ©
2008 The Labour Spokesman