Minister Van Schalkwyk
leads High Level Delegation to Germany
31/05/2005:The Minister of Environmental Affairs
and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, is today
leading a high level delegation to Berlin
, Germany to learn how that country's tourism
industry is preparing for the 2006 Soccer
World Cup.
This, the Minister commented before the delegation's
departure tonight, will greatly boost the
South African tourism's industry's own preparations
for 2010.
Minister Van Schalkwyk announced at last
year's annual tourism conference that he would
lead a delegation to Germany on a fact-finding
mission which aims to interact with key stakeholders
involved in the organizing of the 2006 Football
World Cup; to explore tourism marketing opportunities
for South Africa that will be brought by the
2006 FIFA Football Cup in German; observe
how Germany is gearing up for the 2006 World
Cup and learn lessons from that process.
The delegation also aims to share marketing,
branding and development strategies that Germany
is adopting; explore opportunities for using
2006 FIFA Football World Cup as a launch pad
for South Africa's Tourism Marketing Strategy
for 2010; explore opportunities for enticing
increased number of German people to come
to South Africa; and learn lessons on how
preparations are unfolding with respect to
destination preparations on issues such as
safety and security, training, access and
other developmental issues that have impact
on tourism.
The Minister will be accompanied by the Deputy
Minister of Sports and Recreation, Gert Oosthuizen,
the Chief Executive Officer of South African
Tourism, Mr Moeketsi Mosola, the President
of SASCOC, Mr Moss Mashishi, as well as key
tourism stakeholders.
The delegation will wrap up its work on Thursday,
2 June.