Is R1bn sponsorship best way to market SA?

The plan by SA Tourism to sponsor Tottenham Hotspur at a cost of £42.5m (about R900m) over three years has ruffled feathers. Daily Maverick reported on Wednesday that the government, through its marketing agency SA Tourism, was proposing a 36-month deal, believed to be a sleeve sponsorship. This sparked controversy, given the load-shedding, economic crises and crumbling sports infrastructure in SA.

Some argued the money could be better used to fix the country’s deteriorating infrastructure or to sponsor SA teams.

It is a given that SA has many challenges, and the optics of spending close to R1bn on what comes across as supporting an international team leaves a bitter to taste in one’s mouth, but SA Tourism’s mandate is to bring international visitors into the country. Acting chief executive Themba Mzilikazi Khumalo was at pains on Thursday to explain the need to persuade foreign markets to visit SA.

“For the last 20 years, money has been spent on foreign soil to persuade markets to come to SA — it’s not a new thing,” he said. “Pre-Covid, [tourism] was contributing 6.4% to the GDP. Through Covid, the riots and the floods, that reduced to 3.2%. We’ve got to get back to that 6.4%.

“If we continue doing marketing and business the way we’ve done it historically, there’s no chance on reaching [the target of] 21-million foreign visitors to SA by 2030,” he said.

Whether the money was spent on the deal with Spurs or on other smaller projects that might not have the same impact, the R1bn would still have to be spent as it was part of SA Tourism’s budget, Khumalo said.

“This is not to introduce new money, what we’re doing is we’re aggregating the small projects. These projects were happening anyway and you didn’t know about it.”

The UK was SA’s biggest international market and the hope is to have more people coming to visit SA and spend their money here, which, we know, benefits a host of small businesses in the hospitality and tourism sector.

The frustrations and anger of South Africans about spending a large amount of money on promoting tourism is understandable and even justified, but the point is that SA Tourism is not responsible for the energy crisis nor any of the other crises we face as a nation.

The entity has its mandate and it needs to fulfil that. What is debatable is whether or not this plan is the best way to market SA.