Media Release: Immediate. 1 September 2009. Mossel Bay Tourism

2010 World Cup Brings Massive Changes to Mossel Bay

“The direct, short-term impact of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on Mossel Bay will be a massive injection of capital at a time of the year when, historically, we have always experienced low visitor numbers – but the long-term impacts could be even greater.”

That’s the opinion of the South African coastal town’s official 2010 coordinator, Louis Harris, the man who’s responsible for Mossel Bay’s bid to host a national team, for the development of the infrastructure required for the event, and for the logistics surrounding it – and who has also involved himself in the creation of the so-called ‘Legacy Projects,’ which are designed to ensure that the event will have lasting benefits for the communities it touches.

“From the outset, both FIFA and the South African Government made it clear that they wanted the 2010 World Cup to have as many lasting, long-term benefits as possible, and most people interpreted this to mean that they wanted to see investment in infrastructure and football pitches,” said Mr. Harris.

“However, because Mossel Bay is a small town with limited funds available for this kind of development, we had to think creatively, and to leverage our investment in time rather than in funds to achieve our ends.

“Of course we had to put some money into developing a FIFA-standard Pitch – and this makes sense because the playing surface is always the first thing a team looks at when making a decision about where to base itself – so our Municipality decided to build a completely new practice facility on our existing soccer fields.

“But we realised that the bidding process would bring us into contact with a wide range of people whom we might not normally have met – and so the other aspect of our Legacy Projects, the development of mutually beneficial relationships, came into being.”

After initially casting its net across a wide spectrum of potential qualifiers, Mossel Bay soon realised that it would make most sense to concentrate on one region of the world – and so the decision was made to focus on the Southern Cone Countries of South America.

“This was an important decision because it literally changed the way we think about Mossel Bay,” said Mr. Harris.

“We realised that we had many assets that were underutilised, but that we were constrained by not having many people in our community who could speak Spanish.”

In fact, research showed that there were less than a handful of Spanish-speakers in the district, and, obviously, they were too few to have an impact on any potential business with the Mercosur Countries.

“We saw that we had to speak the language if we wanted to welcome the people,” said Mr. Harris, “and so we approached the University of Buenos Aires, which set up a language faculty in the town, and we’re now planning to have between 300 and 400 locals speaking Spanish fluently by the time a team arrives here next year.”

And, he said, that would be just the beginning.

“It’s all about creating a South-South Strategy that stands on four pillars: (a) tourism, (b) health and social security (with sport as a vital component of both); (c) trade, and (d) cultural and scientific dialogue.

“We firmly believe that unlocking the language barrier will unlock the doors to creating friendships that will lead to mutually beneficial arrangements in all of these areas of concern – all of which stretch well beyond the limits of the game of football,” said Mr. Harris.

But, he stressed, with the construction of a new Sports Academy in the suburb of Nautilus Bay (which is currently awaiting ministerial approval), sport would play an equally important part in creating relationships between the town and South America in the periods leading up to and after the World Cup. “We have undertakings from a number of Latin American sports ministries to support the Academy through various exchanges of expertise,” he said.

On the short- to medium-term benefits to the town, Mr. Harris said that Mossel Bay had been selected as the media hub for the Eden Region during the 2010 event.

“The Eden Region is made up of the districts of the Garden Route and the Little Karoo, which rate as two of the most important tourism destinations in Southern Africa – and the presence of the media hub will benefit us by providing a showcase for the world’s media.

“We know that once reporters see the area, they’ll want to file stories about it because it’s that beautiful – and that interesting – from human, cultural, and environmental points of view.”

In terms of accommodation in the lead-up to and during the tournament, Mr. Harris said that two local hotels – the Diaz Beach Hotel and Resort, and The Point Hotel – had been contracted to FIFA as base camps, and that, as befits a tourist town, there was an abundance of other types of accommodation available to sponsors, fans, and supporters.

“The unique thing about Mossel Bay is that there’s beach-front accommodation for everyone – no matter whether you’re on a five-star budget, or a tent-and-canvas budget,” he said, adding that “Mossel Bay Tourism, under the management of Marcia Holm, is fully equipped to help with enquires about accommodation, and will soon have a Spanish-speaking person in place to assist in this regard.

“As far as entertainment is concerned, Mossel Bay is first and foremost a beach destination, with mild, year-round, beach-going weather, so, as you can imagine, many of our commercial attractions are aimed at exploring our amazing natural environment.

“But we’re also aware that supporters will be coming here for the football, and we’re planning a beach-front community viewing area for upwards of 10,000 fans.

“As far as we can tell, it’ll be the only beach-front facility of its type during the FIFA World Cup.”

In all, said Mr. Harris, the 2010 World Cup has already begun to have benefits for Mossel Bay – but the greatest benefits were probably still years away.

“That’s the exciting thing about our Legacy Projects – they have real sustainability which will open new doors on a continuing basis,” he said.

NOTES: MOSSEL BAY

• 150,000 inhabitants;
• Situated on the 34th parallel, and exactly half way between the host cities of Port Elizabeth and Cape Town (400 km to the east and west. Port Elizabeth is the capital of South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province; Cape Town is both the legislative capital of the country, and the capital of the Western Cape Province);
• Access
  • The domestic George Airport is 40 km from the town centre.
  • The well maintained N2 National highway, which passes through the town, provides fast, safe access to Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and, eventually, Durban (in KwaZulu-Natal Province);
  • Mossel Bay’s harbour can accommodate small cruise liners. Larger liners often anchor in the Bay and transfer passengers to land by lighter;
• Infrastructure includes:
  • Road, rail, and air access;
  • South Africa’s smallest commercial harbour;
  • the PetroSA Refinery, whose leading fuel-from-gas technology has won it numerous awards for cleanest refinery in the world;
  • First-world hospital care, schooling, and municipal management;
• Economic activities:
  • Tourism
  • Farming
  • Fishing
  • Fuel-from-gas
  • Light industry
• Unique tourism offerings include:
  • Unspoiled Beaches;
  • Superb, year-round beach-going weather, with more than 300 days of sunshine per year;
  • Land- and boat-based whale- and dolphin watching;
  • Shark cage diving;
  • Sailing and other water sports;
  • Wild game viewing, elephant back rides, and nature reserves;
  • The unique Cape Macchia, or fynbos vegetation, which is characterised by heathers, proteas, grass-like reeds and bulbous plants;
  • Adrenaline and adventure sports such as 4×4-, mountain bike-, hiking- and horse trails;
  • Award-winning guided luxury hiking trails;
  • Cultural experiences such as historic steam train rides, museums, etc.
• Scientific: The Mossel Bay Archaeology Project has the distinction of having received the largest grant ever provide by the USA’s National Science Foundation. Under Professor Curtis Marean of the Arizona State University’s Institute of Human Origins, the scientists of the Project – and their colleagues in the South African Coastal Palaeo-climate, Palaeo-environment, Palaeo-ecology, Palaeo-anthropology Project (the SACP4 Project) – are studying the effects of climate change on human behaviour in Mossel Bay’s Pinnacle Point Caves. The Caves have so far revealed the earliest evidence for modern human behaviour, including the use of bladelet technology (embedding fine stone blades in other strata, like bones or wood, to make complex tools), the use of fire to enhance the sophistication of stone tools, and the use of ochres, possibly for symbolling or painting on the human body or other objects.

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