World Cup visitors lead South African tourist spending boom

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Car Rental News - 28/06/2010

 

Spending by tourists in South Africa is booming amidst the 2010 World Cup.

South Africa’s car hire industry is among the big winners in South Africa as tourism receipts swell thanks to the influx of visitors for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Figures released by payment card company Visa show that visitors to South Africa for the World Cup have spent almost a billion rand since the start of June.

Data released by Visa shows that British tourists have spent the most and 90 per cent of spending has gone towards business and leisure travel costs. This includes spending on lodging, dining, shopping, car hire and flights. Visitors from the USA, Australia, France and Brazil were the biggest spenders after the Brits.

In the period leading up to the opening of the World Cup and the first week of matches, visitors from abroad spent more than 964 million rand in South Africa on Visa-branded cards, 54 per cent more than was spent in the same period the year before. Between June 11 and June 20, spending on Visa cards was more than 80 per cent higher than in the same period of 2009. All in, South Africa’s tourism industry is aiming to earn around 27 billion rand from the World Cup.

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