Tottenham Hotspur players Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min.
- Marketing and tourism experts say SA Tourism’s proposed deal to sponsor English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur is a good idea, but South Africans are not ready to receive it.
- Load disconnection, unemployment and government corruption all contributed to SA not being ready for the proposal.
- Experts say there are other profitable ways to promote tourism in SA.
SA Tourism’s proposed deal to sponsor English Premier League (EPL) club Tottenham Hotspur is a good idea, but the government needs to get its house in order before it can be welcomed, experts say.
With millions of South Africans languishing in poverty and unemployment, government corruption, a lack of confidence in leadership and ongoing blackouts, South Africans may not be receptive to this proposal, although it may bring significant financial benefits to the tourism industry, they say.
SA Tourism is under fire amid reports of a three-year multi-million dollar deal to sponsor the English club.
The deal, worth £42.5m (around R900m), which chairman Cyril Ramaphosa said could not be justified, was proposed to start at the start of the 2023-24 season and end at the end of the 2026 season. -27.
Speaking to News24 on Friday, Professor Ndivhuwo Tshipala from Tshwane University of Technology said the sponsorship would put South Africa on the world map because of the EPL’s reach.
Tshipala said:
Tottenham Hotspur is being watched in Africa, Asia, South America, etc. That would certainly build brand awareness, which is all about information and exposure. It has the greatest power to influence and set an agenda. Surely, we would attract attention. Our footprint would be on most of the world’s continents.
He said that due to the current state of the country, South Africans needed to be in the mood to receive the proposal.
“We are in a place where everyone wants to get the most basic things done first. Currently, everyone is thinking about electricity, the cost of living, gender violence and crime. Anything that could be beneficial becomes suspect.”
Dr. Beate Stiehler-Mulder, a marketing expert at the University of Johannesburg, praised SA Tourism for its creative and innovative marketing thinking.
“I’m a big advocate of not doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I’ll give it to them – they came up with something unique,” she said.
However, he said that the current state of the country would not be conducive to the agreement.
Stiehler-Mulder said:
It’s a good idea to do it in 2025, not now. The reason for this is that our house is not clean at the moment. The agreement is not strategically sound and it is not sensitive to where we are as a country. As much as we want to appeal to the world, you also want to make sure that your South African audience is proud of what we are showing the world because we are the ambassadors of our country.
Stiehler-Mulder said cargo shedding was one of the major crippling challenges to tourism marketing.
“Probably in the next month or two, if you search Airbnb, one of the filters will be questions about backup power systems,” he said.
In response to the deal itself, he said that while it could raise awareness for South Africa, the visual aspect of the marketing was just as crucial in promoting the country.
Stiehler-Mulder said:
We’re not just in a space where we want to build brand awareness. This is what this sponsorship would get. It would get millions of looks, but we need a combination of brand strategy and call to action. And this can be done much more cheaply by using, for example, online and TV ads to showcase our beautiful landscapes.
“What we need now is to encourage people to book holidays in South Africa (not just introduce them to the country) because we need to save our industry and get out of this Covid-19 slump and start creating jobs again.”
Whether the proposed sponsorship deal will go ahead remains to be seen.
Presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya said that although the President’s Office had not yet been briefed on the matter, Ramaphosa did not believe the deal was justified.
SA Tourism spokesman Thandiwe Mathibela declined to comment on the president’s response, while tourism department spokesman Steve Motale told News24 he could not respond until the department and Ramaphosa formally “engage”. .
However, Motale said there were pending meetings between various government stakeholders, including the South African Tourism board, Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Ramaphosa.
If the 900 million rand deal falls through, how else can South Africa spend the money?
Tshipala suggested promoting South Africa through the Southern African Development Community, Brics, embassies and recruiting ambassadors to promote the country.
“It’s doable. I think SA Tourism wanted to go for the jugular, but it would have been better at a time when the environment was right,” he said.
