SA Tourism expecting major economic boost from Netball World Cup

The tournament is scheduled for 28 July until 6 August in Cape Town, and Tourism SA’s Acting Chief Marketing Officer Bronwyn Auret revealed to SABC Sport that, to mark ‘50 days to the World Cup’, they will ensure preparations continue for the arrival of international guests and giving them a high-class local experience.

"We are 50 days to tip-off, it's very exciting. The cup is circulating through all our nine provinces right now. Cape Town is preparing to host almost 56 000 people at the Cape Town International Convention Centre for the Netball World Cup," she said.

"The readiness behind this season is well underway, I'm sure the international teams are practicing, packing their bags, thinking about what they're gonna be doing whilst they are playing netball, on and off the court. Our interest is to make sure that when they come to South Africa, they have an exceptional experience."

Auret adds, from a tourism perspective, they will benefit a lot from the Netball World Cup, which will see 16 teams participating in the tournament, which comes to Africa for the first time in its 60-year history.

"From SA Tourism perspective, it's very important that we get behind these kinds of events. We wanna make sure that we support the development of mega events where we can attract a lot of international travellers," she said.

"What is key to us is making sure that the team has the support and that the organising team has the support to pull off an event of this magnitude. They're not many events that can pull 56 000 people into one place over a 10/15-day period."