Saturday, 14 September 2002:
The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Valli Moosa, today announced that more than R8 billion was generated by the World Summit on Sustainable Development for the South African economy.
This is based on an interim research report conducted to estimate the impact of the Summit on the country's economy. The research, which was commissioned by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, was conducted by a team of professional consultants from the Bureau for Market Research based at Unisa, Iklwa Structured Financial Products and economists from UrbanEcon. More than 400 delegates attending the Summit were interviewed about their expenditure in the country. The 500 parallel events that were held throughout the country as part of the Summit were also analysed in terms of their impact.
Welcoming the findings, Moosa indicated that the "results exceeded all expectations. Over and above the applause we received from the international community for the excellent manner in which we, as South Africa, organised this massive event, the study confirms the fact that the Summit generated a good return on investment for the country".
The 37 000 international delegates who attended the Summit spent an average of between R27 000 and R39 000 in South Africa. This money was spent mainly on accommodation, transport, food and beverages, and other consumable products purchased within the country.
Government's investment in this event amounted to about R449 million. This includes funding from all three spheres of government. The leverage effect of government's contribution from the private sector amounted to about R620 million, of which about 60% came from international sponsors and donor agencies.
Based on delegates' expenditure of R1,53 billion, and the investment leveraged from the private sector, it is estimated that more than R8 billion was generated for the SA economy. This means that new business sales worth more than R8 billion was generated by the Summit.
"Based on these results, we can conclude that the short and long-term effects of the Summit on South Africa as a tourist destination of choice will be significant. The fact that the interim results indicate that delegates gave a positive rating to our hospitality and friendliness (84%), personal service (70%) and accommodation quality (60%), means that we can expect more international tourists to visit our country. Furthermore, the significance of the revenue generated by the Summit is that whereas the contribution of tourism to the SA economy annually is about R24 billion, this event, which lasted for just two weeks, generated more than R8 billion."
The report concludes by declaring that "the economic impact of the WSSD on the economy of South Africa was positive". A detailed final report will be available by the end of November 2002.
Download the full interim report from the web site of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (http://www.environment.gov.za).
Issued by the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, 14 September 2002