Inaugural IRB 7's swells Nelson Mandela Bay coffers

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The inaugural IRB sevens tournament had contributed R148.3m rand to Port Elizabeth’s Gross Domestic Product.

And, according to a report by Grant Thornton, approximately R32m flowed to low-income households.

The report, submitted to the Sport, Recreation, Arts and Cultural Services Committee, says that 48% of the domestic tourists surveyed were from outside the Eastern Cape, mainly the Western Cape and Gauteng.

Grant Thornton says the direct spend of the total impact amounted to R111m made up predominantly of spending by foreign and domestic visitors.

"The total number of temporary jobs created and permanent jobs sustained was approximately 690, while annualised income derived by employees across these categories amounted to R53 million."

Grant Thornton says its estimates that 8% of all jobs were high-level occupations, 27% mid-level occupations and 65% semi-skilled and unskilled.

The report notes that spending by foreign visitors was considerably higher than the amount spent by foreigners who visited the Eastern Cape for other purposes.

In addition, foreign and domestic visitors to the tournament “rated Port Elizabeth highly as a tourist destination.

This should bode well for future events being hosted here and encourage attend-ance from these groups.

The report notes that Port Elizabeth received national and international exposure through media coverage of the two-day event, saying that the advertising value equivalent of the coverage of the tournament in print, online and broad-cast media was close to R15.8 million, excluding the value of coverage on local television networks.

A separate report by Repucom on how people attending the tournament rated the experience, states that on the whole the event “lived up to…expectation, with 80% of those interviewed providing positive feedback.

The report points out that “sponsor dominance” has not been attained by any of the current tournament, event or team sponsors.

The opportunity for a ‘new’ naming rights sponsor is there for the taking – the event has a very strong and clear image offering.

(Source: Metro Minute - to subscribe mailmetminutes@iafrica.com)