Tottenham Hotspurs: An own goal for SA Tourism

Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium, 2019. Photo Credit : Bluejam via Wikimedia Commons

I have been in politics long enough that very little shocks me anymore. Sad, but true!

Yet, when I heard that SA Tourism is planning to spend almost R1 billion on sleeve sponsorship of Tottenham Hotspurs, my jaw dropped.

I must confess that my first thought was, “I wonder who in there is a supporter of Tottenham Hotspurs and wants free tickets.” (It was later reported that the CFO has some relations with the agency that is facilitating the deal, but let’s leave that aside for the moment...)

Let me be clear that I think we can do a lot more to promote tourism in South Africa. We have such a brilliant “product” and an increase in tourism can hugely benefit our economy - particularly job creation. Remember the “Every 8 tourists creates another job” campaign from a few years ago?

Which is why during my time as ambassador in Ireland we focused on tourism promotion. Despite having no budget, we succeeded in doubling the number of Irish tourists traveling to South Africa through pure “elbow grease”. Everyone in the embassy was under strict instructions to promote South Africa at every opportunity. We crisscrossed the country using fairs and wine tastings to promote South Africa. We also arranged for 100 top Irish travel agents and travel writers to visit our beautiful land. SA Tourism brought one Irish celebrity to South Africa which resulted in a partnership that lasted decades. The results were dramatic.

Of course, the Irish market is tiny compared to the UK, Germany, many African countries, China and America, but it is a model that can easily be replicated in all markets at very low cost.

The idea of sponsorships on soccer shirts is nothing new. All soccer fans are familiar with the successful partnership UNICEF had for many years with FC Barcelona. The media profile for both Barcelona and UNICEF was enormous. However, UNICEF didn’t pay to get their logo on the shirts – Barcelona did it for free because of UNICEF’s charitable status. Having said that, one could argue that given the state of our country’s finances we are rapidly becoming a charity case as well.

Since 2018, Rwanda has had a sleeve sponsorship deal with Arsenal. It is reported that they will pay £30 million over the next three years – significantly less than the £42,5 million cost of the South African deal.

At the risk of offending Spurs supporters, it is also important to mention that - unlike FC Barcelona and Arsenal (yes, I know only of late) - Tottenham has not won any major titles since 2008.

So, apart from the fact that it is surely unwise to spend almost half of the total marketing budget of SA Tourism on one sponsorship, it also seems that it is not a very good deal.

Surely, there are other ways to utilize the world’s love for sport to draw attention to South Africa without spending this obscene amount of money.

For example, why not use some of our international superstars to promote the country?  Siya Kolisi is world famous now and could be a major asset in all rugby playing markets. AB de Villiers or Hashim Amla will go down a treat in many of the cricket playing countries.  Hell, we can even get Charlize Theron to do a funny ad about Afrikaans and why she loves travelling here.

Or, if you do want to get a global soccer star, pay for someone to visit here and then tweet about it. This is what Saudi Arabia did with Lionel Messi. You will have to spend some money, but not a billion!

To me this sponsorship is a lazy way of spending money and to suggest that it would result in 6 million additional tourists  per annum and R88bn return on investment over three years seems totally unrealistic.

What amazes me is how no one in SA Tourism had the foresight to see that this would go down badly with the South African public. I would even argue that abroad people would question the wisdom of such a deal given the state of, for example, Eskom.

I’m well aware that money can’t be moved around between agencies and departments. Yet, that does not relieve agencies of the obligation to spend the money wisely and prudently.

Shockingly enough, despite the outcry and even the President’s questioning of the deal South African Tourism CEO has doubled down and insisted that they will pursue the partnership.

There is no question in my mind that this is a bad deal and a bad idea which will leave a bad taste in the mouth for many South Africans. Hopefully cabinet will have the sense to stop the madness.