Programme Director,
EThekwini Municipality Mayor, Cllr James Nxumalo,
Volvo President for Events Management, Mr Per Ericsson,
Global Managing Director for IMG Golf, Mr Guy Kinnings,
EThekwini Municipal Manager, S’bu Sithole,
Distinguished guests,
Golf players,
Members of the media present,
Ladies and gentlemen,
All protocols observed.
It is with a profound sense of gratitude that we, as the Provincial Government of KwaZulu-Natal, again welcome the 2014 installment of Volvo Golf Championship to our shores.
Indeed, this province is fast carving out a niche for itself as one of the most coveted golfing destinations in the country if not the continent. We say this because as recently as last month, we hosted the World Amateur Golf Tournament, an event which attracted scores of golfing enthusiasts from all over the world.
We are also due to host the Nelson Mandela Golf Challenge next month – which will serve as a precursor for the 2014 Volvo Golf Championship. It is because of these reasons, Programme Director; that we can confidently assert that we look forward to using our sports tourism credentials to further raise the profile of our province around the world. We are constantly looking to up the ante in our quest to establish ourselves as one of the leading global hives for mega events.
Already, programme director, we are beginning to reap the fruits of our hard work of positioning the province as the home of major events as evidenced by the impact assessments that we have done during and after every major event in the province.
For example the impact assessment we did after the Durban July revealed that the total economic impact on the provincial economy was in excess of R175 million while the economic impact assessment of Duzi Canoe Marathon was more than R17 million. This, programme director, proves that our strategy of using sports as a leverage for economic development and of positioning our province as the home of major events is gaining traction.
In this regard, we have identified sports as key ingredients to elevate our image globally. The 2014 Volvo Golf Championship, therefore, provides us with the perfect pedestal for us to work towards the attainment of this ideal.
Programme Director, as a consequence of us hosting prestigious events such as the Volvo Golf Championship and the 2013 Afcon earlier this year, we witnessed very favourable socio-economic impacts for the host city of Durban and the province. The two events recorded a combined socio-economic impact of R191 million, with the Volvo Golf Champions, which was attended by just over 9,000 people injecting R51 million into the economy.
In this respect, tourists’ spend per day for the duration of the Volvo Golf Champions event was pegged at R863 per individual tourist. Total employment created by these events; both direct and indirect - as a result of other companies benefitting by supplying goods and services to attendees at these events and therefore employing more labour, amounted to 329 for the AFCON event and 121 for the Volvo event.
Ladies and gentlemen, in light of these very positive socio-economic impacts, we have taken a decision that during major events - such as the Volvo Golf Champions – increased efforts should be directed towards providing well organised tour packages for attendees both in respect of visits to other tourist attractions during the day as well as entertainment facilities at night. This would ensure that we use these events as a springboard for boosting our tourism industry in the province.
Ladies and gentlemen, with these few words we would like to once more place on record on sincere thanks you to IMG, Volvo and European Tour for showing their confidence in the ability of KwaZulu-Natal to host such a giant sporting occasion.
I thank you!
