Cash to fuel development comes quickest in the form of tourists. So as regular tourism arrivals decline, African nations would benefit from focusing their efforts on attracting visitors headed to South Africa for the Soccer World Cup in 2010.
At the lively and informative Africa Travel Association seminar on sports, adventure and diaspora tourism, held Feb. 19-20 in Washington, D.C., it was clear many nations had not grasped the enormous reach and popularity of the World Cup, the world's most widely followed event.
The South Africans see the value of spreading the World Cup benefits, so African nations should take advantage and use this once-in-a lifetime chance to attract visitors to see other parts of Africa and to observe other football styles.
As a first step, African nations should recognize South African visas so anyone attending the World Cup can enter any other nation on the continent with the same visa.
The key is to make it as bureaucracy-free as possible because the World Cup is the main event and we're trying to divert Cup fans to other parts of Africa before and after the event. We only have one shot at this goal because for most of these sports fans, this will be their first, and probably last, trip to Africa.
Longer-term, we should be looking at attracting some of these World Cup fans to future Africa Cup venues. African nations could also use World Cup advertising to highlight the power and beauty of the African game, which has so dramatically altered the way football is played.
And, don't forget the hundreds of millions of folks following the build-up. Edward Bergman, the dynamic executive director of ATA, said global focus on the Cup was a rare opportunity to confront and deal with negative perceptions of travel on the continent and to build future visitors.
As any kid knows just by watching African stars on their local teams, it's only a matter of time before the World Cup will be won by Africa.
