Do you think it's a good idea for South African Tourism to sponsor Tottenham Hotspur?

 According to reports, South African Tourism (SA Tourism) intends to spend US$52 million (roughly R900 million) over the course of three years to sponsor the UK football team Tottenham Hotspur. The proposal offers the nation branding on the team uniform, backdrop branding during interviews, match-day advertising, partnership status, local training camps, access to tickets, and stadium hospitality. Football has a huge TV audience and can draw a lot of attention and money. But is it a successful strategy for marketing a nation? And was the money spent wisely? 

Is this a wise plan for nation-branding?

A recognized and effective marketing communication tool is the sponsorship of a sports team, an event, or an individual. Some destinations have embraced sports as a marketing tool as nations, regions, and cities compete more for the attention of potential customers, in this case tourists, in the global marketplace. Destinations frequently market themselves by partnering with a sporting event or group that is located nearby. For instance, Visit Catalunya in Spain supports FC Barcelona. Less frequently does a destination employ a more strategic strategy to connect with a target audience in another location.

Can it promote tourism?

It's important to realize that touristic attractions compete with one another for consumer attention as "brands." In order to draw in international tourists, SA Tourism has a mission and a budget. Many strategies exist for engaging a target audience or promoting a brand. Because it has demonstrated the ability to cut through the clutter of advertising and capture consumers' attention, sport sponsorship has become more popular as a marketing strategy. It connects with them at a time when they are generally chill and open to interaction due to a shared love of sports.

The second main goal is to improve or change the brand's reputation among a target audience by connecting it to a sports team. Brands typically gain from fans' positive perceptions of the team they are sponsoring. For this reason, the global sport sponsorship market was valued at US$77.69 billion in 2022 and is expected to expand at an 8% clip in the ensuing years.

What negative effects might there be?

The media and public pushback against the sponsorship deal with SA Tourism shows that the local public does not support this initiative. People hold the opinion that government funds would be better spent on other projects altogether or on the sponsorship of regional sports events instead of seeing this as a good marketing opportunity that could generate tourism revenue. It is not advisable for destinations to prioritize building their "external" brand at the expense of their valuable "internal" brand power.

In particular, the cases of Rwanda and Qatar show that the alleged sportswashing's negative media coverage lessens its anticipated advantages. In the case of South Africa, it might appear to be an effort to counteract the negative global media coverage relating to the power crisis and other high-profile problems faced by the country. Although there is a growing backlash, SA Tourism has given the plan conditional approval, and it is anticipated to move forward in the coming months.