SA Tourism has proposed a three-year sponsorship deal worth £42.5 million (about N24 billion or ZAR900 million) with English Premier League football club, Tottenham Hotspur.

In exchange for the investment, SA Tourism will receive kit branding, interview backdrop branding, match-day advertising, partnership announcements, training camps in SA, and free access to tickets and stadium hospitality.

SA Tourism proposed a three-year deal worth £42.5 million starting at the beginning of the 2023/24 English Premier League season and ending at the end of the 2026/27 season.

However, it noted that a risk was raised at a board meeting on 27 January 2023, which was related to Tottenham being relegated to a lower division during the three-year agreement.

The football club had strong links to SA, with Mbulelo Mabizela, Steven Pienaar, and another local, Bongani Khumalo, having donned the team's colours.

Tourism objective

Under the Q&A regarding the financial obligation to be incurred by SA Tourism in terms of the partnership proportionate to Return on Investment (ROI) it would obtain as a result, the proposal stated: "As entering into a sponsorship partnership with Tottenham Hotspur will likely result in a disproportional contribution (of more than 36%) towards the achievement of primary objective (21 million tourist arrivals), it would therefore be completely justifiable for SA Tourism spending a disproportional percentage of its annual marketing budget (36%) on the proposed Tottenham Hotspur partnership while having in place a risk management strategy to properly manage all risks associated with that."

Congrats

SA Tourism on Thursday defended thr provisional sponsorship deal aimed at increasing international tourism into SA from 10 to 23 million visitors.

Public not happy with this announcement...

The saga continues

.