By Nangamso Mabindla
12 July 2006

NOW that the 2006 Fifa World Cup is over, all eyes are on the 2010 event to be hosted by South Africa – and Buffalo City is determined to be part of the action.

To show just how serious the City is about taking part in the largest sporting event in the world, the municipality sent a top-level delegation to Germany to learn from their experiences.

The delegation included executive mayor Zintle Peter and the director in the mayor's office, Matthew Moonieya. Tourism Buffalo City acting manger Martin Kuchler, who is originally from Stuttgart, was already in Germany and facilitated the visit.

The team travelled to Baden-Wüttemberg as guests of member of the executive council, Bernd Pfister to learn and share experiences about how the state and the city of Stuttgart played a part in football's biggest showpiece. Stuttgart is the state capital of Baden-Wüttemberg.

The delegation had meetings with the MEC, the Baden-Württemberg trade and investment agency, and the Stuttgart Expo.

They also got to view how the economic metropolitan of Stuttgart – one of the biggest contributors in the world's economy – took part in the Fifa World Cup.

One of the people they met was the head of external affairs for the Agency for International Economic and Scientific Cooperation, Hans-Dieter Frey.

The Stuttgart region is also home to car manufactures DaimlerChrysler and Porsche, as well as many other global players such as Bosch, Eperspächer, Mahle Pistons, Kärcher, and so on.

Talking about the purpose of the visit, Kuchler said the delegation had three objectives:

• "First of all we wanted to see if we could lobby for the German national team to be based here in East London."
• "Second we wanted to look into economic co-operation between the two regions."
• "Lastly we wanted to be part of CMT exhibition, the biggest consumer tourism exhibition in Europe." CMT Stuttgart is the biggest consumer travel exhibition in Germany.

All three objectives were possible as Buffalo City is home to one of the biggest DaimlerChrysler plants outside Stuttgart, the West Bank plant in East London; and because of the city's strong automotive industry, some of Stuttgart's automotive businesses conducted business with local companies.

"Mercedes Benz is the German national team's sponsor and we are looking to use our strong ties with the car manufacturer and bring the team to East London," said Kuchler.

"We want the team to stay here a week or two; that is why we went to Germany. We want to start preparing now."

Kuchler also pointed out that national coach Jürgen Klinsmann and "other important decision makers in German Fussball" are also from Stuttgart.

Another important reason for the trip was to ensure Buffalo City's involvement with the CMT exhibition. With over 1 400 exhibitors from more than 95 countries and over 180 000 visitors, of whom around 10 000 are trade visitors, this exhibition contains lucrative customer potential for all participants, tour organisers, holiday resorts, manufacturers of caravans and mobile homes, and special tour operators.

The percentage of "long haul" tourism originating form the Stuttgart region is above average in Europe.

CTM identifies two partner countries every year and South Africa needed to be a CMT partner before it hosts the Fifa World Cup, Kuchler said.

Another city that impress the delegation was Frankfurt, where football matches were televised on a large screen in the middle of the River Main. "We want to investigate that for our city and put a big screen in the middle of the Buffalo River where people can watch the games from both sides of the river."

Local government needed to take the lead in marketing their cities for the World Cup, Kuchler said.

"In Germany the cities had brochures given out to tourists showing things to do, places to visit, things to eat and all sorts of other nice things about the city; I was really impressed with what the municipalities did there, and I am glad our local authorities took the effort to go to Germany and see what can be done as hosts," he said.