South Africa woos Indian tourist for twenty-20 cup

Chennai, Feb 7 (UNI) The South African government has chalked out new measures to attract Indian tourists to their country for the 'twenty-20' cricket mini World Cup to be held in September this year.

''To attract cricket fans in India, our government has made a host of arrangements for the twenty-20 cricket world cup,'' South African Tourism Board Director Lance Little Field told UNI here today.

''There would be three matches per day in the twenty-20 cup, in which lots of Indian fans were expected to visit. We expect around 20,000 Indian cricket fans during the matches,'' he said.

''Apart from this, we also expect more Indian soccer fans for the proposed 2010 soccer world cup,'' Mr Lance, who is here with the South African tour operators, said.

''South African government will be setting up number of new hotels to accomodate more travellers for the proposed events,'' he said adding ''our goverment has realised that Indian tourists were important source of market in the coming years.'' About 40,000 Indian tourists have visited last year to South Africa and this year it was expected to increase about 18 per cent, Mr Lance said adding the South African government earns about 7,000 Rands from every tourist.

''During this year we will spread our tourism network by increasing marketing plans, putting more staff and setting up online desk,'' he added.

UNI