Where tourists will tread (when not watching the football)
GOOGLE SEARCH reveals which tourist sites in South Africa are most popular with international visitors
WITH the Fifa World Cup fast approaching, football fever is taking over. People around the world are using the Internet not only to learn about the tournament, but also to decide on which tourist sites they will be visiting.
It’s no secret that the tourism sector will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the tournament – with international visitors to South Africa indulging in the country’s natural beauty and appreciating its historical sites. Last year the South African public voted on the country’s most popular tourist sites for Google’s Street View Trikes campaign that ran in conjunction with SA Tourism – as reported on our Africa Blog.
This month’s Zeitgeist shows the countries that are demonstrating the most interest in visiting these South African sites, and reveals that three of the top five coincide with those countries buying the most tickets for the World Cup.
These rankings are included in the tables below, which show the country’s top tourist sites, source markets and top ticket buying countries:
Most globally popular tourist sites in South Africa in 2010
- Kruger National Park
- The Garden Route
- Wild Coast
- Robben Island
- Cape Peninsula
- Blyde River Canyon
- Cape Winelands
- Durban Beachfront
- Mandela House
- Apartheid Museum
Top countries searching for ‘South Africa tourism’ in 2010
- India
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Germany
- Zimbabwe
Top World Cup ticket buying countries
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- Australia
- Brazil
Zeitgeist Explained
Google reveals the Internet “Zeitgeist” (German for “the spirit of the times”) through an exploration of the billions of search queries they receive each year. They also have several tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends. Google Zeitgeist tools can never be used to identify individual users because they rely on anonymised, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur over time. These tools are available year-round for you to play with, explore, and learn from. You can create your own lists and rankings on www.google.com/zeitgeist
