Cape Town Voted Best City

Readers of the Daily Telegraph have voted Cape Town the Best World City in its 2008 travel awards. South Africa itself also secured a place in the top three best non-European country categories.

The Telegraph, one of the UK’s leading daily newspapers, polled 40 000 of its readers in the 10th awards of its kind. Cape Town beat both San Francisco and Sydney to be named as the world’s best city.

V&A Waterfront by Night – Table Mountain in Background

Cape Town Tourism chief executive, Mariëtte du-Toit Helmbold said: “We are thrilled with the news. Cape Town is well placed to receive visitors looking for value for money and an authentic experience. Cape Town has so much to offer that visitors generally end up coming back to see and do more.” 

UK country manager at South African Tourism Lebohang Mokhesi also congratulated Cape Town on its award. She said: “Cape Town is one of the world’s most beautiful cities and to receive such an accolade from consumers themselves is great recognition of the wonderful tourism offering it has developed. Value for money and the strength of the pound compared with other world currencies appears to have been a deciding factor for readers when voting.

Cape Town was also recently voted one of ten cities in the world that are most likely to become a global sustainability centre by 2020. It has already won a long list of other awards including Africa’s Best City (US Travel and Leisure Best in the World Awards, July); Best Travel Destination in Africa and Middle East (US Travel and Leisure magazine, 2004 through 2007); and one of the world’s five Bluest Sky Destinations (expedia.co.uk).

In addition to being a world class tourist and business destination, Cape Town is a great destination for sports travellers.  Brook Sport and Leisure have been working with sports travel operators to develop travel packages to the Western Cape.   Packages catering for individuals, groups or teams for warm weather training, team tours or sporting holidays in sports including golf, soccer, rugby, cricket, netball, cycling, running, and adventure sports.

For further information on opportunities either contact us directly or through our UK travel partners www.amsportstours.com or www.nirvanaeurope.com

AM Sportstours Launch South African Soccer Tours

AM Sportstours are now promoting soccer tours to South Africa thanks to a partnership with Brook Sport and Leisure.  Soccer tours to Cape Town, one of the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, have been added to AM Sportstours extensive portfolio of soccer tour destinations that include Argentina, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Japan and Korea.

Brook Sport and Leisure is working with AM Sportstours to develop and support tour packages to South Africa.

In addition to matches against local teams, coaching sessions, attendance at PSL matches, soccer tours to Cape Town will also be able to enjoy the extensive tourist attractions offered in the Western Cape.  Tour groups will be able to visit Table Mountain, Robben Island, the V&A Waterfront, and Cape Point.  They will also be able to tour the 2010 World Cup Greenpoint Stadium and spend a day on a game reserve featuring the big five – lion, leopard, buffallo, elephant and rhino.

For full details of AM Sportstours soccer tours to South Africa and their other packages, visit www.amsportstours.com or call then on +44 – (0)1592 771 666.

White Paper on Websites for Sports Clubs

Brook Sport and Leisure are committed to promoting “thought leadership” in the sports sector through the publication of open resource white papers. Our first white paper has been received well by sporting communities in the UK, USA and South Africa.

This paper focuses on the opportunity for sports clubs to build and publish free websites that feature text, photos, video and widgets without any requirement to understand html.  The arrival of new web building services means that all sports clubs can now afford to have a presence on the internet and to have a website that looks professional and is functional.

Brook Sport and Leisure used one of these new services, Synthasite, to build their corporate website.

SynthaSite

Our first white paper titled “How to Create a Free Website for your Sports Club without Knowledge of HTML” has been published on a number of sporting organisation’s websites including Running Sport and the Central Council of Physical Recreation.