Will Cape Town make it to No 1?
by Birgit Ottermann
2008-02-20 12:23
Cape Town - There are only nine days left to secure a spot for Cape Town on Monopoly's all new gameboard Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition.
The Mother City has already reached the third spot on the gameboard that will be replacing the familiar street names with names of cities chosen by Monopoly lovers worldwide.
The city has jumped ahead of top international cities like Paris, London, Sydney, New York and Rome, but can it make it to number one?
The top two cities are Istanbul (4.4%) and Montreal (4.3%), followed by Cape Town (3.7%) and Jerusalem, Riga and London (all with 3.5% of the votes).
According to the Monopoly website 68 cities from six continents were pre-selected of which the 20 cities with the most votes will win a sought-after place on the new game board. Voting started on 21 January and will end on 29 February 2008.
The CEO of Cape Town Tourism, Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, is very excited about Cape Town's progress on the leaderboard.
'Wonderful tribute'
"In less than three weeks Cape Town has climbed to the 3rd place on the leaderboard. It is a wonderful tribute to Brand Cape Town and the people that make Brand Cape Town so remarkable," she told News24.
"Cape Town Tourism wishes to commend fellow Capetonians, the tourism industry, the media and Cape Town's global network of friends that have contributed to Cape Town's rapid ascent."
"I am confident that with the continued support from all Cape Town's brand ambassadors, Cape Town will comfortably stay in the top 5 and even topple Istanbul and Montreal for the number one position," du Toit-Helmbold added.
Cape Town is the only South African city and one of only two African cities (the other being Cairo in Egypt) to make the list.
The top 20 cities will be placed in descending order from the highest rental properties to the lowest.
Various initiatives
Since News24's first report on the popular game, Cape Town supporters locally and abroad, launched various initiatives, including a Facebook profile, to secure a top spot for the Mother City. As a result the city shot up all the way from the 32rd position to a spot amongst the top three.
Will Cape Town become the new Eloff Street? (The most desirable and expensive street on the old South African Monopoly Board.) Keep on voting for Cape Town!
Gautengers don't have to despair - Johannesburg also has a chance to make it to the gameboard.
Joburg is currently in the 11th position on the wild-card city list. The top two wild-card cities (cities that people can nominate themselves), will fill the remaining two spots on the new gameboard.
The new Monopoly will be available worldwide at the end of September.
Click here to vote for your favourite city.