TABLE Mountain will represent South Africa in the New7Wonders of Nature (N7W) global campaign, a campaign that aims to determine the top seven wonders of nature chosen by the public. The natural site is among 261 nominees now one step closer to potentially being chosen. “We congratulate the successful qualifying locations from South Africa and wish them the best of luck in the second phase of voting,” says head of communications for N7W, Tia Viering. “We also at this time highlight the strong and enthusiastic participation of the other national nominees that are not proceeding - many have already benefited from a significant increase in worldwide awareness, which in itself is a recognized important benefit for all involved in the New7Wonders campaigns.”

Other South African sites that were selected orginally include the Cape of Good Hope, Kruger National Park and Vredefort Crater. These all failed to qualify for the next round after the nominees failed to receive an endorsement from an official supporting committee.

South African Tourism (SAT) withdrew its original offer to officially support these top natural wonders due to a lack of funds. “We unfortunately had to back out of the nomination process,” says SAT’s global communications manager, Wendy Tlou. “We work on budgets that have been allocated according to projects that are planned for a particular financial year. Given the impact of the fluctuating exchange rate, and that we operate mostly internationally where the rand is not as strong as we’d like it to be, we’ve had to let go of projects that could have brought South Africa even more publicity purely because of some of these constraints.” Table Mountain Aerial Cableway subsequently decided to form a committee for the campaign and pay the US$199 endorsement fee, officially supporting Table Mountain in the campaign. “It would have been unforgivable for Table Mountain to have missed this great opportunity. We are confident that the iconic site has what it takes to be a strong competitor and make it to the finals,” says ceo Sabine Lehmann. The second phase of voting continues until July 7 to select the Top 77, from which the N7W panel of experts will select the 21 finalists. The public will then have approximately two years to vote amongst the 21 Finalists for the New7Wonders of Nature, which are to be revealed in 2011. Table Mountain will be competing against other international iconic sites, including the Grand Canyon, Loch Ness, the Danube, the Dead Sea, the Great Barrier Reef, Iguazu Falls, Mont Blanc, and Niagara Falls.