The pageant will be held on December 13th at Johannesburg's Sandton Convention Centre. But the contestants will begin arriving well before that to begin the early stages of the competition.

For Jo?burg, and South Africa as a whole, this is an opportunity to get some much-needed PR. There have been questions about the whether the country's security and infrastructure will be up to par by the time 2010 rolls around. Miss World is a chance for the city to cast some of that speculation aside.

No, Miss World is not a huge event in terms of media coverage, but, through photo shoots and service projects, the contestants and their media following will be visiting some of the major sites around Johannesburg over the next few weeks.

What sites? Johannesburg Tourism Company, the official host of the proceedings, is planning excursions to the Limpopo River, a visit to Mandela Bridge and tours of Nelson Mandela's old house and Jo?Burg's shopping district.

It is refreshing to see that the country is not seeking to gloss over its rough edges. The contestants will be visiting AIDS hospices and the gigantic slum area of Soweto during their tour.

Hosting events like the World Cup and Miss World will, more than likely, vault South Africa to the top of the region's economic ladder. Nowhere else in Sub-Saharan Africa will receive as much media attention over the next two years. Surely, some rough edges will be exposed, but if South Africa can pull it off, it will be the first country in southern Africa that people can consider as a mainstream tourist destination.