Do restaurants need Eat Out awards to be fully booked?

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Earlier this week I was challenged by a commenter to this Blog as to my emphasis on the importance of Eat Out Awards for restaurants to be successful. We have heard over the years that an Eat Out Award is a guarantee of financial success. During my travels through the Winelands this week, I discovered that restaurants bubbling under the Eat Out Top 20 list are doing exceptionally well in a season which appears to have started earlier than usual!

Repeatedly I heard that the summer season has started early, and that turnover is significantly up, in part due to hefty price increases too. What was interesting is that this feedback came from restaurants that could and should have been Eat Out Top 20 restaurants, which are fully booked for more than a month ahead already, and finding it increasingly difficult to offer their customers a table.

It answered the question of my Blog commenter, in that it is clear that the current tourist season is doing so well, probably because of the Rand exchange rate benefit finally kicking in, that whether a restaurant has an Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant award status or not has no bearing on the popularity of restaurants and the availability (or lack) of tables.

Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom confirmed that the tourism industry is bouncing back, and feels that the relaxation of the Visa regulations has not yet made itself felt in giving the tourism industry a boost. ‘Reports from tour operators and hotels show there has been a big uptick in bookings through October and December’, said the Minister. He speculated that the boost is due to the removal of the Ebola virus threat, and the further weakening of the exchange rate. ‘This makes South Africa… an incredible value-for-money tourism proposition‘, added the Minister.

It is a delight to hear that the tourism industry, including restaurants, is experiencing such a successful summer season.

Source: Saturday Star.