Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has downgraded its growth projection for airline passengers to 5% for the rest of 2013, but does expect a stronger growth in 2014.

*   The City of Cape Town staff strike has come to a speedy end.

*   The Fish & Chip Company’s short-lived advertising campaign with President Zuma as its subject, on which R500000 was spent on media placement before it was withdrawn, generated R20 million in PR coverage in ten days, winning the Metropolitan Republic a Gold Loerie for PR Communication Campaign. Die Antwoord’s video for its song ‘Fatty Boom Boom’ was a surprise Gold winner in the TV and Cinema 90 second+ category.

*   Swiss airline Edelweiss, which belongs to Lufthansa, returns to Cape Town from October for the third year, serving the Zurich – Cape Town route, a popular way for German, British and Italian tourists in particular to fly directly to Cape Town.

*   South Africa’s ‘maverick’ winemakers receive praise from wine-searcher.com!

*   The next London Wine Fair will be held from 2 – 4 June 2014, somewhat later than its normal May dates.

*   Cape Town will be in rugby fever on Saturday, with the Springboks meeting the Wallabies at Newlands in the first Castle Lager Rugby Championship match.  No benefit to tourism is noticeable yet!

*  The top five destinations of Chinese travelers are Hong Kong, Phuket, Taiwan, Bangkok, and Paris

*   Bordeaux is boring say fine wine buyers, saying they are unexciting wines relative to unusual top quality wines from Napa valley.

*   The largest film studio in the world, to be called the Oriental Movie Metropolis, is  to be built in China, at the cost of more than $8 billion.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio:  www.whalecottage.com  Twitter: @WhaleCottage