Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Cape Town has a new feather in its cap, having been announced in Vancouver in Canada on Thursday as the WWF Global Earth Hour Capital 2014. Won in competition against 163 cities, including Colorado, Chicago, Cleveland in the USA; Seoul and Suwon in South Korea; Copenhagen; Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo; Antwerp; and Edmonton and Surrey in Canada, the accolade recognises Cape Town’s actions on climate change and its focus on creating a sustainable environment in the city. Cape Town’s reduction of its dependence on fossil fuels by retrofitting the City buildings, improving the energy efficiency of street and traffic lights, the introduction of its solar water heater program, the MyCiTi Bus network, the city centre cycle lanes, and the campaign to save electricity were recognised through the accolade.
* The potentially most crippling strike ever in Germany is the threatened 3 day Lufthansa pilot strike, from 2 – 4 April. which will ground all planes of the airline.
* Europe and the UK turned back the clock to Summer time today, Europe being in the same time zone as South Africa, and the UK one hour behind.
* In support of Earth Hour on Saturday evening, the City of Cape Town switched off the lights of its building, and those on Table Mountain, for an hour.
* The ANC has applied to the Western Cape High Court to overturn the new City of Cape Town logo, which is already being utilised, even though Mayor de Lille announced that the branding roll-out would only happen after the General Election. The basis of the altercation between the City and the ANC is the cost of the branding, the City (falsely) claiming that it cost R300000 (design only), and the ANC claiming (correctly) that the cost is R8 million (for its implementation), reports The New Age.
* American wine economist Mike Veseth travelled through the Winelands earlier this year, and described the region as ‘a wonderful wine tourism destination‘, possibly the best he has ever visited. ‘Wine tourists are also wine ambassadors’, writes Veseth, and he praises Ken Forrester and Kevin Arnold for their work in enhancing wine tourism. He highlighted the vineyard safari at Waterford, the spa at Spier, the manor house at Anthonij Rupert Wines, the gardens of Van Loveren, the warmth of Joubert-Tradouw, the theatre at Paul Cluver, and the high standard of food in general. Restaurants he praised include Jordan, Diemersdal, Stark-Condé, Lanzerac, Glen Carlou, Pierneef à La Motte, Terroir at Kleine Zalze, Fairview, and Durbanville Hills. He does criticise the lack of a direct flight between Cape Town and the USA. He advises wine tourists to buy a Platter’s guide.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
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