Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* The Consumer Ombudsman dealt with more than 3000 complaints against retailers and service suppliers since its inception nine months ago, reports The New Age. The most complaints received related to furniture retailers, followed by telecommunications companies, motor vehicle retailers, appliance retailers, clothing retailers, and suppliers of financial services. Consumers have becoming more demanding in terms of disputes and are more aware of their rights in lodging complaints since the Consumer Protection Act was introduced. Retailers and service providers are improving their service as they understand the implications of the Act.
* One of Cape Town’s best qualified chefs will be Chef Andres Condé, who is joining the Harbour House Group from Spain in June. He will work on a revamp of the La Parada and Harbour House menus.
* Durban will become a bigger threat to Cape Town’s tourism industry if its plans to redevelop its beachfront into ‘Miami style tourist hubs‘ come to fruition. The local municipality has stated that they are looking to enhance the ‘wow‘ factor of the beachfront! Plans include a water and theme park, a revamp of the cruise terminal, transformation of the beaches, improvements to uShaka, outdoor restaurants with music, an ‘African/bazaar’, ‘a section with hip hop music and dancing’, improvements to the swimming pool, and making the precinct more pedestrian-friendly, all to be completed by 2019.
* SA Tourism is planning to open an office in Shanghai, to cater for the rising number of Chinese tourists visiting our country, 154000 in the past year. Chinese tourists like to go on safari and buy diamonds when they are on holiday in South Africa.
* UBER will be offering free transport on Wednesday, for Election Day, from 7h00 – 19h00. Users of the service can access the promotion code VOTESA to receive two free rides to the value of R200 each. The company hopes to give back, for the support it received since launching in South Africa last year. (received via media release from UBER)
* South Africa‘s first maritime port of entry control centre was opened in Cape Town Harbour last week, with its task being to reduce illegal activities at sea, and becoming a united maritime border management, previously different agencies operating independently, reports The New Age.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
20
3070
27k
20