Category Archives: World Design Capital

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 7 April

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The Elite 100 fine-dining restaurants in the world have been announced for 2014, with three Cape restaurants on the list: The Test Kitchen at 45th place, The Tasting Room at 82nd, and Rust en Vrede (which the Cape Argus placed in Durbanville rather than in Stellenbosch!) at 85th place.  The world’s top 10 restaurants, according to Elite, are Alinea in Chicago, Daniel Restaurant in New York, The Fat Duck in Bray in the UK, Eleven Madison Park in New York, Le Bernardin in New York, El Celler de Can Roca in Girona in Spain, Azurmendi in Vizcaya, La Pergola in Rome, The Ledbury in London, and Osteria Francescana in Modena in Italy.  The Cape Argus incorrectly created one restaurant name out of  the 7th and 8th ranked restaurants!  A surprise is the omission of five hundred at The Saxon, which kitchen is headed by South Africa’s Top Chef David Higgs.

*   After 45 years in the local and international hospitality industry, which includes the One&Only hotel group, Sol Kerzner is retiring, after selling a substantial stake of his Kerzner International Holdings to a Dubai-based company.

*   New York Travel focuses on Spring Travel in South Africa, specifically in Cape Town and surrounding areas.  In Cape Town the article mentions I Love my Laundry, the The Crypt Jazz Restaurant and The Marly in Camps Bay. It also refers to Cape Town’s role as host of World Design Capital 2014.   Continue reading →

World Design Capital 2014 & New7Wonders of Nature: have Cape Town ratepayers been conned?

Cape Town StadiumIn the Cape Times on Tuesday Glenn Babb, a former Director General of Foreign Affairs, and a commissioner for our country at the Venice Biennale in 1993 and 1995, wrote a lengthy article about the City of Cape Town having paid millions of Rands to support two money-making organisations handing out accolades to those cities prepared to pay for them, and which most had not been heard of previously.  The City had justified the expenditures, funded by means of ratepayers’ monies, on the basis of the tourism benefits these accolades would hold for Cape Town.

Bitingly entitled ‘Cape Town’s Devious Designs’, Babb focused on Table Mountain becoming one of the New7Wonders of Nature.  He writes that the Swiss-based company New7Wonders of Nature Foundation, which drove the campaign, makes its money from the sms-revenue generated when the citizens of cities are encouraged to vote to get one’s landmark onto the top seven list.  The company claimed that it had received 100 million votes, each of which had generated income for the company. The City of Cape Town had spent extensive monies on advertising to support the campaign to get Capetonians to vote. Continue reading →

Colourful Cape Town in ‘Happy’ music video excellent marketing for our city!

Happy music video titlePharrell Williams’ song ‘Happy‘ is infectious, and on the playlist of radio stations like Kfm every day.  Now it has been honoured with a unique Cape Town inspired music video, by a team of five local filmmakers, who made it for free, and want it to go viral, and to be seen by as many people as possible (93000 views in the past two days already)!  It is fabulous free marketing for Cape Town!

Using the Cape Town World Design Capital 2014 colour yellow as its title page, which will bring it some brownie points, the Cape Town music video captures a 12 hour day.  It includes the Sea Point Promenade, Muizenberg beach, Athlone Stadium, a number of township and Cape Flats scenes,  colourful Bo-Kaap with minstrels, Charly’s Bakery, with the street art portrait of the late Nelson Mandela across the road, St George’s Mall, and Long Happy Cape Town SkaterStreet.

The music video was directed by Shamiel Soni and Tannan Woods, and directed by Nicky Priem.  Priem says of the ‘Happy‘ music video, and the reason for making it: ‘We are the most amazing city in the world.  I think it was important for us to showcase the Mother City’s diversity and beautiful people.  We all love the song and the message it portrays and I think the video helps unite our City. It gave us an Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 12 March

WhaleTalesTourism, food, and Wine news headlines

*   Chef Heston Blumenthal, with South African roots, is opening ‘The Perfectionists’ Café’  in Terminal 2 at Heathrow, linking to his TV series ‘In Search of Perfection’.  The 130 seater restaurant menu will feature burgers and pizza with a ‘gourmet twist‘, a ‘multi-sensory bar’, and the world’s first wood-fire pizza oven in an airport.

*   Stellenbosch American Express Wine Routes attended its first ITB travel expo in Berlin last week, with Stellenbosch 360 and the Wine Routes represented, positioning Stellenbosch as the ‘ideal hub from where (sic) to explore Cape Town and the Western Cape’.   Wine and culinary tourists tend to stay in a destination for longer and spend more, making this segment an important target for Stellenbosch. (received via media release from Random Hat Communications)

*   Transforming the N1 and N2 into Toll roads is being threatened for the Winelands again, after the City of Cape Town managed to obtain an interim High Court interdict against the implementation of the toll roads last year.  Sanral is justifying the toll roads on its need to upgrade the roads, at a cost of R10 billion, which it cannot raise Continue reading →