While the UK remains steadfast in keeping South Africa on its Red List, Germany and the USA have announced the welcome news that they will welcome travellers from South Africa, report Businesstech and fin24.
Each of these two countries still have some entrance requirements, but these are mild compared to the rigorous regulations demanded of local travellers by the UK Government.
A survey conducted amongst 20000 travel agents by Benchmark Hospitality International in the USA has culminated in the ‘Top Ten Travel Trends for 2014′. Good news is that travel bookings are on the up, and that beach holidays are on an upward trend too!
The results were as follows:
1. 80% of the travel agents were optimistic about travel growth, half of these expecting it to be ‘very strong’.
2. Most growth will come from leisure travel, and half of this from the luxury segment. However, leisure and business travel often is combined.
3. An increasing number of clients are booking directly, understandably of concern to travel agents.
4. Beach-related travel is showing the strongest growth, responsible for about half of all travel. The balance of Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* One of the most interesting wines to be launched recently must be the Hidden Valley Shipwreck Shiraz 2009, for which the wine barrels were placed in the ocean at Cape Agulhas during maturation. (received via Manley Communications)
* Heston Blumenthal is opening a restaurant in the new terminal in Heathrow, due to open in June next year.
* Graham Beck’s The Game Reserve wine range is dedicated to conservation, and each of the wines in the range is associated with one of the indigenous animals and plants on their wine estate in Robertson. For each bottle sold in the range a contribution is made to the Wilderness Foundation, neck labels sharing this support of nature, wildlife, and wilderness, and its conservation. ‘The Game Reserve range of wines symbolizes our unwavering commitment to restoring balance. The symbiosis between our wines, our people and the earth is the golden thread which runs throughout all our actions. Leaving a lasting legacy for tomorrow means we’re duty bound to take fundamental and far-reaching steps today – a responsibility we’re deeply passionate about’, says the Waterford Communications media release on behalf of Graham Beck.
* Emoya Luxury Hotel & Spa in Bloemfontein is offering its clients a unique ‘Shanty Town Experience‘, whereby one can stay in a shanty with underfloor heating and wifi, in their game reserve! The writer’s definition of a shanty town (with ‘poor people’) is insulting!
* The first cruise liner of the season, MSC Opera, arrived in Cape Town Continue reading →
An increasing number of medical conferences are being held in Cape Town, in the Cape Town International Convention Centre in particular. The City has just won two major bids for medical conferences in the next three years, expected to generate R48 million in revenue for the city, and 16500 ‘delegate days’, reports Cape Business News.
The ’16th International Congress of Infectious Diseases’ will take place in 2014, and the Convention Centre beat Melbourne for the honour of hosting the conference. Cape Town beat Vancouver in its bid to host the ‘International Urogynecological Association 2016’ conference. The conferences will follow on the 10000 delegate ‘International Conference on AIDS and STI in Africa’, to be held in Cape Town in December. The ‘Investing in Africa Mining Indaba’, hosting 7500 delegates last week, had a tremendous revenue benefit for Cape Town.
The planned doubling in the size of the Cape Town International Convention Centre is expected to lead to 40 or more international conferences being hosted in the city from 2016, a doubling in the current conference number, making Cape Town ‘one of the world’s top long-haul conference destinations’, said Rashid Toefy, the CEO of the Cape Town International Convention Centre. This is excellent news for Cape Town’s tourist industry, as there is no doubt that large international conferences are good for the accommodation, restaurant, taxi, and airline business!
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage