Tag Archives: app

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 9 June

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The DA Shadow Minister of Tourism James Vos will lodge a complaint against Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom to the Tourism Portfolio Committee, for not calling a review of the controversial Immigration Regulations, having previously said that he would review them. Last week the Minister said: ‘we need to review the regulations to find the right balance, …, hurting South Africa‘.

*   Internationally the accommodation sector is bemoaning the impact of Airbnb, for its ‘illegal’ advantage of lower costs, and operating illegally, short-term rental being prohibited in many American city centres, and the accommodation not complying with insurance, fire, and disability access regulations which apply to the formal Continue reading →

Shimmy Beach Clubs warms up Cape Town in winter!

Shimmy logo Whale CottageLast week a group of writers was invited to try the new Winter Menu at Shimmy Beach Club, on a beautiful sunny day. The impact of GM Clayton Howard is visible, compared to my last visit to Shimmy about a year ago, when it was in a sad state, Clayton giving the Club new energy, a chic character, and introducing aShimmy Clayton Howard Whale Cottage vastly improved menu.

We were told that the owners of Shimmy Beach Club also own other properties, including Bloemendal in Durbanville, and we were served their Waterlily wines for the lunch. A small hotel is being established on the wine estate, and Shimmy Chef Adrian Cook also spends one day a week at Bloemendal, and its restaurant Bon Amis. Clayton told me that new staff is being sourced from the hotel sector, given the growing Continue reading →

Mobile payment technology threatens restaurant/coffee shop tips!

snapscanA Cape Town study conducted by &Innovation has shown that locally-developed mobile payment Apps can influence the tips paid by customers to waitrons, the speed of the payment method making customers feel less guilty when they leave a smaller or no tip.  Based on restaurant turnover of R21 billion per year, the value of tips should be R2 billion.

The study found that the tip payment behaviour when paying by means of SnapScan, FlickPay, GUST Pay, and Zapper differs from payment made by cash or credit card. Whichever payment technique is easiest and most convenient for the customer at the moment of payment is used, without consideration of the impact it may have on the restaurant or coffee shop, and its staff.  The mobile payment method means that they don’t ‘look the waiter or cashier in the eye’.  It also means that the tip jar remains untouched. Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 2 April

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   ‘Madiba’s Journey’ is a new GPS-enabled App which allows one to follow in the footsteps of the late Nelson Mandela, directing one to sites associated with one of our country’s greatest leaders.  The App was designed for SA Tourism and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

*   An Australian blind tasting of red wines under screw cap and cork by international wine judges has ‘voted in favour of the expressions aged under screwcap, a particularly impactful result to occur on Italian soil, where this closure was until recently banned from use in many of the country’s most prestigious wines such as Brunello di Montalcino, and still remains controversial’.  Australian winemakers are increasingly using screwcaps on their wine Continue reading →