Tag Archives: Cape Town Stadium

Green Point Park a Biodiversity delight, no longer Common!

The Green Point Park, which opened about two weeks ago, and which will receive its official blessing from the Mayor of Cape Town Dan Plato today, has transformed the area previously known as the Green Point Common into one of the most charming parks in Cape Town, making it a treasure not only for the citizens of Cape Town, but also to its visitors, and to future generations.

The Green Point Common was previously a home for the homeless, and this brought down the tone of Mouille Point and also was a danger to locals walking in the area.  In conjunction with the construction of the new Cape Town Stadium, and the redevelopment of the Metropolitan golf course, the City of Cape Town redeveloped the 12,5 ha area at a reported cost of close to R600 million, renaming it the Green Point Park.   The conditions of the development of the Park were that it be safe, that the golf course and the Park appear integrated and almost seamless, that the Park be accessible to physically challenged citizens, and that sufficient parking be made available.  All of these conditions have been admirably met, so much so that one can feel proudly-Capetonian in how well our rates and taxes have been spent in developing a park with a heritage, that will be of benefit to future generations too.

The major focus, which makes it so interesting, and having an educational angle too, is the Biodiversity showcase, the gardens having been developed along ecological principles and includes indigenous landscaping.  Recycling is part of the showcase, and bins for waste, plastic, metal and glass are available at each of the Park entrances.   To focus on best environmental practices, water from the historic Oranjezicht springs on the slopes of Table Mountain has been redirected to water the gardens, and is sufficient to cater for the irrigation needs of the Park all year round, explains the Cape Town Stadium website www.stadiumcapetown.co.za. 

The Green Point Park has bricked pathways on which Capetonians and their children can cycle, walk with or without their dogs, run, do exercises, read a book, use their skateboards, and meet friends safely, with security staff visible.   One can also bring a picnic basket and enjoy the beautiful views onto Signal Hill, Cape Town Stadium, Mouille Point, and the golf course.  It is planned that one can host functions at the park (a marquee is already in place for the opening function today), and that outdoor events such as markets and concerts will be held in this beautiful, largely wind-protected space.   A biodiversity nursery, a tea garden, fresh produce markets, flower sellers and bicycle rental are said to be on the cards.

But the educational side of the Park is an excellent benefit for teaching children as well as their parents about Biodiversity, and how one can develop a garden that is environmentally friendly, and does not threaten biodiversity.  Biodiversity is defined as “amazing variety of life on earth”, and is threatened by agricultural development, fire, urban development and invasive plants. The Park has a food garden, one for medicinal plants, and a demonstration garden.  Fauna is represented by buck, rabbits, and more animals, in metalwork in-between the plants.  The Park teems with bird life.  Information boards explain how the Khoikhoi sought berries in the veld, used claypots to make their variation of “potjiekos” in those days already, roasted and baked their food, and made tea from bushes.  

But the history of Cape Town is also explained in an interesting manner, with huts built by the Khoikhoi, and their food types and herbal remedies explained.   Medicinal plants such as wildeals, blousake, kooigoed, Devil’s Claw and more were used to treat aches and pains, colds and other ailments. 

 It would be wonderful if a handout with information about the Green Point Park would be made available, and a website be developed for it.  I initially struggled to find the entrance to Green Point Park.  There are five entrances: the West entrance is close to CafeNeo, the East entrance is off one of the parking areas of the Cape Town Stadium, the Southern entrance is near the Virgin Active, an entrance is off Bay Road, and another is behind the Sea Point police station.   The Green Point Park is open from 7h00 – 19h00 Mondays – Sundays, and entrance is free.  

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio:  www.whalecottage.com   Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Grand Prix could bring Monaco to Cape Town, brilliant benefit to tourism

There is regular talk of a Grand Prix coming to Cape Town.  The latest bid, one of three, proposes a Monaco-style street Grand Prix in September 2013, to be held in Sea Point, Green Point and Mouille Point, reports the Cape Argus.

The Cape Town Grand Prix Bid Company (Pty) Limited was invited by Formula One’s Ernie Ecclestone to present a proposal before the beginning of the new Formula One season in March.   A 5,3 km route is proposed, which will have Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and the Atlantic Ocean as a backdrop, with magnificent benefits for tourism, given the TV coverage that the event would attract.  The route includes the Cape Town Stadium, which is proposed as the start and end to the Grand Prix route.

The Bid Company’s Chief Communication Officer, Esther Henderson, said of the bid: “Green Point is ideal for a street circuit like the one in Monaco because we have so many beautiful sights in the area.  So while Monaco is the “French Riviera” we can have the “African Riviera” in Cape Town”.    

Western Cape Minister of Tourism Alan Winde said he had not yet been approached by the Bid Company to endorse the proposed Grand Prix, but said :”…..generally, I think this is something we could put within the strategy of attracting major events.  We would support that as a city and a province, absolutely.  A Grand Prix would profile the city very well”.   If the streets in the area were to be used (at a cost of R100 million to adjust them according to the international rules), instead of building a costly new track (at R4 billion), it would inconvenience locals, as the Argus Cycle Tour does, but the race would be good for the city, Winde added.   A Grand Prix race usually spans a period of Thursday – Sunday, with  practices and qualifying phases, and the actual race on the Sunday.

Last year Ecclestone told the BBC: “(Africa) is another continent where we should be.  Hopefully, now people will think what the World Cup has done for Africa would be good for Formula One.  It would be nice to think we had then more or less covered the world”

The last time South Africa hosted a Grand Prix event was in 1993 at Kyalami in Johannesburg.

POSTSCRIPT 1/2: The People’s Post reports today that the Grand Prix bid is “pie-in-the-sky”, as the ratepayers’ associations of Mouille Point and Sea Point have ‘slated’ the proposal, but have stated that they cannot comment until they have seen more concrete plans.  However, the City of Cape Town’s Executive Director for Economic Social Development and Tourism, Mansoor Mohamed, disagrees, says the report, and he visited China in November to study their Grand Prix circuits.   He has presented the proposals from the Cape Town Grand Prix Bid Company and the South African Grand Prix Corporation to the mayoral committee, and has been given the go-ahead to commence with an economic impact assessment and event viability study.   The two companies will present their bids to F1’s Bernie Eccelstone later this year.  The bid by the South African Grand Prix Corporation proposes a newly built race track on the West Coast. 

Last week it was reported that Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold had spoken out about the Grand Prix bid, fearing for the environmental impact of the event.  One wonders what pipe Mrs Helmbold was smoking in making such a comment, given that her organisation assisted the Cape Town Grand Prix Bid Company with its choice of month to host the event, and that the event would be a valuable tourism catalyst in such a quiet month (September).

POSTSCRIPT 7/7: The Formula One head Bernie Ecclestone has been quoted as saying that Cape Town could host a Grand Prix within two years, the Cape Argus reported yesterday.  Of the three Cape Town Formula One bids, the Monaco-style one going through Green Point appears to be the favoured one.  The Formula One was last held in South Africa almost twenty years ago.

POSTSCRIPT 9/7:  Cape Town Stadium may be incorporated in the Cape Town Formula One course if Grand Prix SA’s bid is accepted, reports the Cape Argus.   Cars would be driving in and out of the Stadium via the street-level gates, and it would allow up to 60000 motor racing fans to sit in the stadium, to enjoy the action.  The grass would have to be lifted, and the area would have to be tarred, the pitch returned after the three-day event.   The cost of adapting Cape Town’s current roads for the race is estimated at R670 million, compared to R 4 billion to build a brand new track.  Two further bids have been prepared for the race – one near the airport, and another on the West Coast.  Grand Prix SA is quoted as saying: “I’ve said that Cape Town is a very sexy location, it’s a gateway location… for broadcast.  No matter where you position a camera, you will capture the city’s landmarks, marketing Cape Town”.  City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee member for Tourism, Grant Pascoe, said that the Grand Prix supports the city’s bid to ‘establish Cape Town as the events capital‘ of South Africa. He qualified his support, by saying that the City and the province had not yet received an official proposal to host the event.  The financial benefit for the city is vast, and the City’s Mayoral Committee member for Finance, Ian Neilson, has estimated the value at R770 million in tourism value, based on Singapore Grand Prix figures.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Google Street View drives SA wine marketing!

Google Street View and Google Maps are two products that will change the world of marketing, wine estate owners and marketers were told at a presentation at the Protea Fire & Ice Hotel on Thursday.  South Africa is the first African country in which Google has introduced the technology, and the South African wine estates are the first in the world to have been included on Google Street View. 

Google Street View is the largest photographic project in the world.  Google Maps has already covered 100 countries in 350000 maps, in 40 languages.  Google Street View was launched in South Africa just before the World Cup (with some errors, in that the Metropolitan Golf Club is shown to be inside the Cape Town Stadium!).   Google Maps provides summary information about a wine estate, for example, and then shows the reviews about the estate on Tripadvisor, SafariNow and on other websites, providing a potential visitor with different sources of information which they can use to prepare for their visit.   At the presentation wine estates were encouraged to club together, and to design custom-packaged wine tours – e.g. a Pinotage tour in a specific area can be prepared via Google Maps, as the “pinotage” word would be Google-searched by the visitor from the reviews that contain that word, for example.  Wine estates can also apply Google Maps into the management of their businesses, in controlling their security, crops etc, they were told.

Google Street View cars (or even bicycles), with a massive camera on them, take photographs as they drive down roads, which are then processed to put them onto Google Maps.  To protect the privacy of the public, Google blurs car registration numbers and faces of persons who may have been walking while the photographs were taken.   The imagery is not real-time once it is accessed on Google Maps, given the time that is needed to process the photographs.     Google states that it respects the laws and norms re privacy on Google Maps, an issue that is being hotly debated in Germany at the moment.  If a resident finds his/her visual on Google Maps, even if the image is blurred, they can request it to be removed completely.   Even one’s house can be deleted, on request.

Google Street View allows users to virtually explore and navigate a localised area through panoramic street-level photographs.   A Street View button needs to be clicked on the Google Maps, one clicks onto a camera icon above a city, and then zooms in.  One can see a 360 degree panorama of that specific area, so good and real that one almost does not have to go there as one has seen it on Google Street View already!   Not only can one find the exact location of where one is going for a meeting, for example, but one can also see which coffee shops and parking garages are close by.   One can check out the real environment of a hotel one has booked at, which might be hidden in the photographs provided by the hotel in its Image Gallery, possibly due to its location close to a noisy or ugly part of town.

Visitors to a wine estate or to a town/city can upload photographs of one’s property, as well as provide information about one’s property, on Wikipedia.   Wine estates and tourism businesses were encouraged to add Google Maps and Google Street View onto their websites.   One can customise these applications, which are free of charge, in changing the photographs, or in enlarging or reducing the size of the maps.

Wine estates that are on Google Street View are Warwick Wine Estate, Vilafonte, De Wetshof, Fairview, Paul Cluver, Rustenberg, Meerlust, Morgenster, Bouchard Finlayson, Jordan Winery, Klein Constantia, Journey’s End, and Groote Post.

Google Maps can be added to one’s website (www.maps.google.co.za), so that one can create one’s own map.   One can also add one’s content to Mapplets, which are map layers or applications available on Google Maps.  One can use these to display information to Google Map users, giving content to Google Maps (www.google.co.za/apis/maps/documentation/mapplets/).  Google Places (www.maps.google.co.za/places) allows one to put a business on Google Maps, searchable by Google on its Google Maps, Earth, Search, and Maps for Mobiles applications.   One can personalise this business information with contact details, opening hours, photographs and more.

Leading Johannesburg wine consultant Juliet Cullinan endorsed the Google Street View application for wine estates, saying that this is the first opportunity South Africa has to launch top wine estates, icon wines, and the best wine cellars, and is the closest one can bring the consumer to a winemaker, and ‘almost’ get them to taste the wine on-line.  

Mike Ratcliffe from Warwick and Vilafonte wines, one of the most tech-savvy wine marketers in South Africa, has embraced Google Street View, and even got Google to include the Big Five safari trip they offer Warwick visitors.  Ratcliffe reiterated the growth of social media marketing, and quoted international advertising agency WPP in stating that 26 % of the agency’s business now is on-line communications.  The fastest growth has been magazine readership, which readers subscribe to on-line.   He hinted at the launch of “Google Me’, Google’s answer to Facebook.  HD also is coming, giving even higher screen resolution.  Ratcliffe encouraged his wine colleagues to embrace Google Street View, as it gives the South African wine industry an edge, before it is adopted by wine regions in other countries. 

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

So what impact did the World Cup really make on Cape Town and the Cape?

Cape Town Routes Unlimited has released statistics, comparing the tourism performance between June 2009 and 2010.  In general it would appear that tourism facilities fared better in June this year compared to last June, due to the World Cup, which kicked off on 11 June.

 The following statistics were provided in the Cape Town Routes Unlimited “World Cup Impact” report:

1.  The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway received 63861 visitors in June, an increase of 69 %

2.   Boulders Beach in Simonstown had just less than 20 000 visitors from 1-20 June this year, compared to 21 314 for the whole of June 2009

3.   Kirstenbosch received 7 % more visitors in June, at 25 469, compared to last year

4.   The V&A Waterfront received 1,6 million visitors in June, up 7 % compared to last year.

5.   Robben Island doubled its visitor numbers between June this year and last year.

6.   International arrivals at Cape Town International airport increased by 18 % in June relative to a year ago, (and by 24 % for the period 11 June – 16 July, according to Cape Town Tourism’s World Cup Impact report, released yesterday).

7.   Domestic arrivals at Cape Town International airport increased by 10 %, at 261260 in June 

8.   The Cape Town “Lodging Statistics Summary” (where did they get that name from?) seems very wrong, from own experience and discussions with other industry colleagues, given the exceptionally poor May 2010 accommodation bookings.  We publish the information with a warning (the Cape Town Routes Unlimited report does not identify the source of its statistics):

             Occupancy:                 2010                                              2009

             April                             59%                                                 62%

             May                              55%                                                 46%

             June                              68%                                                 41%

9.  The FIFA Fan Fest at the Grand Parade had its best day on 11 June, the Opening Match between Bafana Bafana and Mexico, with 41000 visitors, and had to be closed at that number due to overcrowding. The second busiest day was the Bafana Bafana match against France on 16 June, with 39000 visitors.  The quietest day was 21 June, with just less than 8000 soccer fans.

10.   In June the busiest Fan Walk day was when Holland played Cameroon, with an estimated 72000 walkers between the City centre and the Cape Town Stadium.  The Portugal/Korea DPR match attracted only 25 000 – 30 000 walkers, a day with heavy rain.

11.   Public Viewing set up in provincial towns was highest on 11 June in all such towns, and highest overall in Worcester (8000), followed by George (more than 7000).  Attendance dropped strongly on other days, and night matches were not well supported where public transport had not been organised.

12.   The V&A Waterfront Gateway (one assumes the one at the Clocktower) attracted 23911 visitors in June, up by 8 %, but the value of bookings increased by 55%.   Only 94 bookings were made last month, a disappointing number, given the traffic in the V&A Waterfront in this period.

13.   The Cape Town Tourism International airport office served 6841 visitors, the City branch 1206, the Table Mountain Cableway branch 849, and Kirstenbosch 803 visitors.  No comparable 2009 figures are provided, which is a surprise and disappointment.  (Cape Town Tourism’s World Cup Impact report states that 71 % more international visitors and 15 % more domestic tourists visited a Cape Town Tourism branch during the World Cup period – even though I have never seen information about the origin of the tourist asked) 

14.   Franschhoek claims to have received more than 4000 visitors (no 2009 comparative figures) in its Information office in June, which did not translate into much business as far as accommodation and restaurant bookings are concerned.  Paarl claims to have served 1 961 visitors (no 2009 comparative figures), and Knysna Tourism received 1433 visitors, double the number of last June.   Ceres received 1173 visitors, treble the 2009 figure, but this may have been due to the heavy snowfalls last month.

It is a pity that 2009 figures are not available across the board for the statistics provided, and that the 11 days of the World Cup are not reflected either, as Cape Town and the towns close to it were fuller in July, given the round of 16, quarter-final and semi-final matches played in Cape Town in this period.  Yet it is commendable that statistics were made available at all, no matter how questionable some of them appear to be!

Cape Town Tourism’s World Cup Impact report, presented to the media yesterday, claims that 200000 of the 350000 international visitors that came to South Africa for the World Cup came to Cape Town (even though its earlier pre-World Cup surveys showed that the majority of such soccer fans planned to visit Cape Town!).   One wonders how this estimate was made.  Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold said that the World Cup was never about the short term, but about long-term benefits for Cape Town, turning soccer fans into fans of Cape Town.  City of Cape Town Mayco Member of Economic Development and Tourism Felicity Purchase noted that events hosted in winter months are needed to counter the seasonality of Cape Town’s tourism industry.   The 750 journalists that were shown around Cape Town loved the city, describing it as “photogenic”, and falling in love with it.   The Report also addresses accommodation occupancy during the World Cup, but its “research” was so poorly conducted that their misleading results will not be reported here (read our criticism of their intital results, mid-way through the World Cup).

What all the reports lose sight off is the extremely poor May that the tourism and hospitality industry experienced, a vacuum having been created due to the World Cup, which wiped out any gains made between 11 June – 11 July!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com