Captain DoRegos | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

* Retailers’ service sucks – we may have thought so – but now it’s official, according to the ‘Retail Shopper Survey 2014′, conducted by Why 5 amongst households with a total income of R10000 or more. More than half of respondents said service is bad; they want shops close by; shopping is a grudge purchase; the majority research offers online; payment by mobile phone would be supported by one-third of shoppers; loyalty programs are highly popular, 96% of shoppers using them; sales do attract shoppers; shoppers want information via catalogues, newsletters, and e-mails, but in-store radio broadcasts are a waste of time; shoppers feel that shopping malls all look the same.

* TripAdvisor has launched a new ‘Just for You‘ service, offering ‘tailor-made’ accommodation recommendations based on past searches on their website as well as preferences. It links with Facebook to gain a better understanding of its customers, to enable better recommendations to be made.

* The Vineyard Hotel has been recognised by the 2014 Travel + Leisure Global Vision Awards for its promotion of Continue reading →

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

* BA is seeing increased business on its Africa routes and has already announced that it is putting ts A380 onto the Johannesburg route from February 2014. The airline also is increasing its flights to Ghana, Uganda, Liberia, and Serria Leone, whilst cutting those to Lusaka.

* Increasing power and staff costs are major threats to the local wine industry, a study by PricewatershouseCoopers has revealed.

* The Captain DoRegos take-away franchise is to be expanded into the rest of South Africa, and even into Africa, the Spur Corporation has announced.

* Hein Koegelenberg has written an informative blogpost about how to protect Continue reading →