From never having been to eat at Quentin at Oakhurst Barn in Hout Bay, I was lucky to be part of a group of friends who love it so much that I enjoyed one dinner and a Sunday lunch, offering Cape Country Cuisine, both in the same week, earlier this month. I was astounded at this restaurant gem, the best in Hout Bay but also the most hidden, tucked away in a little lane off the Main Road on the way to Constantia, the popularity of this restaurant based purely on word of moth reputation. Continue reading →
In following a number of topics related to the Tourism industry, and being a member of the industry as a recently qualified Tourist Guide whose income has ground to a halt, the Tourism Relief Fund offered to the Tourism and Hospitality industry as financial relief during the COVID-19 pandemic is of special interest to me. Earlier this week the Department of Tourism was sent court papers by civil rights organisation AfriForum, for its alleged discrimination based on race in its funding criteria. Industry talk also is that the Fund benefits larger formal tourist companies, and does not provide relief for hundreds of informal freelance operators such as Tourist Guides, the unofficial face of South Africa, in showing international travelers the highlights of our country. 
The City of Cape Town has announced that the Film Cape Town website has been launched, a joint venture between itself and the Cape Town film and media industry. This is excellent news for the tourism industry in Cape Town and surrounds, to revitalize an industry which brought thousands of film industry tourists as well as millions of Rands to our city, but which declined due to the closure of the Cape Film Commission due to a cut in grants from the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape provincial government in 2016, the water crisis, local rising costs, as well as an industry which battled within itself and the City and province. 