David White | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

* La Residence in Franschhoek is the joint Best Hotel in the World, on the Conde Nast Top 100 Hotels as chosen by its readers, and Singita Sabi Sand and Bushmans Kloof Wilderness are in joint 3rd place. Lion Sands, Phinda Private Game Reserve, Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, and Singita Kruger have all made the Top 100 Hotel list.

* Cape Town has been ranked joint 11th Best City in the World, out of 25, on the Conde Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards, following San Miguel de Allende in first place, followed by Florence, Budapest, Salzburg, Charleston, San Sebastian, Vienna, Rome, Siena, and Quebec City.

* ‘All these must see lists are nonsense because they sell books, magazines and they push websites but there is no truth behind it. What makes sells a place is if you had a great experience there and that’s something only you can do’ writes Lonely Planet Guide writer Doug Lansky about Continue reading →

The Whale Cottage Portfolio has embraced new technology and social media, by posting tweets on Twitter, mainly to publicise new blog posts on its WhaleTales blog.

Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media networks, and allows its users to communicate in a maximum of 140 characters. More than 5 million persons Twitter around the world. The communication is driven by the answer to the question: What are you doing now?” Most Twitterers do not reply to the question, rather sending their information proactively about any topic they wish. The Tweets can also be used to gain information from other Twitterers, by posing questions.

Twitter has developed its own terminology, and the following are some new additions to the dictionary, according to David White, a Twitter consultant: “monitter” = monitoring what people are saying linked to specific keywords; “Tweetbeeps” are tweets that mentions one’s name or brand, with regular updates; “Twiveaway” = competition designed to build more followers; and “Twtqpon” = a coupon offered to followers. See www.howtotweet.co.uk for guidelines on how to tweet on Twitter.

Whale Cottage can be found on Twitter at http://twitter.com/whalecottage, and invites readers of the WhaleTales blog to follow whalecottage.