The Sweet Service Award goes to the Camps Bay Promenade, the Palms Centre, and Rosetta in The Woodstock Exchange, for their proactiveness in countering the Stage 2 loadshedding for Woodstock, the city centre, Tamboerskloof, and Atlantic Seaboard last Saturday. The Promenade in Camps Bay has just installed its generator (the four Kove Collection restaurants in the building had already installed their own generators), while the Palms Centre also has a generator. Rosetta in The Woodstock Exchange was organised, having pre-brewed its coffee, but was not available with foam! All other coffee shops and eateries in Woodstock, The Fringe, Tamboerskloof, and Camps Bay could not offer coffee nor breakfast between 10h00 and 12h00. It is a surprise that a centre such as The Woodstock Exchange does not yet have a generator, given the severity and regularity of the loadshedding! Continue reading →
Tag Archives: Department of Justice
Restaurant Review: Sirocco in Knysna more than loadshedding problems, service-shedding too!
I had been led to believe that one of the better restaurants in Knysna is Sirocco, and I do recall having eaten there once before, when it was more of a fine-dining restaurant. I was very disappointed when I spent part of my S&T allowance from the Department of Justice at Sirocco last night. 
Loadshedding was not the only problem the restaurant had to cope with, Manager Sonia de Lange having shed her service ethic too!
I had popped in at Thesen Island earlier in the afternoon, and had a look at the fire-damaged Ile de Pain, speaking to staff at a neighbouring shop, and they recommended Sirocco. When I visited Knysna a month ago, also with the compliments of the Department of Justice, I had experienced
dreadful service at three restaurants I had attempted to eat at, in particular at the Island Café at The Turbine Hotel & Spa! On Facebook a number of visitors to Knysna shared that the town appears to have a problem with restaurant service.
It was hard to see the entrance to the restaurant, as there is a Col’Cacchio now, and Continue reading →
Will Tourism survive two high profile court cases reflecting crime in SA?
In the past two days Oscar Pistorius has featured in the 19h00 and 21h45 news broadcasts on ZDF TV, one of the largest German TV channels, the story no doubt reported by every other TV station in the country too. Yesterday Shrien Dewani arrived in Cape Town by special chartered jet, to appear in court briefly for the alleged murder in 2010 of his wife, which he is alleged to have masterminded and paid for. He has dodged being extradited to our country for more than three years, pleading that his alleged mental illness made him unfit to be extradited. The story is being extensively reported by the UK media. One must ask how damaging the coverage of both these alleged murders are for our tourism industry.
Of the two cases, the Oscar Pistorius one is the more serious one when it comes to its potential for its negative effect on the Tourism industry. Pistorius described in detail in court to what extent he and his family have been the subject of crime, and why he carried one or more firearms. Interesting was the report by Times Live yesterday, with research by Data Driven Insight (DDI) reflecting that the Pistorius case is dominating all news reporting locally, at 36%, followed by the Dewani case at 31%. Internationally, the coverage for the case between Monday and Tuesday was highest in South African tourism source countries, being the USA, the UK, Germany, Australia, and France, followed in sixth place by South Africa. DDI measures coverage by scanning 6,2 million ‘social media platforms‘, 60000 online newspapers, and 66 radio and TV channels globally. The Pistorius case will dominate the rest of the week, as Pistorius testifies with his advocate Barry Roux, and then is cross-examined by State Prosecutor Gerrie Nel. Continue reading →