Tag Archives: design

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 10 February

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Decanter included three South African wines in its 2013 top 50 wines, out of a total of 3200 wines evaluated. Alheit Vineyards’ Cartology 2011 was ranked 4th; Vuurberg White 2011 was ranked 36th; and Adoro Red 2006 was ranked 37th.

*   Given that the week of romance is upon us, the top five most romantic beaches of South Africa have been named, Clifton making first place, followed by Umhlanga Rocks, Noetzie in Knysna, Margate, and Noup in the Northern Cape.

*   About 10% of tourists arriving in South Africa come to participate or watch a sports event.  Now a new sport called Bossaball, a combination of soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, and an Afro-Brazilian martial arts form capoeira, is to be introduced to our country by Zinto Sports.

*   The Cape Town Art Fair 2014 will be held at The Pavilion in the V&A Waterfront from 28 February – 2 March.  The entrance fee of R120 also entitles entrance to ‘GUILD’, an exhibition of Design, held at The Lookout, also in the V&A. Both exhibitions form part of Cape Town hosting World Design Capital 2014.

*   Allan Mullins has been appointed as ‘chief wine selector’ by Africa Wine Merchants, Continue reading →

Top South African design in one stable, reflecting Cape Town as SA Design Capital!

Stable Interior 3 Whale Cottage PortfolioA surprise discovery on Monday on Loop Street, next door to art gallery Ebony, was stable, a collective of the work of 40 top South African designers and artisans.

From outside the shop intrigues, with its European style classy display of merchandise, with only a few items displayed of each designer .  There is a wide range of items including chairs, tables, lighting, and accessories all curated under one roof. One can see more design items on the Mezzanine level, and the first floor mainly has furniture by Mark Bain Designs, the Sofa Studio owner, and by Origo.  I fell in love and indulged in a pair of snapp Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 20/21 July

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The Open Design Festival Cape Town is running in the City Hall from 21 – 31 August to the theme of ‘Designing for Sharing’, encouraging the design community of Cape Town to share their designs with each other, and to create awareness and the appreciation of all design by all.  The Festival is a collaboration by the Cape Craft and Design Institute, the Cape Town Design Network, the Western Cape Furniture Initiative, and the City of Cape Town.  “Open Design Cape Town is a grass roots movement concerned with the ways in which design can engage directly with the man on the street” explains Y Tsai, creative director for OPEN DESIGN Cape Town and founder of Tsai Design Studio. “It is also a call to action for the design community to share their creative skills to help solve some of our most pressing social issues.”   It serves as an inaugural event for Cape Town being World Design Capital 2014.  Sune Stassen, City Hall and education programme manager for OPEN DESIGN Cape Town and founder of Rock City Foundation says, “To be truly open about design means to include, share, educate and empower all who want to participate. Because we are working towards building a more sustainable future, the ability to successfully collaborate and share knowledge becomes some of the key building blocks towards realising this future.”   Design sharing can include open studio cocktail parties, film nights, design initiative forums, free lectures at academic institutions, creative agency talks, and individual designer workshops. One can add one’s events for OPEN DESIGN Cape Town on www.opendesignct.com. (via media release received from Maciek Dubla) Continue reading →

Cape Town tourism industry puts diverse Cape Town on show at Indaba 2013!

After huge protests about the poorly run Indaba 2012, Africa’s top tourism and travel exhibition appears to have improved its organisation, and has promised a larger number of international trade visitors for Indaba 2013, taking place in Durban this weekend. SA Tourism has stated that 3000 international ‘buyers’ are attending, as are more than 13000 delegates, according to the Daily News. The majority of the delegates are involved with tourism product stands.  The country’s world heritage sites, culture, arts, design and music are on display, in addition to tourism products and services.  Cape Town’s tourism product appears unfocused and fragmented at Indaba!

Cape Town is being represented by the Western Cape government (its party headed by Alan Winde, Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism); the ineffective Western Cape tourism and trade development agency Wesgro, which has not delivered at all in the first year of taking over the role of marketing tourism in the province; Cape Town Tourism, SA National Parks; the city’s Big Six attractions; the Cape Higher Education Consortium (what on earth are they doing at a tourism exhibition?); Cape Town World Design Capital 2014; and The City of Cape Town’s Arts and Culture department. Odd is that the City of Cape Town’s Tourism, Events and Marketing department is not represented in Durban.

Minister Winde said in a media statement that this year’s Indaba theme is ‘heritage and culture’, and that he ‘hoped’ that Robben Island and the San cultural landmarks of our province will be featured on the ‘South African Heritage Cultural Pavilion’, an odd comment as one would think that the Minister’s tourism department or his marketing arm Wesgro would have ensured their inclusion on the national stand! ‘Foreign visitors want to see more of what do (sic) and how we live, they want authentic local experiences. The Western Cape has a rich and diverse history and is home to iconic heritage sites such as Robben Island. The Western Cape Government is currently devising a cultural and heritage tourism strategy, which will be aligned with that of the national government. We are pleased the Tourism Indaba profiles this offering so prominently this year’, the Minister is quoted as saying!  Disappointing is that the Minister believes the misleading tourism information put out by Cape Town Tourism, in claiming that ‘the sector experienced its best ever summer season‘! The Minister clearly does not know that the last good summer season was in 2007!

The Western Cape has developed a new slogan which has not been seen before, but will be on show at Indaba, in an interactive stand showcasing the province’s top sights and activities, such as shark diving, the top restaurants, the Winelands, paragliding, and river rafting. ‘Adventurously yours…naturally ours’ appears contrived as a slogan, and there is no Western Cape branding in it!  The Western Cape World Heritage sites Robben Island, the Cape Floral Region, and the Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape will be on show on the Heritage Cultural Pavilion.

On the same Cape Town stand the City of Cape Town (according to the Cape Town Tourism media release but quoting Councillor Grant Pascoe, Mayoral Committee member for Tourism, Events, and Marketing, extensively) ‘will reflect Cape Town’s position (sic) as a value-for-money destination famed for sporting, entertainment and arts events but will also examine (sic) its focus on golf and adventure tourism, as well as Responsible Tourism‘, states yet another poorly written media release by Cape Town Tourism PR and Communications Manager Skye Grove (our underlining)!  The Councillor added that Cape Town will also focus on ‘the fastest growing markets’ (one wonders where he obtained this information, as Cape Town Tourism and Wesgro have not ever referred to them in the past) of Arts and Culture tourism, Muslim travel, youth travel, and sports tourism!

Cape Town Tourism has compiled a ‘Love Cape Town City Breaks‘ winter packages broadsheet in conjunction with Thompson Holidays, which will be handed out at the stand, on Mango flights, at Cape Town Tourism information centres, and at Cape Town events (not that there are any upcoming ones other than some soccer matches to keep the Cape Town Stadium alive, and to make Cape Town soccer lovers happy, the Liverpool friendly match against Ajax Cape Town just having been cancelled)!   Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, Cape Town Tourism CEO, said that her organisation’s role at Indaba is to represent ‘a place that is a hot bed (sic) of experiences, hidden gems and adventures‘, not even mentioning Brand Cape Town (our underlining)!

As tourism players we know that the presence of Cape Town and Wesgro at Indaba will do little to improve what is already a very bleak winter season, which cannot even be blamed on the rain, as there has been barely any to date!

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