Tag Archives: DTI

Corona Virus Lockdown: Food Offering and Delivery very tightly controlled, yet some chefs and restaurants have found ways to do it!

 

I have written previously how the restaurant industry is suffering tremendously, both in being able to pay its bills due to lack of cash flow, and the responsibility it has to keep paying staff, receiving UIF payments for staff appearing to be a difficult process, understandable as every employer in the country is trying to keep head above water and therefore submitting claims. From wanting to jump in to prepare meals to deliver, and thereby keep some staff employed and some cash flowing, most restaurant were disappointed to discover that this was against the Lockdown Law.  Yet a handful of chefs and food suppliers have managed to receive an Essential Service certificate, and are preparing food offerings, which they are delivering to clients’ homes or offering on a collection basis. Licensed alcohol-selling restaurants appear to be experiencing the biggest problems when it comes to food delivery permission, even though they do not offer alcohol delivery. Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 24 July

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The Royal baby boy Prince George Alexander Louis Cambridge could be worth $1 billion, according to eTurboNews.

*   Burgundy has been hit by a severe storm with hail and rain, with 75% of some vineyards destroyed, reports Dr Vino’s blog.

*    Two young Capetonians, Marthinus Botha and De Vos Meaker, have launched a ‘local is lekker’ brand Green Shebeen, attracting eco-conscious wine drinkers.   The brand has been developed as a joint venture with Org de Rac Estate in the Swartland, and is contemporary and hip, yet based on age-old organic farming methods, making it a premium organic wine that is accessible, fun and totally unpretentious. The brand has been launched with a Rosé and Chardonnay. (via Catalyst Communications).

*   South African wines and rooibos tea will be sold on a trial basis by a supermarket group in Brazil, after a trip last week with the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI). Continue reading →

Cape Film Commission shoots Minister Winde down re film funding!

The Cape Film Commission, promoting filmmaking in Cape Town and surrounds and assisting production companies with permits for shoots, has publicly criticised Alan Winde, Western Cape Minister of Finance, Economic Development, and Tourism, for no longer supporting the Film Commission, and for handing over the R 4 million to Wesgro, the Western Cape Trade, Industry and Tourism development agency, reports the Cape Times.

Three months ago Minister Winde announced that monies would be allocated to Wesgro for the promotion of the Western Cape’s film industry. In making the announcement, he promised that Wesgro would ‘aggressively’ market the Western Cape as a film destination, ‘to encourage as many international block-busters and commercials to be funded in the Western Cape’, would ‘facilitate access’ to film rebates (from the DTI one assumes), encourage local ‘local content film making’, grow local film audiences, promote the Cape Town Film Studios for film and TV production, and collaborate with other local film-related bodies.

Cape Film Commission CEO Denis Lillie also criticised the Minister’s support of ‘Search for Sugar Man’, produced by a foreign filmmaker, but shot locally, and having been nominated for and winning the Academy Awards’ Oscar for Best Documentary.  He is quoted as saying that the Minister is ‘promoting a foreign film rather than using public money to support the commission in its promotion of the local (film) industry‘.

The Cape Film Commission took 25 local filmmakers to the Berlin film festival and the European film market in February.  This month it is taking 24 filmmakers to the Tribeca film festival in New York, and 20 filmmakers will be taken to Cannes in May.  The Cape Film Commission is considering legal action against the Minister, for breaching a promise of funding until 2015.  The Minister has not commented due to the legal action being taken by the Cape Film Commission.

While we have the highest regard for Minister Winde, we cannot understand why he is placing so much faith in Wesgro. In the 11 months since taking over Tourism marketing of the Western Cape from Cape Town Routes Unlimited, there has been zero visible action and result.  For an economy very badly hit by Seasonality both in Winter and during the early summer months, every marketing action possible is essential to help the tourism and hospitality industry survive the forthcoming winter!

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

Wesgro gets a shot at film marketing the Cape!

It was a surprise to receive Western Cape Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism Alan Winde’s media release yesterday, announcing that Wesgro will be responsible for the marketing of Cape Town and the Western Cape as a film destination.

Referring to a reduced provincial budget due to stagnant tax revenues received from the government, Minister Winde said that “Wesgro already has the responsibility of marketing the Western Cape as a tourism, investment and trade destination, adding the marketing of the Western Cape’s entire film industry to the portfolio will mean that we have a streamlined and co-ordinated marketing strategy with which to approach local and international markets.  Wesgro has already started implementing plans to ensure that in the 2012/2013 financial year, film trade and investment to the value of at least R 1 billion will be leveraged”.

The  Minister said that for the following financial year, Wesgro would ‘aggressively’ market the Western Cape as a film destination, ‘to encourage as many international block-busters and commercials to be funded in the Western Cape’, would ‘facilitate access’ to film rebates (from the DTI one assumes), encourage local ‘local content film making’, grow local film audiences, promote the Cape Town Film Studios for film and TV production, and collaborate with other local film-related bodies.

While the Minister’s media release justifies his decision to award the role to Wesgro on the basis of a growth in tourism and thus income for the province as well as job creation, and quotes job creation per movie shot in the Western Cape in the past two years, there is no indication that these are largely temporary jobs, and that many of the film freelancers may have been used in more than one of the productions.

While such a film marketing body has not previously existed for the Western Cape (the Cape Film Commission being a City of Cape Town funded body which facilities permits for location usage in the main), one must question Wesgro’s ability to market an industry that it has no experience of.  In April the Minister awarded the role of Tourism Destination Marketing to Wesgro, and the organisation took over the provincial marketing body Cape Town Routes Unlimited staff, many of whom have since left.  In the past eight months we have seen no effect of tourism marketing by Wesgro, and the organisation has not even managed to appoint a head of its Tourism department!

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