Tag Archives: Helen Zille

Tourism is ‘bread and butter’ of Western Cape, says Minister Alan Winde!

The tourism industry in the Western Cape makes up 10 % of the R 450 billion Western Cape economy, says Western Cape Minister of Finance, Economic Development, and Tourism Alan Winde, and thus forms the ‘bread and butter’ of the province.  A large part of the industry consists of small businesses, that need to be ‘professionalised’ to run their businesses as businesses.  The Minister shared that a massive sporting event with tourism benefit is to take place in May next year.

A spontaneous request to have a coffee with Minister Winde, who is known to not stand on ceremony, is friendly and approachable, allows one to call him by his first name, is good on Twitter and offers his contact details if he can assist in a matter, led to an invitation from his office to meet with him in his provincial office in Wale Street.  From the guest list I had to sign, I saw that I was one of three industry operators meeting with the Minister on Monday afternoon, a reflection of his open door policy. The reception room is part office, but felt very homely, like someone’s lounge, and the staff is exceptionally friendly, head of the office Tammy Evans, spokesperson Phumzile Van Damme, and PA Lucille Fester coming to introduce themselves.

The Minister’s office is spacious, with a leather couch, upholstered chairs, and paintings of District Six. It feels friendly and welcoming.  Minister Winde explained his approach to his position is as he would run his business, being responsive, approachable, and accessible, not like politicians that are corrupt, hide in their ivory towers, and don’t care about their electorate, he said.

We talked a lot about Wesgro, and it was a relief to hear that a head of tourism will be appointed, and key tourism positions will be filled due to contract positions not having been renewed when Cape Town Routes Unlimited was closed down and merged into Wesgro on 1 April. The Minister is proud of his plan to place the tourism promotion agency inside Wesgro, as he believes that ‘tourism is business’, and used agriculture as an example of also being included in Wesgro’s trade and investment activities.

We discussed seasonality, not only in tourism, but also in business generally in the Western Cape, and how tourism has a ripple effect on all businesses, every Western Cape business being in the tourism business, even though they may not offer accommodation nor are they restaurants.  Excellent news is that Premier Helen Zille signed off support for a massive 12 km marathon to be held in the province, attracting 50000 runners next May, and to be organised by Elana Meyer.  We shared with the Minister that the Camps Bay Business Forum is looking to attract businesses to the prime beachfront suburb in the winter months, and is planning to host two special events, in May and in September next year.

An interesting concept is that ‘Cape Town is a second city to Johannesburg’, the Minister said, as Melbourne is to Sydney, and Rio de Janeiro is to Sao Paulo in Brazil.  It will always be a beach and holiday city predominantly, yet needs businesses to support and grow the local economy. He mentioned the shocking statistic that only 3% of Cape Town’s income is business related, the rest coming from tourism. ‘Cape Town is a great place in which to do business’, he said, and he is encouraging the growth in conventions, attended by businesspersons. He is proud of the growing multinational call centre industry in Cape Town (e.g. Lufthansa), and it is the home of the oil and gas industry. He mentioned with pride that DHL has set up its Africa head office in Cape Town, while Steinhoff International has opened offices in Stellenbosch. If we had more business in the Western Cape, more businesspersons would fly first and business class, and therefore the Cape Town – London route would be more profitable for SAA, and its axing in two weeks time could have been prevented.  The Minister has challenged Wesgro CEO Nils Flaatten to come up with a plan to fill the Lufthansa flights between Cape Town and Munich (the change takes place in October due to Lufthansa not being allowed to land late at night at Frankfurt airport due to noise restrictions), to ensure that flights are as full as possible, and that Lufthansa retains the Cape Town – Munich route for more than the year that it has committed to.  The Minister would even like to see international tourists use Munich as a hub instead of London, so that they can fly directly into Cape Town, so avoiding having to fly via Johannesburg, even if they are coming from the USA, other European destinations, or Eastern Europe.

Africa is an important continent for business, as it has six of the top ten fastest growing world economies, and hence Wesgro is focusing its energy on the BRICS countries as well as Africa. He dislikes the use of the term ‘Gateway’ to describe Cape Town’s geographic role relative to other African countries, the Minister said, because of its link to ‘gate’, and would rather that the terms ‘platform‘ or ‘springboard’ be used in this context.

The local tourism industry is divided into two extremes, one part being large hotels and tour operators, with organised industry representation, and the other part consisting of many small ‘mom and pop’ tourism business owners, such as B&Bs and tour companies, and not represented at industry level.  The latter need to be ‘professionalised’, the Minister said.  They need skills training in how to run their businesses, how to do marketing, and how to reinvent their businesses. He mentioned a number of examples, such as the parking area blocking the restaurants from the kite-surfing beach in Saldanha Bay, and the Knysna forest having an old-world feel of 30 years ago with little tourist appeal, no operators having seen the business potential in the forest, such as offering yoga and retreats, picnics, unique weddings, and more. One of the Minister’s favourite examples is the West Coast Fossil Park outside Langebaan, which has world-class historical fossils of whales, walruses, sabre tooth tigers, and more, and is highly sophisticated scientifically, but is not from a visitor and tourism perspective. This is set to change, with the R30 million they have received from the Lotto, and the province is also contributing, to create a tourism route.

The Minister is very excited about the idea which he has for an Events app, which will request information of one’s favourite activities (e.g. winetasting), and will communicate with the user in providing information of all wine-related events to be held over the year, to allow the user to book for such events well in advance.  A ‘hackathon’ of tech geeks is to be briefed by the Minister in September, to develop the app within two to three hours.

We ended off our chat about the False Bay Coastal Route, and the allegation levied by the previous Tourism Minister Lynne Brown, of the ANC, of Minister Winde ‘stealing‘ her plans. The Minister has seen no need to respond, given that the plans belong to the Western Cape, and not to a political party. The plan is to develop ‘recreation space’ along the False Bay coastline, to encourage locals and tourists to spend time on the beach, coming for walks, buying something to eat or drink from an informal trader, playing soccer and volleyball, or camping along the beach at new campsites.  It will include the Zeekoevlei eco-park, and the upgrade of Monwabisi, including the provision of security, funded by the Ministry with assistance from the City of Cape Town and the National Tourism department as seed money, to act as a catalyst to attract developers to the area.

The Minister impresses with his hands-on approach to promoting tourism, and having run businesses in tourism town Knysna, he has practical experience of what small businesses need from his department.  The Western Cape is blessed with its dynamic Premier Helen Zille and its savvy Finance, Economic Development and Tourism Minister Alan Winde.

POSTSCRIPT 5/8: Minister Alan Winde announced on 2 August that in the last three years, the Western Cape has attracted 80 international investment projects, to the value of R30 billion, and creating close to 7000 jobs. The projects have come from the United Kingdom, the USA, France, Germany, and The Netherlands, and include companies such as Amazon, IBM, Harley Davidson, ColorMatrix, and Altech setting up in the Western Cape.

POSTSCRIPT 5/8: The ‘multimillion Rand‘ upgrade of Zeekoeivlei to provide braai areas, eco-friendly toilets, and a massive lawn similar to that at Kirstenbosch, has created 100 jobs, and is aimed at enhancing the area’s attractiveness as a tourist destination, reports the Cape Argus. The national Department of Tourism contributed R25 million, and the Western Cape government R1 million, for the upgrade.  The Rondevlei, which borders Zeekoeivlei, has hippos, the only reserve in Cape Town.  The park attracts 130000 visitors annually, and this number is set to increase.

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

Franschhoek Literary Festival: Acknowledges importance and power of Twitter!

It is ironic that one of the most popular sessions of the sixth Franschhoek Literary Festival, ‘Tweeting for Africa‘, should acknowledge the importance of Twitter and confirm that it will ‘never go away’, when the Literary Festival (with only 322 followers) itself used Twitter so poorly to share the knowledge that was being generated by all its speakers.  Few Tweets were sent, and barely any Tweets by others were ReTweeted.

The panel for the Twitter session was an interesting ‘bolshy’ (referring to another session earlier in the day) mix of Gus Silber, a free-lance writer with 12000 followers; Professor Jonathan Jansen, Rector of the University of the Free State, who Tweets with his 33000 students, and has 21000 followers; and 5FM presenter Gareth Cliff, with more than 275000 followers! The session was chaired by 702 presenter Jenny Crys-Williams, with almost 9000 followers.

The personalities of the three panelists came through in the hour of the panel session in how they use and deal with Twitter and Tweets.  Gareth Cliff only follows 68 Twitter accounts, showing that he outputs information, and may ReTweet it, but that he is not necessarily using Twitter as an information source himself. He said one should choose carefully whom one follows, for the credibility of the information provided. He follows some accounts for the fun they generate.  He questioned why one would follow companies, mentioning Pick ‘n Pay, just selling gherkins, and having no personality at all, he said! There are many clever, but also stupid people, on Twitter. He praised Western Cape Premier Helen Zille for being the ‘best political Tweeter in the world’, even if she sometimes makes mistakes. It is a very democratic medium, in that everyone can have a say. Cliff sounded flippant when he said that he ignores any negative Tweets about himself, and for fun he may even ReTweet them, demonstrating his irreverence. There are ‘nasty, vile, and violent’ things written on Twitter, reflecting humanity, and this is ‘the dark side of Twitter’. He says one cannot be liked by everybody. He says that there is a lot of ‘misinformation’ on Twitter, and as well as false content Tweeted. Social Media has made all of us broadcasters now, he said, and that means that we must take responsibility for what we say. He says that Twitter is a close second to radio as a storytelling medium. Every sidelined person can have a conversation on Twitter, given that there are more cellphones than people in the country, making Twitter accessible to all. He warned against Tweeting too much, not more than once in 15 minutes being his advice. One must be on the edge of the topic, and push its boundaries. Tweeting about poor service has put the power back into the hands of the consumer. If one cannot say something in 140 characters, it does not need to be said. He praised the ‘amazing creativity’ in Tweets. Twitter is a ‘raw medium’, and if one posts something that is untrue or incorrect, one will be found out. When asked if he is paid to Tweet to endorse brands, he said that an ad agency written Tweet would have no credibility, and that he would be unfollowed if he were to hard sell or deceive his followers.  Pictures are important, but he warned against Tweeting ‘personal stuff’.  ‘Twitter trolls should not be given time nor tolerated‘.  When one is wasting time (bank or shop queue, plane delayed) he Tweets, and he can Tweet and do other things at the same time.  It becomes integrated into one’s life.

Gus Silber came across as a gentle man, who does not wish to offend by unfollowing anyone (he admitted that he has never unfollowed anyone), resulting in him following more than 11000 accounts, and therefore spends about 4-5 hours per day on Twitter.  Mocked about this by Cliff, he said that he is waiting for one snippet of information to come through that could be the potential for a story. He said that Twitter allows one to ‘plug into other people’s lives’, and that it has become ‘voyeuristic’, and shows one’s character – its like ‘Tweeting naked’, he said. He said that he used to walk around with a moleskin notebook, for story ideas, but now he uses his phone to share his observations with the world, creating a ‘Thoughtstream’.  He said that journalists are exhilarated by but petrified of Twitter, and must now Tweet their scoops before they are printed, to claim ownership of breaking news. Twitter is like ‘24 hour talk radio’, there is always someone Tweeting, but also people awake and ‘listening‘.   Social good can come from Twitter, and that is why it is called Social Media, but fights are an exception, even if they are entertaining. The cellphone is a ‘24 hour Molotov cocktail’. ‘In our vuvuzela democracy, we have all become very human, and very powerful people buddies’. Having a locked Twitter account is a complete waste of time!

Professor Jansen said that Twitter is a medium which is often used irresponsibly, yet he defended the two ‘dimwits’, referring to the two models writing racist Tweets. He did acknowledge that the technology for instant communication has made our world ‘less violent’. He said that teenagers hate their parents being on Twitter, trying to be cool.  He laughed when he said that he has quite a number of followers, but then Oprah Winfrey has 1 million! He warned about the addictive side of Twitter, and how families can sit around a dinner table, no longer talking to each other, each one Tweeting.  It is rude to Tweet while one is talking to someone, he said.

There is no debate about whether Twitter should be embraced – it is a powerful medium, and it is here to stay, the panel concluded!

Allied to this session was the one entitled ‘On being Bolshy’, given that Tweeting takes some kind of ‘bolshiness’. Gareth Cliff, Noseweek editor Martin Welz, and ex-Frontline editor Denis Beckett were the panelists, very ably chaired by Marianne Thamm, even if she misused her position for her personal issues. Martin Welz has no friends on Facebook, while Gareth Cliff has 300000.  However, Noseweek has 30000 readers, and they are the source of information for articles, as well as people who have tried everything else and come to the magazine as a ‘last resort’.  Welz called for letters to the editor to contain real names.  He said we have a right to an opinion, and he respects Gareth Cliff for expressing it. He also said that journalism costs money, to research stories. He said to applause that Noseweek has never written about Julius Malema. Thamm said that she ‘hates bloggers’, and more specifically food bloggers, writing for free!  Ironically, Jenny Hobbs is the organiser of the Franschhoek Literary Festival, and her daughter Jane-Anne is an über food blogger!

In what should have fitted in with this theme as well was yesterday’s session ‘The Price of Fame’, in which the panelist writers Alexandra Fuller, Richard Mason, and Gareth Cliff all protested their fame.  Mason said that Cliff was far more famous, in having been an Idols judge!  One gathered that Cliff did not agree with this, but he was ragged regularly by Mason.  The chairman of the session, Ndumiso Ngcobo, had no control over the strong egos on the panel, who were asking the questions, rather than him! As a result, the conversation was all over the show, and Cliff said relatively little! Fuller had the oddest ‘marketing strategy’, trashing her public image (maybe to prove how ‘unfamous’ she is), telling the audience repeatedly how much she drinks, to the detriment of her duties as a mother towards her children. It was the weakest of the sessions that we attended.

The Franschhoek Literary Festival attracted a sold out Twitter session, and could do well to expand on Social Media, and offering many more sessions on the topic next year! It also needs to vastly improve its Social Media generally and Twitter presence specifically, both in marketing a Festival which saw fewer attendees this year (coinciding with Mother’s Day, Indaba), and to share the content.

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

Liam Tomlin Food at Leopard’s Leap puts the gourmet back into Franschhoek!

The opening function, one of two, at Leopard’s Leap last night, was a welcome indication of how the gourmet bar in Franschhoek is about to be raised, with the addition of the Liam Tomlin Food Culinary Studio.  Not one of the 300 guests could have left not being impressed with the architecture and decor of the building, dominated by its beautiful new chandelier, with the generosity of the hosts, and with the excellent food, served with Leopard’s Leap wines.

I have been to Leopards Leap a number of times since it opened in November, and noticed the new chandelier immediately on arrival, after entering the building on a green carpet, being offered a choice of six welcome cocktails.  Flowers in massive vases lining the entrance were by creative florists Okasie in Stellenbosch.  The chandelier was designed by interior decorator Christo Barnard, and he is very chuffed with how well it was executed by Pierre Cronje.  The tasting room staff collected vineyard leaves, which Christo had dye cut out of stainless steel, replicating different leaf shapes, and then spray painted them in yellow, green, and red leaf colours, making a magnificent statement over the tasting counter, and bringing the vineyards into the tasting room, the vine design looking absolutely realistic.

Guests of honour were ex-President FW de Klerk, who had addressed a lunch of 40 members of the Beijing University alumni club yesterday afternoon (a lunch that made CEO Hein Koegelenberg beam, in that he signed up R1,5 million in business during the lunch, he shared with us), and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, who looks younger and more stylish than ever before, all due to her stylist Janine Schouw, she said.  Premier Zille came to say hello, and remembered us meeting at Artscape about five years ago, which makes her such a remarkable person, and such a respected and well-loved politician.  It was touching to see the Premier connect with Mr de Klerk, holding hands. The mutual respect was clear to see.

Leopard’s Leap CEO Hein Koegelenberg made a short speech to welcome the guests to the new Leopard’s Leap Vineyards, housing Leopards Leap Wines and Liam Tomlin Food.  He recounted that he had created the Leopard’s Leap brand twelve years ago, and he acknowledged the work of label designer Anthony Lane in developing it into an international brand, now sold in 41 countries. It had not had a consumer interface in the past, and the neighbouring farm to La Motte was ideal for a tasting room, not only due to its location on the R45 and its proximity to La Motte, but also because the grapes on it had been planted by Hein’s father, and he still looks after the garden team on the estate.  Hein said that Leopard’s Leap is the most diverse wine company in the world, focusing on diversity in sourcing grapes and producing the wines in different regions.

It was the ancient marriage between wine and food that led Hein to seek the ‘perfect pairing of wine and cuisine’ with chef Liam Tomlin, who moved from Sydney to Cape Town some years ago, consulting to La Motte when its restaurant opened, and opening his own Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School in Cape Town. Now Liam Tomlin Food offers cooking demonstration classes, upping the standard of Franschhoek’s gourmet cuisine offering.  The venue was designed to blend Franschhoek’s ‘proud heritage of wine and cuisine’ with modernity and innovation, to create a world class experience for its visitors.  The building was designed by architects Mokena Design Lab, Christo Barnard did the interior design (having done that of Pierneef à La Motte too), with furnishing by Pierre Cronje.  The building houses offices for Leopard’s Leap Wines and Liam Tomlin Food, a state-of-the-art cooking school and demonstration area, a shop selling cooking equipment, ingredients, and utensils, a garden in which to enjoy picnics in future, and a reading lounge.  Reflected in the building too is the passion the family has for the conservation of the Cape mountain leopard, which is reflected in the magnificent 9 meter high steel sculpture by Marco Cianfanelli, outside the building.  Hein believes that the ‘statue will become a landmark in the Franschhoek Wine Valley’.

Chef Liam’s speech was short and sweet, and he won brownie points when he said that it was much better moving from Australia to South Africa, and not vice versa. He also said that South African wines are better than Australian ones.  He told us that initially he would concentrate on establishing the cooking courses, whereafter the Food Shop will be created, eagerly awaited by locals.  An organic vegetable garden has been planted, for use in his kitchen.

Different food stations were created throughout the kitchen to feed the 300 guests, a mix of food and wine writers, wine farm neighbours, and local winemakers, with trays of material serviettes and cutlery at each, and each dish labelled.  Chicken roasted in the brand new rotisserie was served with a sticky soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and ginger, and a cucumber salad, its Thai basil giving it a sharp edge.   There was sea bass served with delicate noodles. The pork belly served on a pancake with Hoisin sauce and spring onion probably was the most popular dish. A most interesting duck sausage was another hit, containing raisins, pistachio nuts, confit leg, and duck liver, served with a potato salad and duck jus. Chef Liam told us that they had ordered 150 ducks to make the duck sausage, and that their supplier had initially let them down badly, it costing them five days in time to get the sausage made as a result.  A sweetcorn and basil veloute was served in an espresso cup.  An interesting dish was a melted Raclette cheese served with steamed potato and bruschetta.  Desserts were a lemon posset, and a Bailey’s Irish cream parfait with cocoa crunch.  In tasting each of the delicacies, one could get a close look at the kitchen equipment, and Grande Provence owner Alex van Heeren spontaneously described the facilities as ‘world class’.

The clearing of plates and serving of drinks was organised by Aleit event company, and Aleit Swanepoel, the owner, and his team made each guest feel like a special VIP, bringing one drink after the other (a delicious berry Shiraz drink).

As if the hosts’ generosity had not been enough already, each guest received a magnificent presentation box with a thank you from Liam and Hein ‘for sharing this special celebration with us’, and containing a bottle of Leopard’s Leap Shiraz Mouvèdre Viognier 2008, as well as a pack of risotto rice, dried mushrooms, and a bottle of Black Truffle oil, with a recipe card for mushroom risotto.

La Motte and Leopard’s Leap are a new gourmet gateway to Franschhoek, and it would appear that further exciting developments are underway at both wine estates, from what was suggested to me last night.

Liam Tomlin Food, Leopard’s Leap Vineyards, R45, Franschhoek. Tel (021) 876-8822. www.liamtomlinfood.com www.leopards-leap.com Twitter: @LiamTomlinFood  @LeopardLeapWine

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

Cape Town Tourism: poor marketing comes from the top!

Yesterday we wrote about the poorly maintained website of Cape Town Tourism, and had naively hoped that our contribution would have helped its Communications Manager Skye Grove to fix all the embarrassing errors on the site. Sadly, nothing has been fixed at all.

Finding this state of affairs unacceptable, especially during this peak tourism period, I called City Councillor Grant Pascoe’s office (Tel 021 400-1346), and his secretary kindly gave me his cellphone number (082 748 3998) when I told her that the esteemed Councillor has not once returned my calls nor responded to my Tweets and e-mails addressed to him in the past few months.  The Councillor answered his cellphone immediately, and was in a noisy space sounding like a children’s playground, and said that he could not speak to me because he was in a meeting with a colleague, and was off anyway, and was only back in the office on Monday.  I asked him to confirm that he would indeed call back, given his poor record of non-response in the past year, which unleashed a torrent of abuse from him, saying that he didn’t know why he should call back because of what I have written about him on this blog, and demanded an apology first!  I said that I have only written about his rudeness in not responding to me. When I asked him to elaborate about what else I had written that had offended him, he told me to read my blog, indicating that he could not remember! Over and above highlighting the Councillor’s non-communication rudeness, we wrote about his Design Indaba PR gaffe!

Councillor Pascoe has been a DA Councillor for Westridge in Mitchell’s Plain for the past ten years, appears to have studied theology for a year, with Who’s Who falsely claiming that he has a degree in theology, has been chairperson of the Cape Town Metro region of the Democratic Alliance, and has been Mayoral Committee Member for Social Development & Special Projects since 2010, his profile on Linked In says, but his Twitter profile states that he serves on the Executive Mayoral Committee for Tourism, Events and Marketing.  Last year Mr Pascoe stood for Mayor of Cape Town.  The R40 million Cape Town Tourism budget buck stops with him! Interestingly, the Councillor has protected his Tweets, mainly focused on cricket, not understanding that they are readable via Hootsuite!  A Twitter exchange about my call to Mr Pascoe this morning has attracted the attention of DA Leader Helen Zille, and she has requested Western Cape provincial Minister of Tourism Alan Winde to get involved.

It gets even better: Ian Bartes has been the Chairman of Cape Town Tourism for the past four years, and is the Services Standards Manager of the Airports Company in Cape Town (Tel 021 935-3860). He is on leave, only returning to the office on 26 January!  Interesting is his role at ACSA, being quality standards, and one wonders if he reads what Cape Town Tourism puts on its website, as the content should not meet his approval.  Trying to obtain his cellphone number via Cape Town Tourism was a major mission, marked top secret!  Deputy Chairman Sabine Lehmann, CEO of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company (Tel 021 424-0015, cell 082 305 9019), was in a meeting, but her office sweetly passed on her cellphone number, also designated as top secret.  She took my call to her cellphone immediately, even though she was in the meeting, and has promised to call back.

Cape Town Tourism Acting CEO Enver Duminy (Tel 021 426-4260) was contactable, and said that he had been at work over the festive period, for which I congratulated him, but admitted to not having seen our blogpost about Cape Town Tourism’s out-of-date website yesterday.  He promised to get back to me once he had read it.

POSTSCRIPT 5/1:  I am impressed with Enver Duminy’s response time, as Acting CEO of Cape Town Tourism – his CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold could take a leaf from his book!  This was his reply: “I would like to thank you for bringing some of your website comments to my attention, and the team have been tasked to review your points and amend spelling errors and remove expired content where and when possible, and as appropriate. Thank you for highlighting  the “Beyond Cape Town” sections, which the team will look into, and with the support our LTO and RTO colleagues in the regions, provide us with updated content to populate as such”.

POSTCRIPT 5/1:  Sabine Lehmann has just called back, and refuses to comment as a Cape Town Tourism Board member, and neither as Deputy Chairman in the absence of her Chairman Ian Bartes.  She was not aware of all the website errors, and will take it to the next Board meeting, she said.

POSTSCRIPT 9/1: Not surprisingly Councillor Grant Pascoe did not return my call today, as he had promised last week!

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