Tag Archives: Indaba

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 6 May

May 6, 2014

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

* The City of Cape Town has developed a new parking policy based on transport trends in Cape Town, including increasing numbers of delivery vehicles, and traffic congestion in peak times. The City plans to discourage parking of 2 hours and longer, by encouraging parking outside the city centre and then to use a different form of transport (the MyCiTi Bus no doubt) to reach the city centre. Demand-based pricing is to be introduced, the bays in higher demand areas having higher charges, and higher demand times of the day attracting higher charges. Smartcard payment is being considered yet again. The cost of the first phase of the parking policy is R15 million.

* SA Tourism is running a massive #MeetSouthAfrica blogger campaign at the moment, 14 local and international bloggers having arrived in Johannesburg last Friday, and heading in different directions in groups, to discover various parts of our country, until they meet up again in Durban at Indaba this coming weekend.

* The Palm Beach Daily News has chosen Glenelly Lady May 2009, a Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot blend, as one of its ten top picks for the coming American summer season. It is the only South African wine selected.

* SA Tourism has appointed Risuna Mayimele as its Global Manager Communications. She previously Continue reading →

World Travel Market Africa 2014: Day 1 huge vote of confidence in Cape Town’s tourism industry!

May 3, 2014

I returned to my guest house all charged up after a full day spent at the Cape Town International Convention Centre yesterday, to attend World Travel Market (WTM) Africa, the first time ever that a travel and tourism exhibition of such a stature has been held in Cape Town.

World Travel Market has been held in London for years, and is the second largest travel and tourism exhibition in the world, after ITB in Berlin, and larger than Indaba, which is held in Durban. At the press conference yesterday afternoon it was said that Reed Exhibitions must have had tremendous confidence in Africa generally and in Cape Town specifically, to have brought the exhibition to our city, partnering with Thebe in hosting it. One was surprised at the many stands that had been sold, not only to Cape Town and Western Cape tourism players, but also to national brands (including Durban Tourism, which was interesting, especially as it was not manned on Saturday!) as well as a host of international brands such as Lufthansa, Singapore, Berlin Tourismus & Kongress GmbH, Dubai, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, Turkey, Reunion Island, Seychelles, Zambia Tourism Board, Namibia Tourism Board and Airports Company, Mozambique, and many more brands, there being about 150 stands in total. Even the Whale Crier from Hermanus paid a visit!

The communication with WTM Africa had been efficient, attendees being invited to register in advance, so that one could attend for free, which must have led to the good attendance yesterday. While the service at the registration desk could have been friendlier, it was efficient in general. Other than visiting many of the exhibitors, and bumping into numerous tourism players on the floor, an important benefit was the interesting programme of talks over the two days of the exhibition. By the time I could get to the exhibition, at about 11h15, the talk on Mobile Apps was fully ‘occupied‘ with 100 attendees, as one of the WTM Africa staff said, which meant that we were not let inside initially, for ‘health and safety reasons‘! After calling for a senior Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 26 – 28 April

April 28, 2014

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

* On Freedom Day President Jacob Zuma bestowed a number of awards upon South Africans as well as some international recipients, for their contribution to our country. Sadly many of the awards were made posthumously. The recipients included Caster Semenya (Bronze Order of Ikhamanga), Cameron van der Burgh (Silver Order of Ikhamanga), Fanie van der Merwe (Silver Order of Ikhamanga), Zakes Mda (Silver Order of Ikhamanga), Sandra Prinsloo (Silver Order of Ikhamanga), Raymond Ackerman (Silver Order of the Baobab), Chris Ball (Silver Order of the Baobab), Alex Boraine (Silver Order of the Baobab), Frederick van Zyl Slabbert (Silver, Order of the Baobab, posthumous), Lord Richard Attenborough (Silver Order of the Companions of OR Tambo), Danny Glover (Silver Order of the Companions of OR Tambo), and Quincy Jones (Silver Order of the Companions of OR Tambo).

* American tour operators are seeing a shift of bookings to South Africa, due to the weak Rand, comparing the cost of a top end ‘five star’ meal in our country to the price one would pay for a meal at McDonalds in the USA, and praising the price of the good value ‘world class wines’ locally compared to those from Napa.

* Express in the UK praises Cape Town’s scenery, its beaches, as well as ‘sensational wines and innovative chefs’, with the headline ‘Dining on Cape Continue reading →

Culinary trends: 20 years past, looking into the future!

April 28, 2014

Looking at the past 20 year’s of our country’s democracy yesterday, I chose an article written about a recent ‘Culinary Conclave’ (or Indaba or Kosberaad, as we would call it) held by one of the world’s greatest chefs, Ferran Adrià of the former El Bulli, for inspiration for today’s blogpost.

Adrià and fellow chef Andoni Luis Aduriz invited 15 ‘gastronomic journalists‘ from around the world (none from our country) for a two day discussion about the past 20 years of gastronomy. Each attendee was requested to present the gastronomic trends over the past two decades in their country, the impact of gastronomy on society and culture, how the media has changed and influenced gastronomy, and how the definitions of ‘great cuisine‘ and ‘dining experience‘ have changed.