Tag Archives: Latin America

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

WTM AfricaI 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, ZambiaWTM Africa Turkey Whale Cottage Portfolio Tourism Board, Namibia WTM Africa WhaleCrier Whale Cottage PortfolioTourism 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: 5 September

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*    Constantia Uitsig has been sold, we have been informed, and its Constantia Uitsig restaurant is closing down on 12 September. The hotel and spa are closing too, 180 staff losing their jobs.  La Colombe and River Café will continue to trade for now. (via e-mail)

*   The International Air Transport Association (IATA) July 2013 statistics show an average  growth of 5% in air passengers relative the July 2012.  Highest growth was in the Middle East (8%), and could have been even higher had Ramadan not fallen into this period.  Africa did second best, with 7,5% growth, followed by Latin America at 7%.  China and India are below average in their passenger growth.

*   Competitive pressure from the introduction of new low cost FlySafair is likely to reduce the cost of domestic flying.

*    A ‘Bandwidth Barn’  is to open in the Cape Town townships Nyanga and Continue reading →

BRICS to become ‘centre of the tourism universe’, says SA Tourism Minister van Schalkwyk!

The BRICS summit held in Durban last week allowed the five BRICS member countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa to focus on their relationship with Africa, and to enhance their co-operation on tourism issues in a responsible and sustainable manner, said Minister of Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk at a pre-BRICS Summit function hosted by SA Tourism.

Minister van Schalkwyk highlighted that the five BRICS countries jointly represent 40% of the world population, more than 25% of the world’s land mass, and share some of the world’s most treasured cultural and heritage sites.  He also shared that tourism from emerging economy destinations will grow at double the growth rate (4%) of that of advanced economy destinations over the next twenty years, and that in two years from now the tourism numbers from emerging economy destinations (including Africa, Asia, and Latin America) will exceed that from advanced economy destinations (our current source markets of Europe, the UK and USA) for the first time.   This will make the BRICS countries the ‘centre of the tourism universe’, the Minister said.

Tourism numbers from BRICS countries to South Africa have grown by 21% in the past three years, almost double the rate of growth of the rest of the world, and by an astounding 39% in the January – November 2012 period.  China is in fourth position as a tourism source market, following the UK, USA, and Germany, with 122000 visitors in the first eleven months of 2012, while India is the eighth largest source market at 98000 visitors, followed by Brazil in ninth position with 71000 visitors.  One hopes that the China and Brazil tourism numbers quoted by the Minister exclude transit passengers, which SA Tourism had been counting as tourism numbers, identified by tour operator Colin Bell.

SA Tourism has focused some of its marketing activity on Brazil, China, and India in particular over the past few years:

*   joint marketing agreements have been signed with Chinese tour operators, direct SAA flights between Beijing and Johannesburg were introduced, and the visa application process has been improved.

*  the love of cricket in India and South Africa has led to the use of ex-cricketer Jonty Rhodes to introduce South Africa to Indian tourists.  A month ago the Travel Agents Federation of India was hosted by SA Tourism in Durban.  SA Tourism Country Manager Hannelie Slabber is particularly successful in her job in this country.

*   the soccer World Cup 2010 kicked off the marketing of our country in Brazil.

*   marketing in Russia is now receiving attention, following a visit by our Deputy Tourism Minister Tokozile Xasa.

‘Our intention is that this Summit takes our tourism efforts with the BRICS countries to the next level. It is an opportunity to find common ground, to find areas where all our tourism industries can gain and grow from working together. I am committed to using the next few days to take some important steps forward; to opening up our tourism industry to the BRICS countries and to finding out how best we can meet the needs of these important markets‘, concluded Minister van Schalkwyk.

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