Cape Town has long been the focus of the international film industry, given its majestic beauty, its lower costs due to the weak Rand, being on the same time zone as Europe, and its excellent weather. The Visa Regulations launched last June have put a damper on the Continue reading →
Tag Archives: location
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 13/14 September
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Cape Town Film Studios is likely to expand to meet demand for its facilities for the increasing use of Cape Town as a location for movies and TV commercials. It is working at full capacity, and has had to reject 32 productions in the past year due to capacity restraints. Two new studios are planned to be ready by next year, and to double its capacity by 2017. Not only the location beauty, but also the wardrobe and set building services offered in Cape Town are highly regarded. The Western Cape film industry was worth R 5 billion, and more than 7000 film permits were requested in the past year.
* Tough new packaging and marketing guidelines protecting children under 18 years are being considered by the Department of Health for marketing ‘unhealthy foodstuffs to children‘, including those which are high in sugar, fat, and salt, and ‘nutrient poor food and/or non-alcoholic beverage‘. Advertising, promotions, and TV sponsorships for unhealthy foodstuffs aimed at children will be prohibited, as will be the use of cartoon characters, celebrities, puppets, and computer animation in their marketing of foodstuffs to children.
* The 40th Nederburg Auction yesterday generated R7 million is sales. The Nederburg Auction website has not yet been updated to reflect this result. (seen via Twitter)
* Department of Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba announced on Friday (less than 3 weeks prior to implementation) that a task Continue reading →
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 27 September
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* It’s World Tourism Day, with a theme focused on water!
* Klein Constantia has received excellent in-depth coverage on Nederburg Auction 2013 American key-note speaker Joe Roberts’ 1 Wine Dude Blog.
* The American State Department has issued a world wide travel warning about potential terror attacks.
* The first ProWein China will be held in Shanghai on 13 November, and all its 500 stands have been sold.
* Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille is placing pressure on SAA to reinstate a direct route between Cape Town and the USA. and she is routing for Miami, just having returned from a trade visit to that city. Such a direct route would be beneficial for tourism.
* Noise is the most common complaint of hotel guests in 19 tourist destinations, but Cape Town hotels are an exception in not receiving complaints about noise. Modernity, location, and service speed are the most common compliments. Cape Town hotels also ranked top on GRI (Global Review Index), the average online reputation of hotels, followed by Melbourne, St Petersburg, Sydney, and Dublin.
* Hamilton Russell Pinot Noir and Chardonnay will be paired with a 5 course dinner at Nobu at the One&Only Cape Town on 2 October, at a cost of R595. (received via newsletter from One&Only Cape Town)
* Author E.L. James has launched a Fifty Shades of Grey wine Continue reading →
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