T
oday Comair was granted permission in the Johannesburg High Court that its airline company be placed under provisional liquidation, ending the flights of its kulula.com and local British Airways flights.
Comair did not have access to capital to fund its operation, being commercially insolvent. On 31 May the aircraft of the two airlines were grounded with immediate effect.
The two airline brands represented 40 % of the domestic airline market. Continue reading →
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 →
The tourism industry is growing faster globally than the world’s Gross Domestic Product, a study commissioned by Amadeus and published by Oxford Economics has found, reports eTurboNews.
Its report ‘Shaping the Future of Travel: Macro Trends Driving Industry Growth Until 2023‘ has predicted an annual global growth of 5,4% compared to GDP growth of 3,4%.
The Report also highlights global Tourism trends:
1. China will overtake the USA in becoming the largest economic force, and Asia generally being a growing market, with emphasis on India and Indonesia, and to a lesser degree Russia. Travel by Asians is set to double in the next ten years, at double the rate of European travel, and overtaking the number of European travellers by 2013, at over 2 million.
2. The level of short haul business flights in Europe and the USA achieved in its hey day in 2008 is only likely to be seen again by 2018. Asian business travel is predicted to grow by 55%.
3. Low cost airlines are predicted to grow their business for international travel. Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* For the first time ever Long Street (between Wale and Buitensingel Streets) will be closed to traffic from 20h00 on 31 December until 4h00 on 1 January, creating one of the biggest street parties Cape Town will have ever seen!
* Four low cost domestic airlines may take off in 2014, in competition to Mango and kulula, reducing the cost of domestic air tickets, it is speculated. Skywise, 1Time, FlySafair, and Fastjet are likely to begin operating next year.
* Tonight the City of Cape Town is hosting what has been billed as ‘Africa’s largest free’ New Years Eve party on the Grand Parade, not only to celebrate the start of 2014, but also to inaugurate Cape Town’s status as World Design Capital 2014.
* The Cape minstrel marches should be given ‘national heritage status’, reports the Cape Argus, to prevent the annual wrangle between the minstrel associations and the City of Cape Town, which has to offer permits, financial, and traffic service support. Tonight the Malay Choir Nagtroupe will march at midnight, while the daytime march in the streets of Cape Town will take place on Friday 4 January, two days later than the usual date.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage