Tag Archives: Lufthansa

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 15 August

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*  The Eat Out Gala Dinner, at which the country’s Top 10 Restaurants will be announced, will be held at Thunder City on 16 November.  Mercedes-Benz is the new title sponsor of the Awards.

*   The charity ‘Chefs who Share’ dinner, to be held in the City Hall on 11 September, will have seven pairs of top local chefs cooking for guests, each team paired with a local sommelier as well as an international Michelin star chef.  The international chefs are Gerd Kastenmeier from Kastenmeier Dresden, Alfred Miller from Wirtshaus Schöneck Innsbruck, Andreas Meyer from Schloss Prielau, Christoph Geschwendtner from Schlosshotel Fiss, Anton Schmaus from Restaurant Storstad, Bernard Reiser from Restaurant Würzburg, and Christian Grainer from Christian’s Restaurant.  (received via media release from Amplicon PR)

*   Table Bay Boulevard is to be named after former President FW de Klerk, it has been recommended by the City of Cape Town’s Naming Committee, subject to a public participation process.  The recommendation has been supported by Premier Helen Zille and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

*   Huffington Post’s Travel Blog interviewed Chef Luke Dale-Roberts of Eat Out top restaurant Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 22 July

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Norwegian Air is planning to introduce low-cost flights between Gatwick and Cape Town.   The airline has recently introduced low-cost flights Los Angeles, New York, and Fort Lauderdale from Gatwick.

*   Edelweiss and Lufthansa airlines have announced that they will increase capacity to their flights to Cape Town.   From October Lufthansa will be putting larger A340-600 aircraft on the route, adding 30% more capacity.  Similarly Edelweiss will add 30% more capacity between Cape Town and Zürich from December to March, by flying three times a week.

*   Restaurant Mosaic at The Orient has received an Award of Excellence in the Wine Spectator Restaurant Wine List Awards, one of only three recipients of the Award in Africa. The minimum requirement is to stock 400 wines – Restaurant Mosaic stocks 40000 ‘fine and rare wines‘. (received via e-mail from Restaurant Mosaic at The Orient).  Rust en Vrede and five hundred are the other two recipients of the Award, Chantel Dartnall has informed.

*   Two Oceans wines have new redesigned labels for its Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, and  Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot blend, to Continue reading →

New Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom ignores Immigration Regulation impact on Tourism!

Derek HanekomIt is disappointing that new Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom did not address this country’s most burning tourism issue, namely the changed Immigration Regulations, in his first official communication to the industry in the latest SA Tourism newsletter.  Instead he deals with transformation of the industry.

The Minister’s maiden speech shared his goals to ‘grow tourism at local government level, and to identify growth opportunities‘.  Transformation will be addressed at grass roots level, and will focus on rural tourist attractions receiving more support, getting local communities more involved in tourism initiatives, and enhancing financial resources of local communities.

The Minister is active on Social Media, which was not visible from his predecessor Marthinus van Schalkwyk. Minister Hanekom Tweeted ‘Must say, this beautiful South Africa of ours is a great product to sell. Let’s do it together!’!  Van Schalkwyk promised a smooth transition to the new Minister.  The Department of Tourism Director General Ambassador Kingsley Makhubela said ‘We look forward to taking tourism to new levels under Minister Hanekom’s guidance’. Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 24/25 May

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Andrew Bird, Marks & Spencer Head of Trading, which includes wines, non-food, and ambient grocery, is moving to Woolworths for a two year contract as Trading Head next month.  He helped drive Marks & Spencer to be named best retailer at the International Wine Challenge in four out of the past six years.  Bird is said to become head of the ‘wine and soft drinks teams‘ at Woolworths locally.

*   The Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) was part of a consortium that completed Terminal 3 at São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport, on time and on budget, for the 2014 soccer World Cup, reports The New Age. The project is described as one of the World Cup successes, the new terminal processing all international flights to the city. The capacity to handle an additional 12 million passengers to the 30 million handled annually has been created.   ACSA is also part of a consortium that Continue reading →