Earlier this evening German TV channel 3sat broadcast a flattering 45-minute documentary on Cape Town, entitled ‘Reisen in Ferne Welten: Kapstadt’ (Travel in far worlds: Cape Town). Cape Town is Continue reading →
Tag Archives: Malaysia
’25 reasons to visit South Africa right now’, urges Telegraph Travel!
SA Tourism must be delighted that Telegraph Travel is doing its marketing at no charge! What better publicity than to get an article with ’25 reasons to visit South Africa right now’ written for free!
Obviously the benefit of the weak Rand relative to the pound sterling Continue reading →
Ramadan attracts Muslim tourists to Cape Town!
Cape Town is gearing for an influx of Muslim tourists from the Middle East, who are spending Ramadan in a cooler climate with shorter days, making the day-time fasting more palatable, according to Cape Town Tourism. Muslim tourists spend $126 billion globally per annum.
Ramadan starts on Saturday 28 June and continues until 27 July. In this period Muslims are not allowed to eat nor drink any liquid during the daytime, they pray more, read the Qu’ran, and attend special services in mosques.
Cape Town has the largest Muslim community in South Africa, and our country is regarded as the second most Muslim-friendly globally, a survey has found. Muslim tourists require Halaal food, reasonable accommodation prices, and Muslim-friendly experiences in the cities they visit. This tourism segment is lucrative, in its fast growing population, and its tourism numbers are expected to exceed those of some of Cape Town’s source markets by 2020.
Cape Town has a strong Muslim history, its local Cape Malays coming from Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India, their forbears having been brought to Cape Town as slaves by the Dutch East India Company. The Muslim community is particularly visible in the colourful houses in Bo-Kaap, in which about 6000 Muslims live, an area dating back to the 16th century. Athlone and Continue reading →
World Travel Market Africa 2014: Day 1 huge vote of confidence in Cape Town’s tourism industry!
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 →