Tag Archives: Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 12 May

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Tourists do not want to ‘face administrative hurdles‘ in their visa application process when travelling in Africa, said Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairman of the African Union Commission, at Indaba at the weekend.  Making visa applications easier, liberalising air routes, and acting against animal poaching could increase tourism to Africa, she added.  Joint visas to travel within Africa are being considered.  The African Union is working on making Africa the preferred travel destination in fifty years from now!   Another goal is to motivate Africans to travel within Africa.

*   Indaba 2014, which closed its exhibition doors today,  attracted significantly fewer buyers than in previous years, and was criticised for having become ‘stale’, and for not having re-invented itself as was promised last year by SA Tourism’s Marketing head Jan Hutton.  While larger than the recent World Travel Market Africa exhibition held in Cape Town, it disappointed attendees, many especially smaller tourism players not planning to return next year.  The speed networking sessions were a shambles on Saturday and Sunday, with many buyers not present. Costs of catering were said to be prohibitive.

*   The Great Wine Capitals Best of Wine Tourism Awards is open to entries for the 2015 Best of Wine Tourism Awards, in the Continue reading →

SA Tourism media extravagance in New York criticised as inappropriate!

Le Bernardin private roomIt was interesting to read a critical article about the perceived extravagance and inappropriateness of a recent media lunch hosted by SA Tourism and Marthinus van Schalkwyk, our Minister of Tourism, in New York.

The article was posted on eTurboNews, but the writer is not identified.  Looking at the editorial panel of the online newsletter, one can assume it was written by Dr Elinor Garely, who is the only journalist for the newsletter based in New York.

Dr Garely writes that she had previously visited South Africa ‘many years’ ago, and Cape Town in particular, whilst she was working on her doctoral dissertation in international business.   Her overriding impression was the contradiction she saw then: ‘While the hotels were lovely, the restaurants for dining and tasting South African Continue reading →

Aviation is the ‘midwife’ for Tourism, says Tourism Minister Van Schalkwyk!

SAA Table MountainMarthinus van Schalkwyk, Minister of Tourism, is not known for flowery language, but is reported to have used some interesting expressions in his address to the General Assembly on Tourism and Aviation of the  Airline Association of Southern Africa earlier this week, reports eTurboNews.

Minister van Schalkwyk said that the aviation and tourism industries were dealing with the same customers, but called them different names. ‘What you call passengers, we call tourists, and that includes both business and leisure travelers. Aviation is the midwife for more than 50% of international tourist arrivals and 70% of all tourism receipts worldwide. But the inverse is of course also true: Tourism is also a “midwife” for air transport growth‘, he said.

Trends which affect the Tourism industry,  identified by the Minister, were the following:

*  Tourism has grown rapidly in the past 60 years. ‘Globally, we expect 350 million new international tourist arrivals by 2020 and, by 2030, we expect arrivals to top 1.8 billion. What makes our sector so unique is its multiplying effect in contributing to GDP (gross domestic product) and job creation’.  The G20 declaration adopted last year reflects the positive social and economic effect of tourism.

*   Economic and political power is moving to the South and to the East. ‘Over the next Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 12 September

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Traveling should be easier, and barriers to entry by tourists should be reduced.  E-passports have been proposed for 2020, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said when he addressed the e-Tourism Africa Summit in Cape Town earlier this week.  ‘We need to address the present outdated system of always having to go to Embassies, filling in forms and standing in queues. In a few years times this will be non-existent’, Van Schalkwyk said.  He also highlighted that industry taxes should be regulated, to make travel more viable and accessible.

*   Cape Town blogger Kamini Pather wins MasterChef SA Season 2, against tight competition from Leandri van der Wat !

*   Travel by young persons has decreased dramatically in the past six years, from 75% in 2007 to 47% currently, to focus on improving their CVs, a study by the World Youth Student and Educational Travel Confederation has found.

*   Col’Cacchio has introduced a Mobi-friendly Loyalty program, offering R20 Continue reading →