Tag Archives: Mother City

Third Cricket Test keeps Cape Town on the ball!

The third Cricket Test between England and South Africa, starting today and running until 7 January, is a boost for tourism in Cape Town, with accommodation in the city being near to fully booked, 84 000 tickets having been sold to cricket fans, mainly from the UK.   More than half of the Whale Cottage Camps Bay guests have come to Cape Town to go to the cricket.

With guaranteed TV coverage on Sky-News, Sky Sport and other international channels, Cape Town’s excellent summer weather will be a good “advertisement” for the Mother City, to Britons who are experiencing one of their coldest winters in 25 years.

The following report comes from The Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk): 

“Curse of Cape Town

Newlands may be arguably the best-looking ground in world cricket, but it has been a graveyard for England, who have lost all three Tests there since South Africa’s readmission to world cricket in 1992. Over the same period, the hosts have won 14 out of 20 Tests, with three draws and three defeats (all against Australia).

Big draw

After the poor attendances in Durban a large and lively crowd is expected at Newlands, with 84,000 tickets having been sold in advance, many to England’s travelling support.

What they are saying …

Graeme Smith: “You can’t afford to take any for granted. Obviously in this series, with us being one down, this is a crucial match but we play and prepare for each Test match the same. We’re ready for tomorrow.

“We were outplayed in Durban, we are honest about that. We’ve had a look in the mirror, we’ve trained well, prepared well and it’s a ground we’ve got a lot of confidence on.

It’s difficult to put your finger on the little thing that is missing. As a team, the style of play hasn’t changed. Maybe players haven’t produced the level of performance that we have over those (previous) two years. It’s important that we get back to that, starting tomorrow.”

Andrew Strauss: “In Test matches you’ve always got to earn the right to get on top of the opposition and that’s what we did well in Durban.

“We forced them to stay in the field for over two days and maybe that’s affected their second innings batting. It’s important to start a Test match well so the opposition don’t get on top of you.

“Generally the players haven’t been involved in the previous defeats here. I’m the only player who was involved in the last Newlands Test. The guys have no fear of playing at Newlands.

“A Newlands Test match is one of the great occasions. It’s usually a result wicket so there are a lot of reasons to be switched on and ready.” “

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Cape Town Tourism’s tourism faux pas!

A most bizarre media report was posted by Eye Witness News, in stating that Lianne Burton, the Marketing Manager and media spokesperson of Cape Town Tourism, the city’s tourism body, is happy that Cape Town is seeing fewer tourists this summer season, and that they are going to other more affordable cities such as Durban.

Burton told Eye Witness News that Cape Town Tourism is “…pleased high-end tourists were choosing to spend their festive season holidays in the Mother City”.   Burton also said that “the city needs so-called ‘quality tourists’ who spend more cash.”   The report continues: “Burton said Cape Town Tourism was not distressed thousands of local travellers apparently chose to flock to seemingly more affordable areas in KwaZulu-Natal and other parts of the country, instead of travelling to the Cape.”   Burton is reported to have said: “We can’t pack people in by the thousands.  I think Cape Town and Durban are slightly different, we certainly aren’t aiming for quantity”.   

What is interesting is the public reprimand Cape Town Tourism Board member Nils Heckscher, GM of the Winchester Mansions Hotel in Sea Point, has given Burton, who said that every prospective tourist is essential.  He is reported to have said:”To turn around and say,’We don’t want this tourist or that tourist’ is an arrogance that we can ill-afford”.

Cape Town Tourism has been appointed by the City of Cape Town to market Cape Town.   Both Belinda van Niekerk, the acting-CEO of Cape Town Tourism, and Burton, were unavailable for comment this morning, as they have given themselves and most of the Cape Town Tourism staff the day off, according to the switchboard, on this the busiest tourism day of the whole year!

See the report at www.eyewitnessnews.co.za

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Tourism season not so festive for the Cape

“Cape Town tourism plummets” was the dramatic headline of EyeWitnessNews yesterday, reflecting the decline in tourism this season so far, particularly in the Western Cape interior.

The report quotes Cape Town Routes Unlimited, which it mistakenly refers to as “Cape Town’s official tourism marketing body”, as admitting that “the Mother City is experiencing a dismal year, with the number of visitors significantly lower than in previous years.”   According to the report, Cape Town Routes Unlimited CEO Calvyn Gilfellan has visited Western Cape tourism districts, and received feedback of varying tourism numbers, especially along the Garden Route.

The Whale Cottage Portfolio can also confirm this scenario, with November being a poor month in Franschhoek (32 % occupancy – normally this month is close to fully booked), in Hermanus (66 % occupancy – usually close to fully booked), and in Plettenberg Bay (28 %).   Only Whale Cottage Camps Bay in Cape Town held its own with an occupancy in November of 88%, yet down from 96 % last year.

The festive season period is almost fully booked at the Whale Cottages in Camps Bay and in Plettenberg Bay, the cricket match in Cape Town in early January being a big boost for Camps Bay bookings.   Hermanus is seeing the poorest bookings over the festive season, despite the area having a new Destination Marketing Organisation, but which is just not bringing in the bookings.

South African Tourism’s Global Manager: Product, Hanneli Slabber, states in her Christmas message that this “..has been one of the industry’s toughest years”.  She encourages emphasis on Service Excellence, in that it is the little touches that makes visitors return to a destination and a tourism product.  “What our visitors want in 2010 is something their money can’t buy.  It’s called Service Excellence – and it comes from being professional at what you do, competent in how you do it, and treating people with genuine warmth and respect when you do it” she writes.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Cape Town 2nd best city in the world!

Cape Town has been voted as the second favourite holiday city in the world by more than 19 000 UK Guardian and Observer readers.   The Mother City ranked 7th last year, and has made a fantastic leap to follow Sydney, as the favourite overseas city, into second place.  New York, San Francisco and Berlin followed as 3rd, 4th and 5th favourite overseas cities.

South Africa did less well on the vote for favourite long-haul overseas country, especially with the 2010 World Cup coming up, and was not included in the top 5 list of New Zealand, Cambodia, Chile, Vietnam and Japan.

Switzerland, Norway, Austria, Sweden and Italy were the top five European countries voted for by the British readers.

Swiss was voted the best short-haul airline, and Singapore Airlines the best long-haul and best business airline.   Silversea Cruises won the best cruise line vote.   Eurostar was voted the best train company.   Taj Hotels won the best international hotel vote – a Taj Hotel is due to open in Cape Town soon.

In the “Ethical travel award category”, Bulungula Lodge in the Eastern Cape won second place.   It is located on the Wild Coast, and was one of the first Fair Trade accredited lodges, and runs on solar power, reports sagoodnews.co.za.  www.kayak.com won the vote for the best travel website.

The full list of awards can be read here.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio www.whalecottage.com