Tag Archives: OBiKWA

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 31 July

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   After a meeting yesterday about the controversial new Immigration Regulations, between Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom and Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba, they have announced that some of the onerous requirements will be made less stringent for tourism purposes, in preventing them from becoming an ‘administrative nightmare, causing foreigners to go elsewhere’!   The Department of Home Affairs has agreed to allow any equivalent document to an unabridged birth certificate for children from the country of origin.  More centres to issue biometric visas to South Africa will be opened in India and China, where there are only two per country.   One wonders why the Ministers took more than a month to meet, and allowed so much damage to be caused to our country’s Tourism industry!

*   Stellenbosch 360, the town’s tourism promotion agency, is determined to make every day a ‘Mandela Day‘, and assisted ‘boutique impact investment company‘ Heart Capital in its Foodpods Project in the Kayamandi township.  The project encourages locals to grow vegetables.  Stellenbosch 360 would like Stellenbosch residents to ‘live a life of 67 minutes as opposed to making it a yearly activity’. (received via media release from Random Hat Communications) Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 4 July

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   More than 7000 film permits were issued in 2013, demonstrating Cape Town’s popularity as a film destination. New City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee member for Tourism, Events, and Marketing Garreth Bloor says that the film industry contributes R 5 billion to our economy, and created 35000 jobs in the past three years.  The fourth season of the American TV series ‘Homeland‘ is being filmed in Cape Town at the moment, while Sean Penn’s ‘The Last Face’ will be filmed in the next few months, starring Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem.  In the past year 11500 locations and 12000 shooting sites were booked.  Some of the most popular locations for filming are the City’s Darling Street bank building, Artscape Theatre, and the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

*   Brent Perremore from Orphanage Cocktail Emporium has won the Diageo Reserve 2014 World Class National Final as best mixologist in South Africa, held at The Marly in Camps Bay yesterday. He will represent South Africa in the International Championships in Scotland.  Haroon Haffajee of Harry’s Bar in Durban came second and Marson Strydom of Buena Vista Social Café came third.

*   Fleur du Cap achieved good scores in the Tim Atkin 2014 South African Wine Report, released on Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 8 November

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*  Cape Town International is to introduce licence reading machines, to register one’s parking ticket number and where one has parked, to assist visitors with lost and unreadable parking tickets!

*   SAA’s profitability is being influenced by high airport taxes in African destinations it flies to.

*  London Gateway deep sea port has been completed and the first ship from South Africa has arrived with 1.7 million bottles of  wine on board.  The port is closer to London, which will reduce transport costs and will allow the products to get to customers more quickly.

*   The ‘Long Walk to Freedom‘ movie will be used by SAA and SA Tourism Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 18 September

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   A new airport is being built in Somerset East, and should be completed by mid-2014.

*   South Africa and China are the countries’ largest trading partners, South Africa importing goods to the value of  R120 billion, while China buys from our country to the value of R81 billion.

*   MasterChef Australia Judge Gary Mehigan will be in South Africa for the first time, at the Good Food & Wine Show in Johannesburg from Saturday until Heritage Day.

*   South African lady winemakers jointly produced 871 million litres of wine last year.

*   A new event will be hosted at Lourensford wine estate on 9 November.  Called Le Kap Lifestyle Fair, the event will offer gourmet foods paired with Continue reading →