Tag Archives: PR Manager

Cape Town Tourism: Saving you time, saving you money, putting you first!

Thinking about the cyber-buzz about the non-renewal of our 20-year membership of Cape Town Tourism, which expired at the end of August 2011, we have come to an important decision for our Blog, and give credit to Nashua’s famous advertising payoff line from many years ago for its inspiration: “Saving you time, saving you money, putting you first”!

Given that Cape Town Tourism’s lawyers Webber Wentzel will have already run up a hefty bill in trying to silence us on our Blog, in writing two lawyer’s letters directed at ourselves, the letter written by the Chairman Ian Bartes, as well as a short reaction to it on the Cape Town Tourism website, easily already in the region of the cost of sponsoring an event like ‘100 Women 100 Wine’, we want to save Cape Town Tourism money.

We are seeing  a very nasty collection of Cape Town Tourism commenters slash, trash and bash either Cape Town Tourism and its staff, but more importantly, myself and my company too, without concern for laws of defamation, as well as disparagement and the truth, whenever we post a story about Cape Town Tourism. This collection of vitriolic commenters includes Mike, Jeremy Claasen, Jeremy du Plessis, Marco, Kurt, Rashiq, and Paul.

Cape Town tourism’s industry is in a crisis, and the R40 million annual allocation from the City of Cape Town does not go far when at least 50 % is estimated to go to salaries and other running costs, Australian Strategetic consultants, and the sponsorship of ‘frivolous’ events such as the 100 Wine ‘competition’.  This leaves less than R20 million, we estimate, for the marketing of Cape Town.

To remove the censorship role that Cape Town Tourism has taken upon itself on behalf of the tourism industry, to not influence my writing in having ‘Big Sista’ looking over my blogging shoulder, to not waste my time to reply to aggressive and abusive comments from the tiny collection of Cape Town Tourism supporters, and to protect commenters who want to make a genuine contribution from not being sued by Cape Town Tourism (and ourselves too!), we have reached the important decision to impose a ban on all comments for any blogpost we write about Cape Town Tourism from today onwards, and we will close the comment facility on past Cape Town Tourism blogposts too.  Genuine commenters are welcome to send an e-mail with their point of view, which we will feature as a Postscript to the relevant Blogpost, if it does not contain any defamatory or disparaging remarks, to whalecot@iafrica.com.

This means that Cape Town Tourism can save money on legal fees, and its staff can spend its valuable time on Tweeting more, organising lunches with fellow Tweeters, and perhaps throw some marketing into the day as well.  It means that I can get on with what I love most, which is writing blogposts.  Cape Town Tourism’s supporter band will now have to find their ‘Inspiration’ elsewhere in Cape Town, and will not be able to express it on our Blog any more!

We apologise to our regular readers for this self-imposed censorship of comments, but this ‘cyber-attack’ on Freedom of Speech by Cape Town Tourism, reflecting a paranoia that is most surprising for an organisation that has set itself up as being tech-savvy, and which has a Communications Manager who dishes out insults on Social Media platforms against Cape Town Tourism members, and even the funders of her employer (the City of Cape Town), is unprecedented in Social Media terms, to our knowledge. One is surprised that the Communications Manager still holds her position, for the damage she has already caused Cape Town Tourism through her unprofessional behaviour.

However, Cape Town Tourism will never stop us from Blogging, and writing on Facebook, Twitter, and in our WhaleTales newsletter what needs to be said about tourism, the marketing of Cape Town and the Western Cape, and about Cape Town Tourism.  Makes you think, doesn’t it!

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

Friendly 7 Eleven Sweet and Cape Town Tourism Sour Service Awards

 

The Sweet Service Award  goes to Friendly 7 Eleven at Regent Road, Sea Point, and was nominated by Rosemary Gough.  “On Monday morning I went to draw cash (R1500) at the ATM in the Friendly 7 Eleven.   I had 3 staff members urgently waiting for the cash, so I didn’t even check the amount which I received – being more worried about giving out to my workers.  On Thursday morning I went back into the shop to get a coffee and after I left one of the staff called me back to say the manager wanted to see me.   It turns out I had left R100 in the machine and one of the staff had noticed and handed it in to the manager. When the staff member saw me back in the shop he alerted the manager to who I was and they gave me back my money.  This is something I never thought possible in today’s world, that people could be that honest”. 

 

The Sour Service Award  goes to Cape Town Tourism and its CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, who has taken our criticism about her over-optimistic evaluation of the state of the tourism industry over the festive season, and her incorrect definition of the period when Cape Town will next experience a peak, demonstrating that she is out of touch with our industry, personally.  She made the errors when she commented to journalists about the festive season whilst on a two week holiday in Pringle Bay, in a period in which Cape Town was at its busiest, and during which Cape Town Tourism members suffered due to snow-stuck tourists staying away.   Cape Town Tourism did not comment on this devastating event and its effect on the hospitality industry to its members, not while it occurred nor subsequently, as if it never happened.  Mrs Helmbold has retaliated to our feedback by posting an attacking blogpost on the Cape Town Tourism blog; posting a detailed defensive comment on our blog, which we published; wrote a libelous and defamatory Tweet on Twitter; censored us by removing us from the Cape Town Tourism media list; and blocked us on Twitter.  In her newsletter sent to Cape Town Tourism members yesterday, Mrs Helmbold acknowledged her error in her definition of the next peak season, without an apology or acknowledgement to us.  Whale Cottage Camps Bay is a member of Cape Town Tourism, and Mrs Helmbold’s actions are personal retaliation and unprofessional, given her organisation’s duty to market Cape Town and to build relationships with the media and its members.   Her colleague Skye Grove, PR Manager of Cape Town Tourism, received a Sour Service Award in October, for similar unprofessional behaviour.

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

DEUKOM Sweet Service and Cape Town Tourism Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award goes to DEUKOM, for passing on the reduced cost of its contracts with German TV channels to its South African customers, resulting from the strong Rand, by reducing its subscription cost by 6,8 % from December onwards.

 

The Sour Service Award goes to Cape Town Tourism and its PR Manager Skye Grove.  Public Relations is the management of relationship building with a company’s publics, and in the case of the tourism body, these would be its members and the media.  Whale Cottage Camps Bay is a member of Cape Town Tourism and is on its media list for this blog.  The defamatory response by a non-paying guest on Twitter to our exposure about the attempt by him and his editor wife to defraud our Whale Cottage Hermanus of payment, was retweeted by Ms Grove, making her guilty of defamation too.  Not leaving matters at that, she wrote two Tweets, questioning why we had retweeted the link to an article in a national newspaper about the alleged fraud.  Worst of all, however, was a Tweet that she wrote to the guest, suggesting that our Tweets be reported for “abuse” and providing the Twitter link for it, in an attempt to damage our professional reputation.  Ms Grove did not offer this link to us, nor did she retweet our warning to hotels and guest houses about this couple, which would have been in the interest of Cape Town Tourism members.   No apology nor response has been received from Ms Grove when she was notified about the Sour Award, other than removing two of her three Tweets on the topic. 

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

maze in Cape Town never a-maze-ing, closes down

maze at the One&Only Cape Town closed down this morning, when the hotel cancelled its contract with Gordon Ramsay Holdings Ltd.  The restaurant re-opens this evening, as the unimaginatively named The Restaurant at One&Only Cape Town, with a brand new menu.  

Our review of a dinner at maze five days after the restaurant opened 15 months ago highlighted how unsatisfactory the experience had been, and what a let down it was.

The PR Manager of the One&Only Hotel, Etienne de Villiers, said that the new restaurant style will be “a contemporary South African take on classic dishes, including salads, gourmet pizzas, and a wide selection of fish, meat and vegetarian dishes, whilst focusing on the freshest seasonal produce”.   The menu is likely to be loaded onto the hotel’s website on Monday, de Villiers said.   The Resort Executive Chef is Jason Millar.  Phil Carmichael, the ex-chef of maze, left earlier this month.

The media statement by the One&Only Cape Town is short and sweet:

“We can confirm that Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited’s engagement as a consultant to One&Only Cape Town has terminated.  As a result, the restaurant at One&Only Cape Town no longer trades under the maze brand, but the restaurant will remain owned and operated by One&Only Cape Town and will continue to offer daily breakfast, lunch and dinner.   All employees who worked at maze Cape Town are employed by One&Only Cape Town and will not be affected by the transition.”

 

The story was broken by Spill blog this morning, and expanded upon by www.bloomberg.com.  We publish their story below:

“Maze Cape Town, the African outpost of chef Gordon Ramsay‘s dining empire, has closed after about 15 months in business at the One & Only Hotel.

“We can confirm that Gordon Ramsay Holdings Ltd.’s engagement as a consultant to One & Only Cape Town has terminated,” the hotel said today in a statement. “The restaurant at One & Only Cape Town no longer trades under the Maze brand.” It gave no reason for the decision.

The chef’s company, run by his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson, switched to operating restaurants around the world on a consultancy basis after losses almost pushed the company into bankruptcy in 2008 following rapid international expansion.

“GRH Ltd. is purely a consultant to Maze, One & Only, Cape Town,” Gordon Ramsay Holdings said today in an e-mailed statement. “We were aware that the hotel has been having some difficulties but they only informed us of their decision to close Maze this morning. We will be reviewing our contractual agreement with them.”

The woes of Ramsay’s restaurant business have attracted increasing attention as his TV career has soared. He has a new U.S. show, “Masterchef,” following the success of “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Kitchen Nightmares.” Ramsay has said he had to battle to save his dining business from bankruptcy in 2008.

‘Too Many Risks’

“We weren’t unlucky, we were clumsy,” Hutcheson told Bloomberg News in December 2009. “We’d put too many risks in front of us with too much confidence that nothing would fail.”

Jason Atherton, who created Maze, quit Gordon Ramsay Holdings in April. He was followed by his London successor, James Durrant, whose resignation was announced on July 1. A week later, Maze Cape Town’s Phil Carmichael said he was going too.

Maze Prague has already closed, which means the chain has shrunk to four outlets: London, New York, Doha and Melbourne.

“The Maze restaurants in the U.K. and around the world are performing extremely well, with the recent opening of Melbourne exceeding all expectations,” the company said today.

The hotel’s restaurant remains open — as yet without a new name — and employees won’t be affected by the fact it is no longer an outlet of Maze, the One & Only said.

The closure was earlier reported on the blog site Spill.

“Maze is perfectly suited for South Africa,” Ramsay, 43, said on his Web site after the opening on April 4, 2009. “I fully expect this will quickly become another of our successful and sought-after restaurants.” 

POSTSCRIPT 1/8: A call to the One&Only Cape Town Hotel Public Relations Manager Etienne de Villiers this morning denies spilling the beans to Spill blog about Reuben Riffel taking over the running of The Restaurant at One&Only Cape Town, and says that he has not spoken to Clare Mack since Friday.  He sounded angry to hear that he had been quoted today by the blog about the Riffel appointment, which has not been confirmed, as they are talking to a number of restaurant operators, de Villiers said.  The Reuben’s Franschhoek staff do not know about the appointment.  Riffel is not available for comment. 

POSTSCRIPT 2/8: The following e-mail was received from Reuben Riffel this morning, denying his involvement at the One&Only Hotel Cape Town:  “This is very flattering, but unfortunately there is no truth that a Reubens will be opening there anytime soon. As far as I know the One and Only is talking to several chefs around the Cape. Kind regards, Reuben”

POSTCRIPT 6/8 The following report comes from Sake24:

“Cape Town – Well-known South African chef Reuben Riffel says he’s not interested in taking the place of Gordon Ramsay, who was abruptly “fired”  last week by Kerzner International. 
Riffen has been rumoured to take over from Ramsay at the One&Only Hotel in Cape Town after the consultancy agreement with Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH) at the One&Only’s Maze restaurant was suddenly ended. The hotel is now running its own restaurant there.

 

Riffel said he was happy in Franschhoek at the moment and hoped people would stop speculating. He noted that the South African restaurant industry could learn from what had happened at the internationally GRH-branded Maze at the One&Only.

 

He now realised more than ever how important it was not to get too big and become unable to keep a finger on the pulse of one’s business.

Because of the economic climate, Riffel considered restaurants in South Africa currently in a highly vulnerable position.
 
It had been a difficult year for everyone in the restaurant industry, and it was now even more important to maintain a hands-on approach to a business.” 

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