Tag Archives: Rome

Condé Nast Traveler: Cape Town 4th best holiday destination in the world, seven top hotels in Africa!

Cape Town Stadium and Table MountainCondé Nast Traveler has announced its 27th Readers’ Choice Awards, reflecting the favourite travel destinations of its 76600 readers.

Cape Town was ranked 4th favourite travel destination in the world, following Florence in top spot, Charleston in South Carolina in second place, and Budapest in third position.  Cape Town beat San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, Prague, Rome, Siem Reap in Cambodia, Barcelona, and Sante Fe in New Mexico.

The accolade for Cape Town is as follows: ‘Cape Town is the best city in the world for blending urban culture with the great outdoors: They’re literally a five-minute drive from each other. There’s an exploding food Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 2/3 October

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The Nobel Peace Summit, which was due to be held in Cape Town on 13 – 15 October, has been called off and moved to Rome, a major shame for our city, given the valuable international media coverage it would have generated for our city. Now it is associated with negative headlines.  Nobel laureates were due to meet in the city, but started cancelling their attendance when the Dalai Lama was refused a visa by our Department of Home Affairs!  Past President FW de Klerk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Mayor Patricia de Lille have slammed the government’s decision.

*  Noble is the donation of the R250 million penalty plus interest which Mark Shuttleworth has been refunded by the Reserve Bank, after winning a court case about an exit levy Shuttleworth had to pay when he moved his monies abroad after selling his verification company Thawte. The Court found the levy to be unconstitutional. The monies will be put into a trust to pay for South Africans who face the government in Constitutional Court cases, and are unable to afford to do so! 

*   British Airways is adding a third daily flight between London and Cape Town from 2 – 10 January (received via e-mail from Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 11 August

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Etihad Airways has bought a 49% share in Alitalia.  The investment will benefit Alitalia as follows: ‘The recapitalized Italian national airline will now be able to invest in a comprehensive strategic business plan which will see new long-haul routes from Rome and Milan, a revitalized brand, and a greater focus on Italian tourism and trade promotion’.

*   The award-winning winemaking team of Andrea and Chris Mullineux, of 2014 Platter’s Winery of the Year Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines, now has access to the Roundstone wine farm inRiebeek-Kasteel, on which they will plant new vines (with viticulturist Rosa Kruger) as well as Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 29 January

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The first ever African marketing office of SA Tourism was opened yesterday in Lagos in Nigeria, by our Minister of Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk.  Not only will this be good for tourism for our country, but it also aims to create greater awareness and to attract more tourists to Africa globally.

*   The Reserve Bank has increased the interest rate by 50 basis points, the first increase in five years, to curb inflation caused by the weak Rand.

*   SAA made a loss of R991 million in the 2012/2013 financial year, an improvement on its previous loss of R1,25 billion in the previous financial year.  It blames the loss on the ‘weakened rand‘, as 60% of its costs are dollar based.  It announced today that had the Rand not weakened, SAA would have made a profit!  Cost-cutting efforts have been cutting the Kigali (to Rwanda) and Buenos Aires routes.  All long-distance routes are loss-making, admitted CEO Monwabisi Kalawe, but have to be retained for strategic reasons, such as Beijing.

*   The USA has close to 8000 wineries, of which just less than half are in California, by far the  dominant wine production state.   South Africa has about one tenth of this number!

*   The 9000 participants in the Travel Weekly’s Readers’ Choice Awards voted South Africa as the best Continue reading →