Tag Archives: Singapore Airlines

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

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The Reserve Bank has increased the repo rate by 25 basis points, giving a new interest rate of 5,75%. Governor Gill Marcus blamed inflation for the rate increase.

*   Brazil welcomed more than 1 million visitors during the Soccer World Cup, almost double the estimated 600000 travelers.  Most tourists had never been to Brazil before, visiting from more than 200 countries.  The infrastructure and tourism services generally, and the hospitality and cuisine specifically, were praised by the visitors.  The soccer matches were seen by 3,4 million soccer fans in the stadia over the month-long event.  Visitors stayed in Brazil for 13 days on average.   Brazilians were good soccer fans too, more than 3 million travelling around their own country during the soccer tournament.

*   Melanie Verwoerd has compiled a book ‘Our Madiba: Stories and Reflections from those who met Nelson Mandela‘, containing short stories of numerous persons that met the late Nelson Mandela, including Pieter-Dirk Uys/Evita Bezuidenhout, Adam Small, Francois Pienaar, Amanda Strydom, Sir Richard Attenborough, and many by Mrs Verwoerd herself.

*   The Drinks Business and Intangible Business in the UK evaluated the world’s ‘most powerful Champagne and Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 10 January

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   South Africa has three entries on The Daily Beast‘s 12 best travel places to visit in 2014: the Bascule Bar at the Cape Grace hotel; the Kwandwe Private Game Reserve; and wine tasting at Groot Constantia.  The American website has 15 million unique visitors per month!

*   Another hotel is to be built in the V&A Waterfront, described by the retail development as a ‘mid-market, internationally branded hotel‘, according to the SA Tourism website, which erroneously wrote in his headline: ‘New hotel slated (sic) for V&A‘! The V&A claims to receive 24 million visitors per year (without explaining how this number is measured), and to have contributed R200 billion to the country’s GDP in the past ten years!  The retail and entertainment area already has six 5 star, two 4 star, and two 3 star hotels.

*   Solar storms are expected, and could influence GPS settings, power grids, and airline and military communications.

*   Qantas is the safest airline in the world, out of 448 monitored.  The other safest airlines are Air New Zealand, All Nippon Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 19 December

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The City of Cape Town and the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association have failed to reach agreement on the Tweede Nuwejaar parade,according to a report in the Cape Argus,  the City having appointed an event organiser for the event.  The minstrel association is planning to take the City to court!

*   Team GoodBetterBraai, consisting of Braai Master Jacques Bester and Braai Buddy Nadia Botha, has won Ultimate Braai Master Season 2, beating 14 other teams. (received via media release from the Cooked in Africa production company)

*   The Baltimore Sun recommends Fairview’s Goats do Roam 2012 red blend as a wine to honour the legacy of the late Nelson Mandela, costing $9.

*   British holiday-makers are not choosing international destinations for the festive season this year – they are staying closer to home, travelling mainly within Europe, and using lower cost airlines.

*   Ryanair was named as the UK’s worst short-haul airline, while Guernsey’s Aurigny Airline was voted best.   The best long- Continue reading →

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