At the beginning of June I announced the launch of my new Tourist Guiding Service, called My Cape Town Guide/Mein Kapstadt Guide. Last week I was allowed to collect my Tourist Guide Registration Card from the Western Cape Department of Economic Affairs and Tourism, a process that took two months, making me a duly registered Tourist Guide for the next three years. Continue reading →
The South African Tourism industry is preparing itself for the reopening of our country’s provincial as well as international borders, although the prognosis of when this might be is not certain or confirmed. BusinessTech yesterday quoted South African Tourism CEO Sisa Ntshona as predicting that Level 1, which returns the country to its normal operation, is only likely in the first Quarter of 2021, although nothing is certain yet, he added.
The prognosis that 90000 Tourism employees will lose their jobs in Cape Town alone, according to a survey by Cape Town Tourism, reflects the heavy burden being placed on employers in the Tourism sector, which includes Restaurants too. The job loss figure implies that almost all but about 10000 employees will lose their job in the Tourist sector. Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* South Africa only has one visa official in India, in Mumbai, to process visa applications for travel to South Africa. The backlog is as large as 850 applications, taking about a month for a visa to be processed. The travel and tour operator industry is saying that the situations is causing a very damaging image for South Africa, and that business could be lost to other countries!
* Sean Penn was sighted in the pedestrian Dias Tavern in Cape Town yesterday. Making media mileage of the sighting was Cape Town Design NPC CEO Alayne Reesberg, managing World Design Capital 2014. Reesberg is reported to have said that Penn is charming, having waved back at her when she waved at him, when lunching at the same restaurant! Last week Penn and Charlize Theron were seen at the Augrabies Falls. Penn is said to be in Cape Town to look for locations for a new movie.
* Bo-Kaap featured in the New York Times yesterday, with the headline ‘In Cape Town, Local Color comes in Bright Shades’, mentioning Luvey ‘n Rose, Atlas Trading Company, Bo-Kaap Food and Craft Market, and Agua Dreamz. Continue reading →
In the past two days Oscar Pistorius has featured in the 19h00 and 21h45 news broadcasts on ZDF TV, one of the largest German TV channels, the story no doubt reported by every other TV station in the country too. Yesterday Shrien Dewani arrived in Cape Town by special chartered jet, to appear in court briefly for the alleged murder in 2010 of his wife, which he is alleged to have masterminded and paid for. He has dodged being extradited to our country for more than three years, pleading that his alleged mental illness made him unfit to be extradited. The story is being extensively reported by the UK media. One must ask how damaging the coverage of both these alleged murders are for our tourism industry.
Of the two cases, the Oscar Pistorius one is the more serious one when it comes to its potential for its negative effect on the Tourism industry. Pistorius described in detail in court to what extent he and his family have been the subject of crime, and why he carried one or more firearms. Interesting was the report by Times Live yesterday, with research by Data Driven Insight (DDI) reflecting that the Pistorius case is dominating all news reporting locally, at 36%, followed by the Dewani case at 31%. Internationally, the coverage for the case between Monday and Tuesday was highest in South African tourism source countries, being the USA, the UK, Germany, Australia, and France, followed in sixth place by South Africa. DDI measures coverage by scanning 6,2 million ‘social media platforms‘, 60000 online newspapers, and 66 radio and TV channels globally. The Pistorius case will dominate the rest of the week, as Pistorius testifies with his advocate Barry Roux, and then is cross-examined by State Prosecutor Gerrie Nel. Continue reading →