Tag Archives: Virgin Atlantic

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 6/7 September

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Cape Town Tourism CEO Enver Duminy’s response to the axing of Virgin Atlantic’s London – Cape Town flights is embarrassing and appears unprepared, with poor wording, likely to have been a telephonic interview: ‘The slight (sic) cuts will definitely impact on tourism to the destination, especially if you look at Summer where the demand for Cape Town is quite great (sic), especially from the UK market’ !

*   ‘Chefs who Share’ is adding two further Auction lots for its charity Gala Dinner on Thursday 11 September, the culinary highlight of the year in Cape Town.  The proceeds go to the MAD (Make a Difference) Charity and Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. The additional Auction lots are attendance at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at pit lane level, and VIP tickets to attend the Laureus World Sports Awards in Shanghai. (received via media release from Amplicon PR)

*   Col’Cacchio is again giving back to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital this year, in donating R 5 of sales per pizza in its Continue reading →

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

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The announcement by Virgin Atlantic that it will drop Cape Town from its London route from 26 April 2015, at the start of the local winter, comes as a shock to the Tourism industry.  The new Immigration Regulations are said to be to blame in part, but the London-Johannesburg route has not been axed, therefore not making this reason credible.  It would appear that it is an unprofitable route in winter, due to Cape Town’s terrible Seasonality problem in winter, but word received says that this is a permanent route axing!  Tokyo, Vancouver, and Mumbai will also be chopped!

*   Better news is that Qatar Airways is changing its three times a week via Johannesburg flights between Doha and Cape Town to five direct flights between the two cities from 3 November onwards.  The change is justified on the basis of Cape Town’s popularity as a destination in Africa.

*   Minister Derek Hanekom addressed the e-Tourism Africa Summit 2014  in Cape Town today, highlighting how technology has changed tourism information provision and bookings.  In 2011 150000 tourists booked via SA Tourism’s online travel agency partners.  Two years later this doubled to 285000.  He encouraged tourist product owners to offer tourists free wifi, so that they can share their local tourist experiences via Social Media.

*   The Beautiful South, a showcase of 250 wines from South Africa, Chile, and Argentina, will be held for the Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 15 August

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*  The Eat Out Gala Dinner, at which the country’s Top 10 Restaurants will be announced, will be held at Thunder City on 16 November.  Mercedes-Benz is the new title sponsor of the Awards.

*   The charity ‘Chefs who Share’ dinner, to be held in the City Hall on 11 September, will have seven pairs of top local chefs cooking for guests, each team paired with a local sommelier as well as an international Michelin star chef.  The international chefs are Gerd Kastenmeier from Kastenmeier Dresden, Alfred Miller from Wirtshaus Schöneck Innsbruck, Andreas Meyer from Schloss Prielau, Christoph Geschwendtner from Schlosshotel Fiss, Anton Schmaus from Restaurant Storstad, Bernard Reiser from Restaurant Würzburg, and Christian Grainer from Christian’s Restaurant.  (received via media release from Amplicon PR)

*   Table Bay Boulevard is to be named after former President FW de Klerk, it has been recommended by the City of Cape Town’s Naming Committee, subject to a public participation process.  The recommendation has been supported by Premier Helen Zille and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

*   Huffington Post’s Travel Blog interviewed Chef Luke Dale-Roberts of Eat Out top restaurant 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 →