Tag Archives: Wines

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 17 June

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Women business travelers want to ‘feel safe, comfortable, empowered, and pampered’, says an American research report. About 50 % of business travelers are women, and they control up top 85% of business travel expenditure.

*   Actress Claire Danes is in Cape Town for the filming of the fourth season of the TV series ‘Homeland’. She and her husband have been spotted eating at Harbour House in Kalk Bay, dining at The Test Kitchen, shopping at the Biscuit Mill, and walking down Kloof Street, near Yours Truly.   Cape Town is doubling up for ‘both Istanbul and Turkey‘ (sic)!

 *   Chenin Blanc was praised by Greg Sherwood of Handford Wines in London, at a tasting of Chenin Blanc and Pinotage wines, organised by Wines of South Africa (WOSA). Sherwood led the Chenin Blanc tasting, and said about the varietal:  ‘Chenin is a massive and unique selling point for South Africa.  It has a variety of styles and gives you a Burgundy textural experience without having to pay Burgundian prices. The days of too much oak and batonnage are now in the past. These practices have Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 13 May

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   A new yacht race between Durban and the Seychelles has been organised, along the lines of the ‘Cape To Cairo’ (sic) race, The New Age obviously meaning the Cape to Rio yacht race!   The race will include Mozambique and Swaziland (land-locked), but how the latter country will be involved is uncertain.

*   ‘Restaurant Australia’ is a new marketing campaign for Australia, to promote eating at the country’s good restaurants and drinking its good wines whilst on holiday in the country, food for thought for a Western Cape campaign, which could equally have been shot locally.  Social Media is strongly incorporated in the campaign, with the hashtag #restaurantaustralia.

*   A new airline Fly Blue Crane is applying for an Air Services Licence, belonging to  a trio of owners previously working at SAA and SA Express, being Siza Mimela, Theuns Potgieter, and Jerome Simelane.  The airline plans to fly between Cape Town and Johannesburg.

*   TripAdvisor’s mobile app has been downloaded on Android and iOS 100 million times.  The free app is available in 21 Continue reading →

SA Tourism media extravagance in New York criticised as inappropriate!

Le Bernardin private roomIt was interesting to read a critical article about the perceived extravagance and inappropriateness of a recent media lunch hosted by SA Tourism and Marthinus van Schalkwyk, our Minister of Tourism, in New York.

The article was posted on eTurboNews, but the writer is not identified.  Looking at the editorial panel of the online newsletter, one can assume it was written by Dr Elinor Garely, who is the only journalist for the newsletter based in New York.

Dr Garely writes that she had previously visited South Africa ‘many years’ ago, and Cape Town in particular, whilst she was working on her doctoral dissertation in international business.   Her overriding impression was the contradiction she saw then: ‘While the hotels were lovely, the restaurants for dining and tasting South African Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 27 March

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Good news for long-haul travellers from the UK is the announcement by its government that from April 2015 the Air Passenger Duty will decrease, with the tax falling away on all flights with a destination less than 2000 miles from London, and the tax to be levied on destinations 2000+ miles from London will be at a lower rate. The UK has the highest departure tax ‘in the Western world‘, which has increased by 470% since 2007!  It also is the country with the second worst rated air tax and airport charges in the world!

*   Metrorail is to receive R233 million from the Transport Ministry to address its commuters complaints: too few trains, not frequent enough, not punctual, dirty, broken carriage windows, infrastructure problems at Cape Town station, lack of security, and no communication about delays, reports the Cape Times.   Upgrades to track infrastructure will also be addressed.

*   Lufthansa, Condor, TUIFly, and Air Berlin are cancelling flights and expecting delays due to public sector ground Continue reading →