{"id":13689,"date":"2010-12-01T10:53:15","date_gmt":"2010-12-01T08:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=13689"},"modified":"2010-12-04T20:43:56","modified_gmt":"2010-12-04T18:43:56","slug":"tourism-growth-good-from-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/tourism-growth-good-from-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism growth good from Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After a long\u00a0period of reduced travel by Germans, due to the recession in the past few years, they are ready to travel again, and it would appear that the much improved German economic performance, coupled with the excellent coverage of South Africa’s tourist gems during the World Cup, appears to have led to a marked increase in enquires and bookings from Germany.<\/p>\n

Southern African Tourism Update<\/strong>\u00a0 reports that the ADAC Reisemonitor survey, conducted in July amongst a sample of 4 000 ADAC members (similar to the Automobile Association),\u00a0shows that 71 % of Germans interviewed\u00a0plan to make a long-haul holiday next year, up by 6 %\u00a0compared in last year’s survey.\u00a0 The article quotes a tourism player Dr Martin Buck\u00a0as saying that “…the tourism industry is picking up speed once again.\u00a0 The worst of the recession is now over and German citizens are again living up to their reputation as the world’s most travelled nation”.\u00a0\u00a0 Almost 60 % of Germans surveyed said they would go on holiday before the end of the year, irrespective of their financial situation, and that they expect the prices of tourism products and services to increase.\u00a0\u00a0 The most popular holiday destinations for Germans are Germany, Italy and then Spain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was good to see an advertisement for South Africa in the leading lifestyle magazine Bunte <\/strong>at the end of September, with the headline “S\u00c3\u00bcdafrika Hautnah” (South Africa – up close), followed by a sub-headline relating to the Cape: “Zum verlieben sch\u00c3\u00b6n – das Land am Kap strahlt eine Faszination aus, die seine G\u00c3\u00a4ste nie wieder losl\u00c3\u00a4sst” (To fall in love with – Cape Town radiates a fascination, that never leaves its guests).\u00a0 The ad focuses on German TV presenter Ruth Moschner, sharing her favourite things to do and places to visit when in South Africa.\u00a0 She mentions Cape Town, with Johannesburg and Durban, but of the six photographs in the ad, two are of Cape Town (Boulder’s Beach and V&A Waterfront), as well as a Cape Dutch house in the Winelands.\u00a0 Moschner raves about the country as a tourist destination, yet praises its people even more, saying that she has seldom experienced\u00a0 being welcomed with such heartiness.\u00a0 The ad is part-sponsored by SAA, and advertises a special package of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac 599 from 8 November – 16 December (www.askSAA.com<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0 A tiny “schoolboard”-style ‘South Africa: Alles ist m\u00c3\u00b6glich’ (South Africa: everything is possible) concludes the ad.<\/p>\n

A follow-up SA Tourism ad in Bunte <\/strong>last month featured Michael Mittermeier, a German comedian who performed at the Cape Town Comedy Festival last year.\u00a0 He has been to South Africa three times, and raves about the generous ‘host country’, as he describes it (“Besucher werden in Sued-afrika in den einmaligen Rythmus des Landes integriert” (Visitors are drawn into the unique rhythm of the country).\u00a0 He expresses the regret that Bafana Bafana dropped out of the World Cup so early.\u00a0\u00a0 He highlights the 10 hour travel time between Germany and South Africa, without time difference, as positives, and recommends a safari to see the Big Five, and the beautiful coastal beaches.\u00a0 Three photographs of the rocks at Camps Bay beach, Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain, and of a Cape Dutch homestead make up half the photographs featured, a weighting towards the region that most tourists describe as the most beautiful of all in South Africa.<\/p>\n

During the World Cup the leading German TV station ZDF broadcast an hour-long tourism documentary about South Africa, presented by the charming ex-Miss South Africa Jo-ann Strauss, prior to each match in which the German team played.\u00a0 Accommodation bookings from Germany flowed in from July onwards\u00a0as a result, more than we have seen in many years.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a>\u00a0Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a long\u00a0period of reduced travel by Germans, due to the recession in the past few years, they are ready to travel again, and it would appear that the much improved German economic performance, coupled with the excellent coverage of South Africa’s tourist gems during the World Cup, appears to have led to a marked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,124,22,21],"tags":[8688,8689,97,1562,601,832,32370,2157,4905,32366,8964,32378,8691,332,8687,560,2474,3189,99,8684,8690,8963,727,8685,759,32388,1558,117,4,8965,8923,8686,32393,32373,32382,531,748],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t