{"id":55144,"date":"2014-03-16T21:21:30","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T19:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=55144"},"modified":"2014-03-17T11:55:43","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T09:55:43","slug":"whaletales-tourism-food-and-wine-news-headlines-1516-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/whaletales-tourism-food-and-wine-news-headlines-1516-march\/","title":{"rendered":"WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 15\/16 March"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WhaleTales\"<\/a>Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 TravelMedia.ie has been appointed to handle the marketing of our country for SA Tourism in Ireland,<\/strong><\/span><\/a> with the number of tourists from Ireland expected to increase. \u00a0The marketing focus will be on our country’s\u00a0music, art, fashion, adventure, and culinary travel.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 The USA Department of Agriculture predicts that our country’s vine harvest will decrease by 5%<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, to 1,42 million metric tons, and that production will decrease to 1,1 billion bottles this year. \u00a0The export of wine is expected to decrease to 500 million litres. \u00a0Last year was regarded as a record year for South African wine exports due to the good harvest and the depreciation of the Rand.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 The inaugural AfrAsia Bank Cape Wine Auction, which was held at Delaire Graff yesterday, raised a phenomenal R8,9 million for three charities related to education. (via Twitter and Facebook) (NOTE 17\/3<\/strong>: \u00a0the Auction total has been officially revised to R7 million this morning)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Receiving only 5% of the world’s 1 billion \u00a0tourists, Africa needs to develop itself as a tourism brand<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, the Tourism and Culture Minister of the Seychelles has said. \u00a0Minister Alain St.Ange called on African leaders to enhance Africa’s tourism awareness. \u00a0‘The African continent needs an African Brand. We need a brand that will promote our region in tourism trade fairs. We need a brand that will work hand in hand with United Nations World Tourism Organisation, the UNWTO body<\/em>‘, he said. \u00a0Africa must work with Africa, he added. South African Tourism Minister van Schalkwyk appeared to disagree, calling for each African country to do its own destination marketing. \u00a0He did however call for easier visa application processing for travel within the continent.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Hard Rock Caf\u00e9 has returned to South Africa<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, and has opened in Johannesburg. \u00a0Branches in Cape Town, Durban, and Pretoria will follow. \u00a0Soft Coffee Holding has spent R25 million to date to buy the rights and to set up the Johannesburg branch.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 What a shame that international journalists are making so many errors when writing about our country. Victoria Burrows from The New Indian Express<\/strong> makes three errors in the opening paragraph of her article ‘French Corner in Deep South Africa<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/a>‘ alone, writing about Franschhoek, which she writes is 2 hours from Cape Town (only 1 hour), is the country’s ‘Culinary Capital<\/em>‘ (no longer), and has a ‘World’s 50 Best’<\/em> restaurant (no longer)! \u00a0One cannot agree that Franschhoek is in ‘Deep<\/em>‘ South Africa! \u00a0She highlights The Tasting Room, Reuben’s (no longer one of the village’s best, and she only mentions two of his five restaurants), La Petite Ferme, Bread & Wine, Le Bon Vivant, and Bartho’s Place in the township, as being worth a trip from Cape Town, but Eat Out<\/strong> Top 10 restaurant Pierneef \u00e0\u00a0La Motte, and \u00a0previous Top 20 finalists Grande Provence and The Kitchen at Maison are not mentioned!<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/strong> <\/a>\u00a0 Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines * \u00a0 TravelMedia.ie has been appointed to handle the marketing of our country for SA Tourism in Ireland, with the number of tourists from Ireland expected to increase. \u00a0The marketing focus will be on our country’s\u00a0music, art, fashion, adventure, and culinary travel. * \u00a0 The USA Department of Agriculture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[7,3,124,1918,266,14,20,22,21,19,293],"tags":[24359,24360,24367,36,32378,11182,1736,8457,30,32369,24366,140,24355,14505,6338,582,1138,24362,534,6611,24358,41,910,3922,24363,13839,24365,1362,5,24356,2602,24361,562,24364,24357,32373,10,365,17914],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\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