Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

The second Sweet Service Award goes to Christopher Duigan from Music Revival in Pietermaritzburg, for spoiling Franschhoekers and others with a most wonderful Spring Classical Music Festival last weekend, the fifth such Festival to be held in Franschhoek.      Not only does Duigan organise the musical content of the weekend-long programme, but he also performed at all six concerts.   Bravo to performers Christopher Duigan, Joanne Rozario, the Kerimov Trio, James Grace and Federico Freschi, as well as to the sponsors Ebony, La Fontaine, Clarins, and Nedbank, for making the Music Festival possible! 

The Sour Service Award goes to Google, represented by Carnelian Event Management, for cancelling a Google Adwords workshop for members of Cape Town Tourism a day before the workshop, earlier this week, without informing the members of Cape Town Tourism, despite a promise to Cape Town Tourism Operations Manager Bronwen d’Oliviera that they would do so.   The Cape Town Tourism, S A Tourism and MTN brands, which were sponsorship partners of the workshops, have been negatively affected, and the delegates that booked for the workshops severely inconvenienced.    Cape Town Tourism did send an sms to its members, but forgot to inform those members that have opted to not receive their intrusive sms-messages.  Carnelian Event Management did not respond to an invitation to comment. 

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   

A new summer marketing campaign, “birthed by and … managed by Rani Communications”, publishers of the The Next 48hOURS events freesheet in Cape Town, will be launched to welcome visitors to Cape Town on 28 November, reports BizCommunity.com.

The summer campaign is a joint venture between Cape Town Tourism and Cape Town Routes Unlimited, in conjunction with the V & A Waterfront and Gold Circle, and will showcase the Mother City’s events over the festive period, claims the report.   

The “Cape Town Summer” website www.capetownsummer.co.za is quoted in the article but is still under construction!   It will summarise all the events taking place in Cape Town over the festive period, will highlight lesser-known attributes of the city, and will offer safety tips.   The campaign will also include family fun days, a Race Day, and a Christmas Party.

The logo chosen for the “Cape Town Summer” campaign leaves much to be desired.

Wedding tourism is a huge contributor to the tourism industry, and a village like Franschhoek benefits from it in the summer months, and in February specifically, as it has become the Wedding Capital of South Africa.

The value of the Wedding Tourism industry in the Western Cape has been estimated at R 120 million, according to The South African.   The United Kingdom is the major source of wedding business, with the bride usually being South African and the groom from the UK.    For the price of a wedding and reception in the UK the couple are able to hold a lavish wedding and enjoy their honeymoon in South Africa.    Local weddings are attractive as the weather is guaranteed to be better than in the UK, they cost less,  and offer appealing venues in the Winelands and at top restaurants. 

Wedding tourism benefits tourism generally in that 50 - 100 British friends and family will come to South Africa to attend a wedding, and this introduces the country to many first-time visitors, who would not necessarily have chosen this country as a tourism destination.          

The South African bride recommends accommodation, car rental, restaurants, and trips to take before and after the wedding, thereby making the planning of the trip to South Africa easy.   The bridal couple offers more than just a reception, to “compensate” for the far distance the friends have travelled, and the money they have spent on the ticket and the trip - often a wedding in Franschhoek will be followed by a picnic at Boschendal the day after, and a sailing trip may precede a wedding whilst the group is in Cape Town. 

Celebration House in Cape Town is a “one-stop shop” representing suppliers of wedding services.   The company exhibited at the National Wedding Show in London last month, and has published a wedding directory called “Under African Skies”, listing not only Wedding & Honeymoon Association of South Africa approved suppliers but also advises on the legal implications of foreigners marrying in South Africa.

South Africa has won five Gold Awards at the annual World Cheese Awards, against 2 400 cheeses from around the world.   Gold Award winners are Dalewood Fromage Huguenot, Fairview Roydon Camembert, Clover Mascarpone Cheese, Clover Medium Block Cheddar, and Clover Extra Mature Cheddar, reports the Sunday Times.

Silver Awards went to Foxenburg Estate’s Foxtail, Lourensford Estate’s Healey’s Gold, Kimilili Farm’s Witzenberger, Simonsberg Creamy Blue and Fairview Blue Tower.   Gay’s Dairy Prince Albert Royal, Lancewood Superior Cream, Lancewood Plain Chunky Cottage Cheese and Fairview Camembert 40 % reduced fat won Bronze Awards.

FIFA has insured the 2010 and 2014 World Cup events for $ 650 million should they have to be postponed or relocated, reports the Sophia Echo.   This has been standard FIFA practice since 1998.   The insurance policy provides cover against terrorism, natural disasters, epidemics, war, accidents or turmoil.

Following an executive meeting held earlier this week, FIFA announced that preparations for the 2009 Confederations Cup and 2010 World Cup are on track, and that it is confident that the global credit crunch will not  affect the two World Cup events to come.

FIFA’s finances have not been affected by the credit crunch, its investments being diversified, it being largely immune to exchange rate fluctuations, 90 % of its 2007 - 2010 income being under contract, it exercising good cost management and having a diverse porrtfolio of commercial and media partners, said FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke.  

The meeting also decided that the last club matches should be played on 16 May 2010, to protect the players and allow them to rest.  An exception will be the UEFA Champions League final, which is scheduled for 22 May 2010.

The Cape Town International Convention Centre has proven to be a powerful carrot for the local tourism industry, in attracting millions of delegates to Cape Town in its five years of operation.  Business tourists are known to extend their visits to add sight-seeing and leisure activities once they come to Cape Town, and also generate a higher spend per capita than do leisure visitors.

In the past twelve months more than half a million delegates attended conferences at the Convention Centre, and 325 banquets were hosted at the venue.    The current world economic crisis does not appear to have affected bookings, other than in a small reduction of delegates attending in the past month.

In the past year, the Convention Centre contributed R 2,7 billion to the economy of the Western Cape directly and indirectly, according to the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, reports Business Report.   This will grow to R 3,38 billion next year, and to R 5,67 billion in five years from now, it is estimated.  

The Convention Centre is a case study for a successful public/private partnership, with shares in the holding company Convenco owned by the City of Cape Town (50 %), the Western Cape province (25%) and SunWest International (25%).   This role model was unable to work for Cape Town Routes Unlimited, previously a joint venture between the City and the Province.  Now it is solely funded by the Western Cape government.

Future growth is constrained until the Convention Centre receives the go-ahead to extend onto the nearby Custom’s House site.   The planned extension would cost R 1,4 billion, and would be the ”greenest” and most technologically advanced building in the city.    It will use 40 % less energy and 95% less water and create 25 % less waste than the existing building, reports the Cape Argus.  Wind turbines will be used to generate electricity whilst ventilating the parking garage, and solar energy will be generated.   It will have a grey and black water treatment facility; with rainwater recycled; a seawater cooling system; and have a planted green roof, all designed to make the building environmentally responsible.   The new building has been described as “iconic” by Rashid Toeffy, the CEO of Convenco. 

Looking ahead, the Convention Centre already has 133 bookings for the next eight years.

Dieu Donne in Franschhoek, which celebrates its first birthday in December, deserves the first WhaleTales Sweet Service Award for hosting the accommodation industry of Franschhoek and Paarl earlier this week at their restaurant with a most stunning scenic view, and for saying “thank you” for the bookings received from the industry.  These two words are not often heard from the restaurant industry, which seems to take it for granted that guest houses will send them business.   Restaurants are the only sector of the tourism industry that do not pay commission for business received.    

The first WhaleTales Sour Service Award goes to Melissa’s Food Shop, the deli store with various branches in Cape Town and Stellenbosch.   The cashier at Melissa’s on Dorp Street in Stellenbosch cheekily asked for a tip when payment was made for a bill at the counter. This was addressed with the Customer Service person at Melissa’s Head Office (Melissa is too busy to interact with her customers about complaints), when she returned the customer’s call five days after the message was left.  She stated that it is Melissa’s policy for the staff to ask about a tip when none is left!    Asking for a tip could reflect to customers that the staff are not paid enough!    The nomination for the Sour Award was sent to Melissa van Hoogstraten, owner of Melissa’s, but she declined to comment.

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.

The American government has declared the Beluga whales off Alaska’s Cook Inlet an endangered species, despite opposition to this protection by Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, says the Los Angeles Times.   In the past decade the Beluga whale population off Anchorage has been reduced by half, and only stands at 375.   According to the legislation, any plans to build bridges or drill off-shore will have to prove that these will not disturb the whales.

The Northern Right Whale too is to be protected, with new legislation to be introduced in the USA to regulate the speed at which shipping traffic may travel along America’s East Coast between Massachusetts and Florida.  There are only 300 to 400 Northern Right whales left in the world, and the legislation is designed to stop whales from dying from collisions with ships.

South Africa has won Gold in the Restaurant of Nations section of the Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung at the Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany, reports Travelwires.     The Culinary Olympics take place every four years.

Cooking for 110 persons, the team of ten top South African chefs prepared a three-course meal reflecting South Africa’s unique cuisine.  The menu consisted of a crayfish starter, springbok loin and shoulder as main course, and was crowned with a naartjie and chocolate malva pudding.   They won Gold alongside the chefs from Singapore, the only two countries to be awarded gold medals.

Congratulating the SA team on their golden achievement, Moeketsi Mosola, CEO of S A Tourism,  said :” South Africa has a rich culinary heritage and they did us proud in representing it”.

The Department of Transport is working on setting a standardised taxi fare structure for World Cup 2010, to ensure that soccer tourists are not taken for a ride by unscrupulous metered taxi operators.

Metered taxis will play an important role in 2010, to augment the public transportation service, says Mpumi Mpofu, Director General of the Department of Transport, according to the Cape Argus.