Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

After huge protests about the poorly run Indaba 2012, Africa’s top tourism and travel exhibition appears to have improved its organisation, and has promised a larger number of international trade visitors for Indaba 2013, taking place in Durban this weekend. SA Tourism has stated that 3000 international ‘buyers’ are attending, as are more than 13000 delegates, according to the Daily News. The majority of the delegates are involved with tourism product stands.  The country’s world heritage sites, culture, arts, design and music are on display, in addition to tourism products and services.  Cape Town’s tourism product appears unfocused and fragmented at Indaba!

Cape Town is being represented by the Western Cape government (its party headed by Alan Winde, Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism); the ineffective Western Cape tourism and trade development agency Wesgro, which has not delivered at all in the first year of taking over the role of marketing tourism in the province; Cape Town Tourism, SA National Parks; the city’s Big Six attractions; the Cape Higher Education Consortium (what on earth are they doing at a tourism exhibition?); Cape Town World Design Capital 2014; and The City of Cape Town’s Arts and Culture department. Odd is that the City of Cape Town’s Tourism, Events and Marketing department is not represented in Durban.

Minister Winde said in a media statement that this year’s Indaba theme is ‘heritage and culture’, and that he ‘hoped’ that Robben Island and the San cultural landmarks of our province will be featured on the ‘South African Heritage Cultural Pavilion’, an odd comment as one would think that the Minister’s tourism department or his marketing arm Wesgro would have ensured their inclusion on the national stand! ‘Foreign visitors want to see more of what do (sic) and how we live, they want authentic local experiences. The Western Cape has a rich and diverse history and is home to iconic heritage sites such as Robben Island. The Western Cape Government is currently devising a cultural and heritage tourism strategy, which will be aligned with that of the national government. We are pleased the Tourism Indaba profiles this offering so prominently this year’, the Minister is quoted as saying!  Disappointing is that the Minister believes the misleading tourism information put out by Cape Town Tourism, in claiming that ‘the sector experienced its best ever summer season‘! The Minister clearly does not know that the last good summer season was in 2007!

The Western Cape has developed a new slogan which has not been seen before, but will be on show at Indaba, in an interactive stand showcasing the province’s top sights and activities, such as shark diving, the top restaurants, the Winelands, paragliding, and river rafting. ‘Adventurously yours…naturally ours’ appears contrived as a slogan, and there is no Western Cape branding in it!  The Western Cape World Heritage sites Robben Island, the Cape Floral Region, and the Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape will be on show on the Heritage Cultural Pavilion.

On the same Cape Town stand the City of Cape Town (according to the Cape Town Tourism media release but quoting Councillor Grant Pascoe, Mayoral Committee member for Tourism, Events, and Marketing, extensively) ‘will reflect Cape Town’s position (sic) as a value-for-money destination famed for sporting, entertainment and arts events but will also examine (sic) its focus on golf and adventure tourism, as well as Responsible Tourism‘, states yet another poorly written media release by Cape Town Tourism PR and Communications Manager Skye Grove (our underlining)!  The Councillor added that Cape Town will also focus on ‘the fastest growing markets’ (one wonders where he obtained this information, as Cape Town Tourism and Wesgro have not ever referred to them in the past) of Arts and Culture tourism, Muslim travel, youth travel, and sports tourism!

Cape Town Tourism has compiled a ‘Love Cape Town City Breaks‘ winter packages broadsheet in conjunction with Thompson Holidays, which will be handed out at the stand, on Mango flights, at Cape Town Tourism information centres, and at Cape Town events (not that there are any upcoming ones other than some soccer matches to keep the Cape Town Stadium alive, and to make Cape Town soccer lovers happy, the Liverpool friendly match against Ajax Cape Town just having been cancelled)!   Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, Cape Town Tourism CEO, said that her organisation’s role at Indaba is to represent ‘a place that is a hot bed (sic) of experiences, hidden gems and adventures‘, not even mentioning Brand Cape Town (our underlining)!

As tourism players we know that the presence of Cape Town and Wesgro at Indaba will do little to improve what is already a very bleak winter season, which cannot even be blamed on the rain, as there has been barely any to date!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

A most unusual event on Thursday was the launch of the 2012 national tourism statistics - not by Marthinus van Schalkwyk, our Minister of Tourism, but by President Jacob Zuma - not in Johannesburg but in Cape Town! President Zuma was most gracious in his praise of our beautiful city!

In his talk held at the unusual venue and top fish restaurant Baia in the V&A Waterfront, President Zuma said that God lives in Cape Town, probably on top of Table Mountain, to great applause, reported iolnews. The President said that Capetonians should be aware of this, and especially demonstrate their friendliness when international delegations visit Cape Town for the World Economic Forum Africa meeting next week.

The tourism news shared by President Zuma is that tourism arrivals rose by 10% in 2012, more than double the average world tourism growth rate for the same period, as measured by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.  More than 9 million international tourists arrived in our country last year, of which 1.4 million were from Europe.  Despite experience to the contrary, the UK is still measured as the top source country, with under half a million visitors, followed by the USA (over 300000 tourists), with German tourists in third place with just under 300000 tourists. Tourism arrivals from the USA and Germany rose by 13% in the past year.  China has jumped into fourth position from eighth place, with 130000 visitors, a phenomenal growth rate of 56%, followed by France in fifth position with 120000, reported Business Day.

Quick to react to the President’s visit to Cape Town, Western Cape Tourism Minister Alan Winde said that the contribution to the economy of the province by tourism was R 18 billion in 2011.  The 2012 SA Tourism statistics are not broken down by province or city, so that the Western Cape tourism performance may not have been as buoyant as that experienced in Durban and Johannesburg.  No equivalent statistics are available for the province.  The City of Cape Town has announced that it has commissioned research to be conducted over the next three years, to measure the value of tourism for Cape Town.

Minister Winde’s goal is to grow the contribution of tourism to the province’s GDP from 10% to 15% by 2015. This will be achieved by evaluating the introduction of direct travel routes to Cape Town from Angola, Nigeria, and Ghana.  In these three countries the province’s tourism promotion agency Wesgro is evaluating business opportunities for the Cape in the oil and gas, design, and ICT fields.  The Minister also announced in its media statement that tourism routes will be developed between Gordon’s Bay and Cape Agulhas, as well as in the West Coast tourism region.

Unfortunately Mr Winde’s media statement makes the fatal error of adding up all the visitor numbers for three (Table Mountain Cableway, Cape Point, and Kirstenbosch) of the ‘Big Six’ tourism attractions, a cumulative total of just under 300000 visitors, without deducting the duplicated visitors!

Once again we must question the SA Tourism statistics, having reported previously that tour operator Colin Bell had discovered that these statistics contain transit visitors in their ‘tourism statistics‘, especially those from China and Brazil!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

The BRICS Summit, to be held for the first time in our country, in Durban on 26 and 27 March, will bring greater awareness of its tourism potential to our country amongst the media representing the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, reports Inter Press Services.

In the first nine months of 2012 tourism growth from Brazil increased by 52%, by 63% from China, by 35% from Russia, and by 17% from India.  One must be cautious of these tourism numbers, given that they are off a low base, and may be a measurement of tourists in transit to other countries, which SA Tourism misleadingly counts as tourists.

SA Tourism has recognised that the drop in tourism from its conventional markets can be offset by tourism from its BRICS associate countries, and the Summit will ‘provide an opportunity to showcase our country as a tourist destination, while also bringing immediate benefits to the tourism industry’, said SA Tourism CEO Thulani Nzime.  Our country will enjoy ’significant  editorial coverage in the BRICS nations, raising awareness about South Africa’s capability, beauty, accessibility, and warm, welcoming, friendly culture towards tourists’, he added.  SA Tourism is already addressing marketing campaigns in the BRICS countries, but Russia is taking a back seat due to its distance from our country and a lack of direct air links.

One trusts that Wesgro and Cape Town Tourism will be present at the BRICS Summit, and that they will invite BRICS nation media representatives to visit Cape Town during their visit to this country.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Today the Africa Cup of Nations draws to a close, when Nigeria takes on little known Burkina Faso of West Africa, in the final to be played this evening at 20h30, after the Closing Ceremony commences at the (temporarily AFCON renamed) National Stadium at 18h45.  While Johannesburg and Durban appear to have benefited from the African soccer tournament, Cape Town has seen no tourism bookings during or even for after the tournament.

Cape Town lost out on being a Host City for AFCON 2013, Councillor Grant Pascoe, responsible for Tourism, Events, and Marketing, appearing to have asked too many questions of the Local Organising Committee, especially about the guarantees from government.  This cost our city the opportunity to be a Host City, to see top soccer being played, and denied the tourism industry much needed income. Pascoe tried to offer Cape Town soccer fans a consolation prize of a Bafana Bafana friendly against Norway prior to the AFCON 2013 kick-off, which had no tourism benefit at all.  Pascoe also explained that the City had committed to other events at the same time as AFCON 2013, and couldn’t cancel these events.  The only event was the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, which had booked the soccer stadia in Johannesburg and Cape Town during the AFCON 2013 period. Cancelling the concerts due to AFCON would have cost R90 million.  The ‘reckless management’ of the venue for the band’s performance at the National Stadium in Johannesburg was criticised, in impacting on its pitch, but it was judged to be acceptable for today’s Final earlier this week.

The smaller venues appear to not have as done as well as those in cities.  Last night’s third place play-off between Ghana and Cape Verde in Port Elizabeth was disappointing, with many unsold seats, it was reported. Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium was sold out for all its matches in which Bafana Bafana played, as well as for the semi-final earlier this week, reported The Mercury.   Durban has proudly stated that its R60 million cost of participating as an AFCON 2013 Host City has generated benefits in excess of the expenditure, estimated at R100 million already.  Tourism benefits must have been disappointing, for Durban admitting that ‘Afcon was not on the scale of the World Cup, and we did not see thousands of foreign soccer fans fill our hotels to capacity’. AFCON 2013 has been a very localised African tournament, with little international coverage.  On Germany’s leading TV station ZDF, for example, there has not been a mention to date.

Citing its success in selling out all Bafana Bafana matches, Durban challenged the Local Organising Committee to give it opening or closing ceremonies in future.  It proclaimed itself as the ‘best Afcon 2013 host city’, and bragged that the television coverage in Africa would position Durban as a ‘leading sports and tourism destination‘, hardly a positioning Cape Town would like to see go to Durban.  Durban seized the opportunity to sign a R4,4 million deal with Eurosport, on which inserts about Durban, and its sport celebrities such as Chad le Clos, and the Sharks rugby players, were featured.

Yesterday Kfm presenter Ian Bredenkamp shared in his radio show that the Cape Town Stadium, at which the Stormers vs Boland rugby match was played yesterday afternoon, had been an ideal venue for a rugby match, compared to Newlands Stadium.

Councillor Pascoe proudly Tweeted that he is on his way to London ‘to meet with 4 Premier Division Clubs’, obviously to attract them to play at the Cape Town Stadium.  Pascoe would have been fired from his position in a corporation for his faux pas in causing Cape Town to lose out as Host City.  However, as a senior DA politician in Cape Town, he is strong enough to retain his position as Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events, and Marketing, despite not having much knowledge about the portfolio he controls, and therefore he has had to call in Anton Groenewald to run the show for him!

POSTSCRIPT 10/2: SA Tourism says it is ‘happy’ with visitor numbers attracted by AFCON 2013, according to Standard Digital News. Whilst actual tourism numbers are not yet available, the expectation was that 150000 soccer fans would have attended the tournament, generating $154 million for the economy.  The tourism authority focused its soccer marketing on Kenya, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria.  Hosting AFCON 2013 cost South Africa $53,5 million.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

The Indaba last month received heavy criticism, more critical than we have seen in many years. Many tourism players no longer bother to go, or went for the last time this year. Given that the Cape Town International Convention Centre is to be expanded in size, surely the time has come for the country’s tourism showcase to be held in our country’s tourism centre Cape Town!

Indaba has been held in Durban for the last 23 years of its 33 year existence. Now moves are afoot to push for the tourism expo to be permanently hosted in Durban, reports the official website of the Ethekwini Municipality, wanting the city to be synonymous with the event, such as is Berlin with ITB (International Tourismusbörse, and London with World Travel Market (WTM). Obtaining such a commitment would allow the city to ‘properly invest in it’.

SA Tourism boasted about the success of Indaba 2012, achieving an attendance of ‘more than 10000′ and 1500 exhibitors, and ‘proved to be a major success‘, being about ‘innovation, communication and quality connections’. Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk was quoted as saying at Indaba: ‘Together, we must keep our eyes on ever-changing consumer preferences, diversify our products, maintain excellent service, innovate our distribution channels, and ensure that we continue to deliver value for money. We must ensure that all our people share in the benefits of our new growth’. No, he was not referring to Indaba, he was referring to the tourism industry!

The tourism industry does not appear to have shared the feeling of success of Indaba. Hotel and Restaurant editor Andrew Moth wrote in his June editorial that ‘many of the big players in the hotel industry feel that they wasted their time and their money on Indaba this year‘. He added that it no longer is what it once was, now ‘overtaken by technology and of course greed’.

The most vocal criticism of Indaba this year came from film shoot co-ordinator Max Wallace, UK Director of Painted Earth Productions, writing in South African Tourism Update.  He wrote that he had attended Indaba for three years running, and asked: ‘Is Indaba still a South African show?’. He reflected that Indaba was very quiet this year, especially in the DEC (Durban Exhibition Centre), describing it as ‘grave-like’, whilst the ICC (International Convention Centre) was ‘moderately busy’, and the SADC tent ‘pumping’. His conclusion was that Indaba has lost its focus, in featuring ‘far too much same old, same old South African product’, and not enough ‘regional and inter-African product’. He was critical of municipal stands paid for by taxpayers ‘when they patently have no clue what tourism is‘. Provincial stands were lambasted by him for being ‘bloated, filled with people who are invariably rude, unable to answer queries and unwilling to make appointments…’. The Road Accident Fund was singled out by him as not fitting in with a tourism exhibition at all.  The costs of exhibiting are high, he wrote, and he was told by many that they were not sure whether they would bother with attending and exhibiting in 2013. His conclusion was that more African product should be featured, to make it an ‘African show’, and less ‘South African product’ . His final sting was that ‘South African Tourism needs to catch a wake-up call’, given that the organisers no longer know what the market wants. His letter generated a flood of comments on the newsletter website, most commenters supporting Wallace.

Some of the key points contained in the more than 30 (mostly anonymous) comments were the following:

*  Indaba has become so bad that an Indaba about Indaba needs to take place with the organisers Witches and Wizards, SA Tourism, and the Minister of Tourism, to discuss the exorbitant cost of the stands and the extras, the expensive and poor quality food, and the exhibitor and buyer mix.

*   Should Indaba not be fixed, the threat exists that the big players will host a similar African-orientated indaba elsewhere in Africa, leaving the Durban Indaba as the ‘Micky (sic) Mouse Country Club’ of game lodges and B&Bs.

*    South Africa needs to relook its tourism product mix and pricing, being eclipsed on product, price and service by its neighbouring countries

*   Indaba needs a ‘renovation’, a new location and a revamp

*   Municipal tourism exhibitors should be removed, as they affect the credibility of Indaba, waste taxpayers’ monies, and appear to have no tourism knowledge

*   More and better quality buyers are needed, and roving sellers coming to the stands should be discouraged

*   ‘We have awesome destinations, awesome products and now we just need a better way of displaying them’.

*   More time should be allocated to public days, given the important focus on Domestic Tourism

*   The number of stands should  be reduced, and stands should all be tourism-related

It would be a shame if, as Moth suggests, tourism players are too dependent on government business to challenge SA Tourism and the Indaba organisers with their feedback, and demand an improvement of its organisation. Another important topic to be tackled is the accuracy of the Minister’s tourism statistics, which a number of Indaba commenters referred to as not being credible, and not matching industry experience. Given the importance of tourism to the Western Cape, and the fresh marketing energy coming from Wesgro, one can only hope that the province’s new marketing body will go all out to bid for Indaba 2014, in the year that the Cape Town International Convention Centre expansion has been completed and Cape Town is the World Design Capital!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage

I am not a cooking program type at all, and have never watched any MasterChef programme.  Last night I watched the first episode of MasterChef SA, and loved every minute of it.  While there were some irritations, the tension that built up over the hour-long reality programme, the pithy comments from the judges, and the heartfelt emotions with tears and joy reminded me of a mix of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ and ‘Idols’.

Interesting at the outset was the PG13 warning about strong language for the programme, which was not evident in the first episode.  From 4000 hopefuls starting off in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg, fifty out of 120 aspirant amateur chefs received a MasterChef SA apron, to attend the MasterChef SA ‘boot camp’. The judges Pete Goffe-Wood, Bennie Masekwameng and Andrew Atkinson have a combined culinary history of more than 50 years, they said proudly, and individually have cooked for royalty, for Johannesburg’s rich and famous, and have judged and participated in local and international competitions. The difference between a good and a great chef is the burning desire to be the best, the participants were told.  ’Just being good is not going to cut it’, the judges added. Judges are searching for culinary perfection, and told the participants to go if that is not what they will deliver. Participants were told that the judges would be evaluating them on passion, skill, and the perfect flavour.  It was nice to see the multi-cultural and multi-gender mix of participants, even if the judges were all male, one of the first criticisms of the judges’ selection!  The judges appeared stiff initially, almost relying on the judgement of one of the others to be brave enough to say a dish was excellent or really bad, but they grew in confidence throughout the programme, being more bold to go against the majority view of the other judges.   The show was said on Twitter yesterday to have been R500000 over budget in its production.

Time-keeping was tough, each participant having thirty minutes to prepare their dish off-screen, and five minutes to plate it in front of the judges.  Initially the contestant names were seen on the screen, with the name of the dish, but towards the end of the first episode, fewer names were mentioned or depicted.  One could guess that if a profile of the aspirant chef was screened before he or she faced the judges, that the contestant would receive the MasterChef SA apron to get into the ‘bootcamp’.

Successful top 50 amateur chefs included Khayakazi Silingile, who prepared scallops and smoked salmon with an unusual rhubarb tart and orange juice, a colourful presentation.  The judges praised her ‘magical combination’ of ingredients and described her dish as ‘clever’.  Jade was a bundle of charm, energy, and confidence, and her chocolate tartlet with fresh berries and somewhat heat-melted cardamon ice cream won the judges’ approval, in that they said that she knows what she is talking about, that her dish was ‘magnificent’, and not ‘jaded’!  Callie-Anne was lucky to achieve two Yes votes for her fillet of beef with a mushroom and zucchini ragout, and started crying when she realised that the judges were not all ecstatic about her creation.  Sanjeev appeared over-confident, even singing for the judges, and his ‘lamb party’ curry dish was voted for by two of the judges.  Bongumusa received an apron, as did Sarel Loots. Ilse Fourie received a very strong vote of confidence from all the judges for her tagliatelle and salmon steak with a citrus dressing, for its taste as well as presentation, the judges showering her with accolades: ‘presentation is superb’, ‘tasted absolutely awesome’, ‘brilliant’, ‘you can cook with passion’, and ‘I was mesmerised by it’.  Lwazi’s crusted kingklip and Lungile’s duck burger and apple and plum sauce met the judges’ approval.  Chef Pete loved Deena Naidoo’s butter chicken so much that he took the plate back to his seat to finish off the dish, describing it as ‘moreish’ and ‘creamy’. An unnamed contestant made a sour cherry frangipane tartlet and served it with his home-made ice cream.  The judges could not stop eating it!  An unnamed contestant made ‘pap en vleis’, and was praised for her South African dish of a lamb chop. Luxolo received a sympathy vote from Chef Bennie, rewarding the scullery worker with a Yes vote for the passion in preparing his ‘Fish House’ dish of fish, mussels, and prawns.  He went down on his knees in tears when he received the vote to join the ‘bootcamp’. The judges appeared to drift away from their stated judging criteria in their evaluation of the dishes, not really providing any depth feedback about the dishes in culinary terms. Some of the recipes of the ‘bootcamp’ finalists are on the MasterChef SA website.

Wayde The Fudge Man from Johannesburg was less lucky, his pasta not having been cooked well enough, and was described by the judges as a ‘lump of goo’. A soup was described as a ‘bowl of emptiness’ by Chef Pete. The editors of the first episode were kind in showing very few of the dishes that did not make the grade, with the associated negative judges’ comments.   Interesting is that a contestant posted a complaint on ‘Hello Peter’ about the auditions at Montecasino on 3 December, for his dish being evaluated by one judge only, and no feedback having been given to him at all for it not making the grade. Chef Pete said about himself with a laugh: “It turns out that I’m less empathetic than I thought I was”.

Ads for sponsors Woolworths, Robertsons, Nederburg, Southern Sun, and Hyundai ran throughout the program, the advertising breaks being used to build up the tension about whether a contestant would stay or go. Lacking credibility in its running in the programme was Chef Reuben Riffel’s endorsement of Robertsons Paste, many viewers feeling that he would or should not be using Robertson’s herbs and spices in his restaurants!  Interesting is the pay-off line which Robertson’s was using in its ads during the programme, of ‘Masterclass’, nonsensical in that no contestant was seen to add any Robertson’s products during the show. The word means teaching a group of students, and is mainly used in a music context, and this is not what the programme is about, and therefore does not match the definition of the word. Interesting is that Robertson’s has appointed erstwhile chef Sonia Cabano as its ‘Social Media Manager’, she announced on Twitter a few days ago, and seems technically ill-equipped to deal with the demands of the position, asking for advice on running multi-accounts on Twitter, for example, and who has a reputation for causing trouble with other Tweeters.  She is outspoken about herself (writing about her ‘drunk tweeting’ last week, for example) and others.  One sensed the restraint with which she Tweeted when some Robertson’s Tweets were criticised!

Having visited a Woolworths branch in Sea Point yesterday afternoon, one would have thought that the retail outlet would have prominently advertised its participation in the programme and encouraged viewership via posters or flyers, but there was nothing at all to alert one to the programme or to Woolworths’ sponsorship of it.  The company commissioned Platypus Productions to direct twenty TV commercials to highlight its role as the food sponsor of the show.  Nederburg ran a few ads in the programme, but the setting of its transformed 1000 square meter Johan Graue Auction Hall venue was not visible to viewers.  The wine estate has launched new wines in conjunction with Woolworths, to coincide with MasterChef SA, and has also just announced that it is starting a series of online Winemaster’s Classes, which will be broadcast on www.nederburg.co.za, and viewers can win Le Creuset cookery sets. Interesting is that Spar advertising was allowed in the programme - Chef Pete Tweeted last week that his column in Pick ‘n Pay’s Good Living magazine has been cancelled after many years, due to Woolworths’ involvement in MasterChef SA.  Loreal was a non-food advertiser.

On Twitter the judges were criticised for not looking professional enough, in not wearing chef’s outfits, and looking rather formal with a tie (Chef Andrew), and jacket (Chef Pete).  The judges seemed inconsistent in their evaluation on occasion, either raving about a contestant, or destroying them in their cruel feedback at times. Kenneth Goldstone’s pan-fried kingklip and tarragon and mushroom sauce was highly praised by Chef Andrew, rejected by Chef Bennie, and even though Chef Pete did not seem enthusiastic about the dish, he gave it a Yes.  Not only the contestants were under pressure, but the judges too.  They started shooting on 4 January, and it was a tough 10 week schedule, 12 hours a day, six days a week, necessitating that they move to Paarl for the duration of the shoot, Chef Pete told Eat Out.  Interesting is the fuss that the publication made of Chef Pete yesterday,with an in-depth interview in a special newsletter to co-incide with the start of the MasterChef SA series.  Last year the publication fired Chef Pete as one of its Top 10 Restaurant judges. Chef Pete said that the judges were ‘blown away by the calibre of the contestants’, given that all were amateurs.  He predicted that the top five contestants will enter the culinary industry.   Chef Pete expressed his hope that MasterChef SA will be followed up by a second series.

POSTSCRIPT 21/3: A Kfm 94,5 presenter poorly read an ‘advertorial’ style ad about Chef and Judge Pete Goffe-Wood this afternoon on behalf of M-Net for MasterChef SA, with very out-of-date CV information - e.g. that he is the ‘author’ of the ‘newly launched book ‘Blues - Essence of Cape Town’ (the Blues staff say the book was launched about 5 - 7 years ago), that he is ‘currently involved in developing 95 Keerom Street for Rhodes House’ (the latter building was pulled down years ago, and the restaurant opened years ago), and that he owns Wildwoods (he closed down the Hout Bay restaurant almost a year ago)!  On his Kitchen Cowboys website he advertises his next Kitchen Cowboys course as starting on 23 August 2011!  The radio announcer called him ‘Pete Goffe’, all in all a very poor reflection on M-Net and MasterChef SA, and its judge Pete Goffe-Wood for his very out of date CV information!

POSTSCRIPT 21/3: One wonders why the M-Net publicity department is depicting the three MasterChef SA judges in silly photographs, as the one in this blogpost, as well as the ones in the Sunday Times last weekend, based on the Three Monkeys, using pumpkins to cover their ears, eyes, and mouth, and Chef Pete wearing a pumpkin as a hat! MasterChef SA is a very serious program for its contestants, and one would hope that the chef judges thought so too.  The pohotographs do not do the judges nor the program justice!

POSTSCRIPT 23/3: Sarel Loots Tweeted today that he did make the top 50 ‘bootcamp’ - our apologies for misinterpreting the judges’ sentiments, and we have made the correction.

POSTSCRIPT 23/3: It was just a matter of time before we (unintentionally) irritated Robertsons’ Social Media Manager Sonia Cabano enough with our questions relating to Robertsons’ ‘Masterclass’ advertising positioning in its MasterChef SA TV commercials that she blocked our Twitter account today, unprofessional behaviour on behalf of a client.  One wonders what she is signalling through this action, in wanting to hide something about her client! Being in defensive mode, she has Tweeted in particularly poor English today, using literal translations of Afrikaans words in the wrong context.

MasterChef SA, M-Net, Tuesdays, 19h30 - 20h30.  www.masterchefsa.dstv.com Twitter: @MasterChefSA

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Jonty Rhodes, former South African cricketer and now coach for the Indian Premier League, has been appointed as a tourism ambassador for South Africa in India, reports Business Line. The announcement comes as part of a high level tourism delegation currently visiting five Indian cities to bat for tourism business.   Tourism from India to South Africa grew by 18% to 85000 in 2011, and the target is 100000 Indian tourists in 2014, reports Southern African Tourism Update.

SA Tourism Country Head for SA Tourism in India, Hanneli Slabber, is largely responsible for the great success achieved in the Indian market, with her enthusiastic marketing programmes, having got to know this market well in the short time that she has been based in India.  Market research has shown that Indian tourists to our country are more likely to come from Mumbai and Delhi, but visitors from cities such as Chennai, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore are above average holiday spenders.  The SA Tourism advertising budget in India grew by 50 % last year, and is expected to grow by another 50 % this year.

Cape Town Routes Unlimited appears to be one of only few Cape representative attending the India road show, with Cape Town Tourism visible by its absence.  The 132 South African tourism product and service representatives of 62 products has doubled in one year, and includes Spier, Pepper Club Luxury Hotel & Spa, Cape Royale Luxury Hotel, Montagu Country Hotel, Grootbos Nature Reserve, hotel and safari lodge groups, and tour operators, visiting Mumbai, New Dehli, Bangalore, Pune, and Chennai. Indian tour operators representing MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) as well as leisure tourism product owners and managers are attending the road show events. ‘Learn South Africa’ training programs have been hosted for 1500 travel agents throughout India in the past two years, and top operators have been flown to South Africa to show them the country.

Even national Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, is attending the India road show.  Given the size of the Indian population, and that it is expected to be one of the three largest global economies by 2050, this emerging tourism market is of great importance for South Africa, the Minister said.  For our country, India is the 7th largest source market, and marketing in India focuses on fashion, food, sport, film, and wine.  Nine direct flights from Johannesburg to India are available per week. In November 1000 delegates will attend the Travel Agents Federation of India Convention in Durban, a huge boost for the city and country to win this bid.

Provincial Tourism Minister Alan Winde said he is confident that the Western Cape and Cape Town would be top of mind in the presentations about South African in India, one of the BRICS markets being targeted by Cape Town Routes Unlimited. Ms Slabber added that South Africa has become a popular tourism destination for the Indian market. Not only do the road shows expose the diversity of the tourism products of our country, but they also help to attain “market insights for future product development.  With the burgeoning development, increasing purchasing power and flourishing travel aspirations of Indians, we wish to expand our reach in these promising markets through our road shows and advertising and marketing campaigns. We will continue to invest strongly in our marketing efforts and initiatives to promote South Africa across various consumer segments”, she said. Cape Town Routes Unlimited CEO Calvyn Gilfellan praised the friendly reception to the Western Cape representatives from the Indian travel agents, who are ‘really selling Cape Town and the Western Cape vigorously’.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage

Instead of being delighted to have been selected as the judges for Masterchef SA in Johannesburg earlier this week, they looked utterly miserable in the photograph which M-Net posted on Facebook for the 18-programme series, which starts on M-Net on 20 March at 19h30, leading to immediate criticism.

Not only were the judges criticised for looking so glum, and for M-Net choosing such an inappropriate photograph, but the Facebook page also highlighted that all three judges are male, clearly not to their liking! I would like to add the criticism that only Chef Pete Goffe-Wood is from Cape Town, the gourmet centre of South Africa,  while Chefs Andrew Atkinson and Benny Masekwameng are from Johannesburg.  Good news is that Sam Linsell, a Cape Town (female) food stylist and blogger, has been appointed as food stylist for Masterchef SA, according to her Tweets, but her appointment has not been publicly announced by M-Net.

Masterchef is an international reality cooking competition for amateurs, and has been run in 33 countries. More than 10000 entries were received locally, and in December auditions were held in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, using judges from the SA Chefs’ Association.  Later this month a shortlist of amateur cooks will appear before the judges, and the finalists will be selected. Cape Town’s reputation as ‘foodie capital’ was evident in the very high quality of dishes which the contestants prepared and in their impressive knowledge about food. Durban contestants were said to have been the most creative.   The stakes are incredibly high, with prizes to the value of R8 million being the highest payout of any reality television program in this country.  Robertson’s is offering R250000 in cash; the winner will receive a Hyundai Elantra;  a 7-day culinary experience in Italy is sponsored by Woolworths; Nederburg will offer a food and wine pairing course, cellarmaster Razvan Macici will do a one-on-one master class with the winner, and the winner receives a year’s supply of Nederburg Winemasters Reserve wine; and the crowning chef’s hat will be the running of MondoVino restaurant for a year, taking over Chef Bennie’s job.

Chef Pete Goffe-Wood is a colourful outspoken character, who was an Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant judge for a number of years, until the judging panel was thrown out by Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly last year.  He is a judge of the San Pellegrino World ’s 50 Best Restaurants, still judges the Eat In Produce Awards, is the owner of the Kitchen Cowboys Cookery School for men, has owned Wildwoods restaurant in Hout Bay and the restaurant at Nitida, and has been a consultant chef to SALT restaurant at the Ambassador Hotel and to Blues. He has been a food editor of GQ.  Bennie Masekwameng is the Executive Chef of MondoVino restaurant at Montecasino, while Andrew Atkinson is the Chef at Piccolo Mondo, and is a Director of the South African Chefs’ Association. Andrew has owned a catering company, cooking for VIP’s, and presented a series of 32 cooking programs on SABC 2 during the World Cup last year.  The Facebook writer for Masterchef SA has written that the judges were concentrating on their briefing, to explain their stern look in the photograph!

The judges have said that they are looking for passion, planning, personality, and experimentation, in selecting South Africa’s top amateur Master Chef.  There is no doubt that Masterchef SA will become the most talked about TV programme on Social Media from March onwards, if the reaction last year to Masterchef Australia is anything to go by.  Masterchef USA starts airing on M-Net on 16 January at 6 pm, with judges Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich, and Graham Elliot.

POSTSCRIPT 8/1:  It would appear that top local chefs will be invited to judge individual sessions.  As soon as their names have been confirmed, we will add them to this blogpost.

POSTSCRIPT 8/1: Interestingly, the link to this blogpost, which we added to the Masterchef SA Facebook page this morning, has been removed.

POSTSCRIPT 30/1: The Cape Town leg of Masterchef South Africa commenced at Nederburg today.  The venue has not been officially announced by M-Net, but was mentioned by Nederburg Tasting Room staff a week ago. From Tweets this morning, judge Pete Goffe-Wood and stylist Sam Linsell will be spending the following six weeks at their Masterchef South Africa shoot location.

POSTSCRIPT 6/2:  An official media release received from Nederburg’s media agency today has confirmed that the Masterchefs SA series is being shot at the wine estate, being its wine sponsor too.  ”This could well be the loveliest venue ever chosen for a MasterChef series anywhere in the world’, says Anne Davis, M-Net’s senior commissioning editor of the series.  ”We wanted to shoot in the Winelands because Cape vineyards are immediately recognisable to local and international viewers as distinctly South African.  The Western Cape is also the culinary capital of South Africa and has great access to fresh produce”.  Nederburg revamped its 1000 square meter Johan Graue Auction Hall to become a 20-station MasterChef kitchen with state-of-the-art appliances and utensils, in which the 18-series programmes will be filmed.

POSTSCRIPT 7/2: Sam Linsell, stylist for MasterChef SA, although never formally announced as such by M-Net, parted ways after a week of shooting, announcing her departure as follows on Twitter on 5 February: “It was love at first sight, a whirlwind relationship but with little in common, Masterchef and I have parted ways. Disappointed & relieved”.

POSTSCRIPT 14/3: Chef Vannie Padayachee, now living in Franschhoek again, was involved with MasterChef SA for the past 5 weeks, testing the recipes of the participants, she told me today.  She has signed a confidentiality contract with M-Net, and will share her MasterChef SA experience with us once the programme series starts airing.

POSTSCRIPT 14/3: On Twitter today we saw that a new MasterChef SA recipe book will be published by Human & Rosseau in October.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

It was hard to get a grip on the deliberations of the United Nations COP (Conference of Parties) 17 Climate Change Conference, which took place in Durban over the last two weeks, and ended a day late with a last minute agreement reached yesterday, but it certainly placed Durban and South Africa on the world news map.   It also had a magnificent tourism benefit, the Durban hospitality industry saying that it was bigger and better than the 2010 soccer World Cup.

Close to 15000 delegates from 200 countries met for two weeks, and agreed in the 11th hour to one global law regarding greenhouse emissions.  The Durban Platform for Enhanced Action is a bundle of agreements, which extends the Kyoto Protocol by five years, establishes a Green Climate Fund, looks to transfer clean technology to poorer countries, seeks the protection of forests, and addresses further technical issues, reports the Cape Times. No specific deal has been made yet regarding greenhouse emissions, but the principle is that every nation has agreed to reduce these, a first as it includes the worst greenhouse gas offenders USA and China too.  The agreements will be finalised in 2015, and enforceable from 2020.  President Zuma had asked the delegates in his opening address to ‘save tomorrow today’.

Reaction to the outcome of the conference has been mixed, some saying it was a lot of ‘hot air’, was ‘too late’ and ‘too vague’.  Scientists have said that global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2017, to avoid dangerous climate change.   Greenpeace International said that ‘the new accord could take the globe over the 2°C threshold at which we pass from danger to global catastrophe‘, according to a report in The Times. At the Conference, ESKOM and Sasol were named South Africa’s most heavy polluters, reported Business Report. ‘Green bank’ Nedbank funded the Eskom Medupi coal-fired power station, which violates World Bank environmental regulations.

Durban is expected to have generated R1 billion in revenue, having received R200 million from the government and utilising R50 million of its own funds to stage the conference. Accommodation in the city was fully booked, reports The Times, with 160000 bed nights and 495000 meals sold. Delegates supported local restaurants, tourist shops, and transport companies.  Durban was highlighted as a city with good organisational skills and infrastructure.   Critically a delegate commented about the non-climate friendly 5* hotel changing towels every day, and not requesting the guest to indicate when this should be done, a lesson for accommodation establishments to demonstrate their contribution to going green.

Glamour VIP visitors to the conference, including Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as well as Prince Albert and Princess Charléne, attracted further media attention to Durban. The Jolie/Pitt couple rented a villa at Zimbali Coastal Resort, at R8500 per day, reported the Sunday Times. Oprah Winfrey and the President of Panama have previously rented the house. The Monaco royal couple stayed at The Oyster Box again, where the princess had stayed during their South African honeymoon.

At least one COP17 Conference delegate found time to extend his visit to Durban to fly to Cape Town, and is staying at Whale Cottage Camps Bay.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage

A R32 million three-year advertising campaign to promote Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg is in the pipeline, if the three city tourism bodies approve their contribution of R8 million each to the campaign, reports the Daily News.

Designed by controversial Cape Town Tourism’s Australian Strategetic Consultant Ian Macfarlane, the campaign is said to be flighted on Discovery (a client of Macfarlane, as we reported previously, but not mentioned by the newspaper) and on National Geographic channels, with ‘billions of TV viewers’.   The viewership figure is widely exaggerated, Wikipedia reporting that Discovery Channel has 431 million and National Geographic Channel 160 million viewers internationally.

The Daily News refers to Macfarlane’s ’success with tourism ventures in New Zealand, Australia and Abu Dhabi’. We have previously written about the failure of Macfarlane’s Tourism Australia campaign.  The campaign is said to start in April 2012, meaning that it will not benefit the tourism industry for summer at all.  While it would be noble for the timing of the campaign to address seasonality that Cape Town suffers from specifically, it could be a failure if flighted only in our winter months.

Discovery Channel is said to make an hour-long movie about South Africans’ lifestyles, and National Geographic will produce a 30-minute programme.  For Durban, the joint campaign would counter the loss of 1,9 million tourists in the last five years, translating up to R2 billion, the article reports. SA Tourism will also be requested to contribute R8 million to the marketing campaign.

Information about the presentation by Macfarlane to Durban Tourism about the new joint marketing campaign appeared in The Mercury too last week, but no reporting about the approval of the funds has been seen in Cape Town and Johannesburg-based media, nor national media.  The Mercury listed Macfarlane’s experience with the ‘Pure New Zealand‘, the failed Tourism Australia campaign, his association with Gold Coast Tourism, and marketing for Sydney and Abu Dhabi.  It also mentions campaigns for Auckland and India, which did not appear on Macfarlane’s Strategetic Consultants’ website (and surprisingly contains no information about the consultancy anymore), nor can they be found on a Google search. In The Mercury, Macfarlane is quoted as saying that Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban are not well known globally. He is also said to have expressed the view that SA Tourism’s marketing of the country is focused around the ‘Big Five’ and natural beauty, when 78% of the world’s tourists are ‘urban travellers’. His criticism of the marketing by SA Tourism is interesting, given that SA Tourism is expected to be one of the four funders of the joint city marketing programme. Macfarlane said:“Our campaign through this three cities joint tourism marketing initiative aims to put South Africa’s three top urban hubs in the global spotlight. We have negotiated agreements with major channels such as National Geographic and Discovery, which will see a dedicated programme created for Durban, Cape Town, and Joburg (sic)“, interesting in that the agreement has been negotiated  without clarity of funding from all four the parties. “It’s an unbelievable package that we have negotiated and an opportunity that should not be missed. I am optimistic the cities will secure the funds and hope SA Tourism will come on board”, he concluded.  Macfarlane added that the cities would get more than R32 million in value from the proposed programme.

Today Cape Town Tourism reveals to its members its advertising campaign, designed by its advertising agency Ogilvy Cape Town.

POSTSCRIPT I7/10: I spoke to Phillip Sithole, CEO of Durban Tourism, who was featured in the articles, after trying to reach him six times during the day.  Each time he made me call back.  He was evasive in providing further detail, saying that the campaign is still confidential.  He did not know which of the cities have had their contribution to the campaign approved, and said that they were meeting SA Tourism next month, to discuss it with them.  He said that each city was to get an hour-long programme, which would be flighted regularly over the three year period.  He emphasised the Lifestyle content of the programme, focusing on the urban lifestyle each city offers, including restaurants, entertainment, events, accommodation, education, music festivals and more.  Coverage would not only be on the TV channels but also in the affiliated magazines of the channels.  He became very agitated and defensive when I asked him if he knew about the failure of the Tourism Australia campaign, saying that failure was good, and meant that Macfarlane would have learnt from it!  He said that he believes in the proposed campaign, and supports it.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage