Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

The authoritative Bon Appetit magazine, which is an important source of food information for its American readers, recently brought a delegation of readers to the Cape in conjunction with the USA offices of S A Tourism and AuthentEscapes, and was hosted by Cape Town Routes Unlimited.

Heading the Bon Appetit group was Victoria von Biel, the publication’s executive editor.  A welcoming reception was hosted for her party at the Grande Roche Hotel in Paarl.

In March the publication featured Cape Town, with a pic of Camps Bay beach and the Twelve Apostles as its main photograph.   It recommended the restaurants Biesmiellah, Bizerca Bistro, The Foodbarn, Bukhara, Anatoli, Caveau, and the Olympia Cafe and Deli as its “picks”.  One hopes that the magazine’s restaurant recommendations will improve after the latest visit. 

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio www.whalecottage.com

The best tourism news in a long time is the announcement by Frankfurt-based Kleber PR Network that it has been appointed to market Cape Town, reports DeinTouristNet.

Kleber PR Network has good experience of marketing South Africa in Germany for the past 15 years, having been the PR company in Germany for S A Tourism for many years, until the local national marketing body appointed Ogilvy as its new advertising agency, with an affiliated PR company, therefore relinquishing its relationship with Kleber.  

Whale Cottage has accommodated S A Tourism journalists over the years, and can vouch for the knowledge of and passion for Cape Town and the rest of South Africa of the Kleber PR Network executives. 

Hanna Kleber, CEO of Kleber PR Network, said: “Kapstadt hat jede Menge Potential und wir freuen uns darauf, die Stadt mit gezielten Maßnahmen weiter im Urlaubs- und Businessreise-Markt zu etablieren.   Mit seiner traumhaften Lage an zwei Weltmeeren, dem spannenden Mix aus Nationalitäten und Kulturen und einer landschaftlichen Vielfalt, die ihres gleichen sucht, hat sich Kapstadt in den letzten Jahren als eine der großen internationalen Lifestylemetropolen einen Namen gemacht. Im Zuge der FIFA Fussballweltmeisterschaft 2010 - wird die Stadt zudem als wichtige Austragungsstätte im Fokus der Öffentlichkeit stehen.” (Kleber PR will further enhance Cape Town’s presence in the leisure and business tourism markets, and will position the city as a lifestyle metropole, being very much in the focus for the 2010 World Cup.)

One wonders why Cape Town Tourism does not communicate such exciting news to its members.  WhaleTales recently criticised the lack of visible marketing by Cape Town Tourism and by Cape Town Routes Unlimited, but neither of the two bodies responded to this criticism.  

The appointment of a PR company to market South Africa’s top tourism asset is fantastic news, and would delight its members, especially at a time when membership renewals are due!

Communication with Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, CEO of Cape Town Tourism, has confirmed the appointment of the Kleber PR Network for the marketing of Cape Town in Germany, and she also communicated that a PR company has been appointed in the UK.  A similar appointment is expected in The Netherlands shortly.

Read the full report here

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

The Sweet Service Award  goes to Woolworths in Regent Road in Sea Point, for trusting a customer with payment for a trolley-full of groceries on the day that Woolworths had a technical problem in accepting payment by credit card.   A small sign, not visible to customers entering the store, stated that the store could only take payment in cash, which meant that most customers arrived at the till with their trollies, wanting to pay with their credit cards.   An imprint was done of the card, and the customer was asked to sign the credit card slip when next in the store, given that she is a regular shopper at the store.

The Sour Service Award goes to Google and its representative in South Africa, New Approach Marketing, based in Johannesburg.  About once a week a heavily British-accented person calls guest houses, starting with the insulting introduction to the effect of: “Hello ma’m, I am calling from Google.  Have you ever heard of our company?”.  This is enough to get one’s back up.   When one questions where they are calling from, the caller gets defensive, especially when one has a caller with such a distinctive British accent claiming to call from Johannesburg.  Any questioning of this has led to a torrent of abuse, including a lady caller, who decided to call back to add to the verbal abuse of her male colleague, by calling the recipient of the call a racist and referring to our countryfolk as “blimming South Africans”!  The call centre staff are rude, and never allow one to finish a sentence, that it would be a surprise if they sold anyone Google adwords.  A more gentle salesperson later in the day explained that New Approach Marketing is representing Google in South Africa, and can get guest houses in Hermanus in the top 10 of Google for searches on “B & B in Hermanus” and similar, in “8 - 12 weeks”, on a “no contract” basis, at the cost of R 1 300 per month + VAT + R 265 set up fee.   He explained the broad Manchester dialect in that 30 of his colleagues have come from the UK to set up a branch of the company in Johannesburg, to train South Africans to take over the call centre eventually, and will move to Perth and to Canada, to set up similar operations there.   As a company was calling on behalf of  S A Tourism a few months ago, the caller was asked if the calls are being done on behalf of S A Tourism - his diplomatic but evasive answer was “not as far as I am aware”.  The content of the call was reported to George, the manager of New Approach Marketing in Johannesburg, and he promised to investigate.   His response was that it must be a competitor company calling directly from the UK, also representing Google, that made the abusive calls!

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.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

The Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, yesterday launched a Brand Messaging Book for Tourism, in preparation for the 2010 World Cup.

The Brand Messaging Book, a mouthful of a brand name which could have been more polished, was prepared by S A Tourism for South Africans who come into contact with foreign visitors for the World Cup, to ensure that they ’sing off the same songsheet’ when they discuss the country, and to make them “confident brand ambassadors for South Africa” says BuaNews.

The BuaNews (government news agency) media release describes the country as follows: “South Africa is the adventure capital of the world, offering visitors scenic beauty, magnificent outdoors, sunny climate, and cultural diversity - all of which have made it a popular leisure travel destination.”   The claim to be the “adventure capital of the world” seems inappropriate and unsubstantiated by the rest of the description provided, as well as relative to previous marketing messages about South Africa.

“Destination messages” are detailed in the Brand Messaging Book for core target markets, e.g. the global travel trade, consumers, and event organisers.   It also contains “inspirational messages”; beautiful photographs; ideas; information to counter “negative perceptions and realities” about safety, malaria and visas; recipes; and facts and figures about South Africa.

The Brand Messaging Book for Tourism can be ordered from itspossible@southafrica.net

At the same function Minister van Schalkwyk announced that soccer star, ex Bafana Bafana captain and Leeds United player Lucas Radebe has been appointed the S A 2010 Ambassador to the world.   Radebe will work with S A Tourism “to help deliver destination messages and to help grow interest in South Africa globally, not only as host of the FIFA spectacular, but also as a holiday destination.” says acting S A Tourism CEO Didi Moyle, as reported by Engineering News.   “He has the stature and the global credibility this role demands.  He is exceptionally well travelled globally, but his heart lies here in South Africa.  He loves our destination and our people.  He is a champion of South Africa’s ability to successfully host the World Cup.”

Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Didi Moyle, acting CEO of  SA Tourism, welcomed the players and fans attending the Confederations Cup.   “Let the games begin”, she said.   The FIFA Confederations Cup runs until 28 June, and will be played in Johannesburg, Rustenburg, Bloemfontein and Pretoria.

“South African Tourism welcomes players and fans to South Africa. We’re excited about the tournament, not only because it offers our industry a truly incredible opportunity to showcase our destination, but also because it gives us a chance to show off our infrastructure and to have our visitors witness the effort that we have put into preparing for this world class event,” she added, as reported in Travelwires. “We are beyond ready. People now need to come and celebrate with us, this magnificent feat of being able to host these sporting events,” she added.

The opening Confederations Cup match between South Africa’s Bafana Bafana team and Iraq was broadcast by SABC 1, and more than half the commentary was in a vernacular language not understood by a large part of the local population, which could lead to a lack of interest in watching the other games in the series.  Close to 50 000 soccer fans saw the match in Johannesburg.  The Iraqi team coach was interviewed by the SABC after the match, and he answered questions in Spanish after the match, which the interviewer also did not understand!  The Bafana Bafana coach went into hiding, and did not make his interview.  The second match of the day was won 5 - 0 by Spain against New Zealand, to an almost empty Rustenberg stadium, begging the question if the stadium is a white elephant!

Cape Town has been named Africa’s leading destination for the second year running by the World Travel Awards, and the award was accepted by the City of Cape Town and Cape Town Tourism jointly.

Cape Town Tourism was named a finalist in the Best Tourism Organisation and Best Marketing Campaign in Africa categories.   The Mount Nelson Hotel was named the Best Hotel in Africa, SAA best airline in Africa, OR Thambo International as best African airport, Europcar the Leading Car hire company in Africa, Cape Town as leading Port in Africa, and S A Tourism was named as Africa’s leading Tourist Board. 

The winners of the World Travel Awards are voted for by travel agents.   The awards have been running for 16 years.

It has been confirmed by S A Tourism that it is using an Australian call centre to update the National Tourism Product Database.

In a call to William Price, Global Head of e-Marketing at S A Tourism, he spoke openly and honestly about the problems the tourism marketing company had in finding a South African company that could accurately verify the contact details of tourism products in South Africa.  S A Tourism wants to add the details of all tourism products onto its new website, which it is launching at Indaba in May.

It then appointed Yodel, a call centre company started by South Africans in Australia and New Zealand, who are now setting up a branch office in South Africa.  The call centre company is more efficient and less expensive in offering its service than the South African call centres it had used previously, Price says.

Price had e-mailed “tourism product partners” last month, to state that “South African Tourism and Google have partnered to do a complete clean-up of the National Tourism Product Database.”   The letter did warn one to not “be alarmed by the Aussie accent when you get the phone call.”

Since the letter was sent, product owners have received numerous calls from persons with heavy American and other accents (none from Australia though), claiming to be from South African Tourism in Randburg.   As they struggle badly with some brand names ‘ e.g. ‘Whale Cottage Franschhoek” it is immediately clear that they are not from this country.   Every caller that was asked in which country the call centre was based, put down the phone without answering.   The most recent caller was honest enough to say that it is based in the Philippines!

Price also explained in the call made to him (two e-mails were sent to and a telephonic message left for him, without any response) yesterday that his organisation is looking to assist small product owners who do not have a website.  In conjunction with Google, such product owners will be given a free website and domain for three months, and S A Tourism has set aside a budget of R 500 000 for this.

Vodacom is also looking to offer new product owners connectivity services.

It will be interesting to see what level of success the call centre will have, as the initial reaction one has to someone claiming to call from “S A Tourism in Randburg” with a heavy non-South African accent is one of disbelief.   Even harder is being able to understand the strongly-accented call centre staff, something one normally has a problem with if the calls come from local call centres!

A comprehensive two-day conference on wine tourism will be held at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town on 21and 22 July, with the theme of “Share, innovate, inspire”.

Trends and best practices in the $15 billion global wine tourism industry will form the spotlight of the 2009 South African Wine Tourism Conference, with topics including the proposed new liquor law, e-marketing and blogs,  wine festivals, an overview of Australia’s wine tourism strategy, the lessons that the German wine and tourism industry learnt during the 2006 World Cup, customer attraction and retention, responsible tourism, and creating tourism brands.   

Speakers will include representatives of leading wine farms, tourism industry bodies and marketing specialists.

S A Tourism is re-developing its website www.southafrica.net, and the government tourism promotion agency, together with Google, is doing a “complete clean-up of the National Tourism Product Database” says an e-mail sent to tourism players yesterday.

Sent by William Price, the Global Head: eMarketing of S A Tourism, the letter encourages co-operation to help to update each tourism player’s information, particularly in the interest of 2010.   The e-mail contains an 8-digit verification code, which must be requested of the S A Tourism representative when he/she calls.  

What is most astounding is that the letter says”….and don’t be alarmed by the Aussie accent when you get your phone call.”    Whale Cottage was called by a man with an American accent earlier this week, requesting update information.    The immediate question to the caller was to understand why a South African tourism agency would use a non-South African company to update the S A Tourism website.  The caller could not explain this.  This reply, plus the poor ability to understand his American-accented questions, made Whale Cottage decline the rest of the call.

The e-mail promises that the website will showcase the tourism products as follows:

It will be interesting to see what degree of co-operation S A Tourism will receive for the tourism information update, given that the e-mail with the verification code has to kept until the call is received.  No date for the call is specified.   

Whale Cottage has written to S A Tourism, to check why a South African company cannot update the tourism product database.

Germany’s most prominent society magazine Bunte has started a South Africa blog, in preparation for the 2010 World Cup. 

The magazine has a large and high profile readership, and the new blog should have a strong marketing benefit for the country.   However, the blog writer, whilst a guest of S A Tourism, is not completely positive, if one reads his first two posts.

Although advertised as being a daily blog, only two posts have appeared since 5 March.    The first post praises the one-hour time shift between Germany and South Africa; describes an uncomfortable night’s sleep on SAA (!); covers a visit to the newly built Rustenburg stadium, which makes the writer question whether the construction will be completed in time for June 2010, but is assured by the construction management that he should not be concerned; and his stay-over at The Lost City, which the writer refers to as a South African “Disneyland”, he questions whether it is not a little too “kitschig” and comments about the note in the room that he has to close his windows to prevent monkeys from getting into his room at night!

The second post describes a safari in the Pilansberg game reserve, and that he does not get to see lions; and refers to a soccer match between Orlando Pirates against Bay United, at Ellis Park, in which match the referee allows 8 minutes of extra time, on which the writer comments cynically, as he does about hardly seeing any whites attending the match, and refers to the stampede at the stadium in 2001, in which 43 persons died!

The Bunte blog is at http://www.bunte.de/leben/bunte-unterwegs/unterwegs-in-suedafrika/unterwegs-wilde-tiere-und-fussball_aid_8812.html.