Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

The new restaurant Shaka Zulu, scheduled to open in London in April, is to play an important role in marketing South Africa, and in promoting tourism to the country, says Paul Bannister, CEO of the International Marketing Council, a body tasked with marketing South Africa internationally, reports the Weekend Argus.

The new restaurant is being developed to the value of R 66 million in Camden Market, London, as a nightclub, a restaurant, a cocktail lounge and an African theatre. It can seat 750 patrons, and will feature a water-garden and crystal leopards.     Patrons will be able to eat South African food, and taste South Africa’s best beers and wines.   Savanna cider is expected to be one of the brands stocked, given its popularity in the U.K.

At the entrance to the venue a display cabinet will show off South African products, including Zulu artwork.   King Goodwill Zwelithini, head of the Zulu tribe, has endorsed the project.

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

The Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, has announced that he has contracted Grant Thornton to conduct a survey of accommodation prices during the June/July World Cup period, and to benchmark these against the prices of accommodation in countries that previously hosted FIFA World Cups, reports www.iol.co.za.  The survey is to be conducted, despite the tourism industry body Tourism Business Council of South Africa and FIFA’s MATCH accommodation agency denying that World Cup prices are excessive.

The survey comes amidst international criticism that accommodation pricing is excessive and deemed to be “rip-off”.   Van Schalkwyk said that “the survey would help safeguard the reputation of the South African tourism industry, since South Africa is a ‘value-for-money destination’  Price-hiking could damage the reputation of our tourism industry”, he said.

Van Schalkwyk did make it clear that tourists could not expect to pay normal low-season rates during the World Cup : “……June and July 2010 will be high season in South Africa”.

The Grant Thornton survey will only be conducted amongst professional accommodation establishments, and will exclude private homes.

The Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), which claims to be ‘the official umbrella body for organised business in the South African travel and tourism industry’, and MATCH, FIFA’s accommodation agency, have made a joint statement that the industry pricing is not rip-off nor excessive, reports S A Tourism Update.  The TBCSA chairman Mmatsatsi Marobe praised the tourism sector for not charging “exorbitant prices as they understood the long-term effect on tourism into South Africa, but it was the doing of a few small suppliers that put South Africa in a bad light”, she said.   The MATCH Chairman, Jaime Byron, came with the following brilliant logic about pricing: “…the 2010 FIFA World Cup was expected to be more expensive than previous tournaments because it was a long-haul destination.  This makes South Africa inherently more expensive”, he is quoted as saying!   It was noted by them that the media should be careful about attacking the World Cup pricing, as it had to be accurate about what exactly was included in the prices quoted in such media reports (e.g. accommodation, tickets, transport).  

The TBCSA/MATCH statements are ironic, as MATCH has been blamed for excessive “rip-off pricing” since it started recruiting accommodation for the World Cup four years ago, demanding a 30 % commission from accommodation establishments initially, and now just adding this commission percentage on to the already high accommodation rates! 

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

The tourism industry in Cape Town will be disappointed that none of the 32 World Cup teams have chosen a base camp in or near Cape Town.   The base camp location has an important attraction for fans, who want to stay in the same towns and cities as their home team. 

Despite a deadline of the end of last month, FIFA has given the teams one more week to finalise their choice.  Six teams have not yet announced their final base camp choice.

The Western Cape has 2 teams (France and Denmark) staying in Knysna at Pezula and Simola, respectively, and Japan will be based in George at the Fancourt Hotel. 

Gauteng has the most teams to date, who chose the province for the altitude for their practice sessions, the top quality sport facilities and top quality accommodation : The Netherlands, South Africa, Portugal, Serbia, New Zealand, Slovenia, Brazil, Australia, Honduras, Switzerland, North Korea, and Mexico. 

Pretoria has attracted USA, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, and Argentina.   KwaZulu-Natal has secured Algeria, Ivory Coast, Greece, and Paraguay.   Uruguay is staying in Kimberley.   Ghana  is staying in White River. England and South Korea are staying in Rustenberg.  Chile is staying in Mapumalanga.   Spain has not chosen between Rustenburg and Potchefstroom yet.

Many municipalities spent big money trying to encourage teams to set up base camps in their towns.  Mossel Bay was sure that it had bagged Paraguay, and both Val du Vie and Pearl Valley outside Franschhoek were rumoured to have signed up a team.  The Sunday Times reports that the Mossel Bay municipality spent R 200 million on its bid, and had launched an extensive Spanish language campaign for tourism players in the town.   Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth and East London also did not attract any base camps.

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

Tourism in Cape Town will enjoy a double whammy at the start of the World Cup, with FIFA’s Local Organising Committee and the South African Rugby Union reaching an agreement which will allow the rugby test match between the Springboks and the French team to be played at Newlands on Saturday 12 June, reports the Cape Argus. 

According to the FIFA rules, no other sporting events may take place from 24 May onwards, to ensure that they do not drain any host city’s infrastructure, and its ability to host the World Cup.  As the rugby test match will not be played on a FIFA match day in Cape Town, permission was granted for the test match.

Cape Town can be expected to be invaded by French rugby and soccer fans in June, as the French soccer team plays Uruguay on Friday 11 June, the World Cup starting day, and the French rugby team plays the Springboks on Saturday 12 June.

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

Germany’s largest travel company, TUI Deutschland GmbH, is hosting 100 TUI travel agents in the Cape area for a week.

The agents were specially selected out of 2 500 applicants, and they will experience a safari in the Eastern Cape, and four days in Cape Town and surrounding areas.  A travel expo will be set up for them in Stellenbosch, at which local product owners can interact with the agents.  The Cape leg of their trip will end ”at one of Camps Bay’s trendiest venues”, reports Cape Business News.

TUI Travel PLC, the parent company of the German TUI, is the largest tourism company in the world, and aggressively sells South African packages in the German market.  It has more than 20 % market share, and is represented in 180 countries, serving 30 million clients internationally

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

The Sweet Service Award goes to Allee Bleue in Franschhoek, for laying on the most wonderful lunch on a perfect summer’s day 2 weeks ago.   Invited guests were hotel/guest house owners/managers as well as media representatives.  The lunch was held in the new wine tasting courtyard, which looks very chic, the many staff were immaculately dressed in the Allee Bleue branded aprons and bow ties, and live music was performed.  The lunch was prepared by lovely and ever-smiling Chef Dane Newton, and the starter was a Taste of the Sea Assiette, a seafood collection of salmon, crayfish, calamari and prawns, beautifully plated; the main course was an “Inside out sirloin burger”, with a potato galette served between a layer of sirloin steak and beef mince; and a “Strawberry Delight” pannacotta dessert was served.   The appointment of GM Wolfgang Leyrer, who joined Allee Bleue less than a year ago, has resulted in a most amazing transformation of the wine estate, has added picnics and the wine tasting lunch menu, and is expanding the wedding capacity of the estate, it being one of the most popular wedding destinations in the area.   This is the third Sweet Service Award Allee Bleue has won since the inception of the Sweet & Sour Service Awards over a year ago. 

The Sour Service Award goes to the management of Robben Island, who have not operated their ferry Sikhululekile to the iconic island for 2 weeks now, because a part has to be flown in from Germany.   This is the third time in four months that the R 26 million ferry has not operated, in periods during which Cape Town has numerous tourists visiting the city.  The Sea Princess, with a capacity half of that of the Robben Island ferry, has been chartered for the time being.

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 Chairman of the Cape Whale Coast Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO), and also Chairman of the Hermanus Tourism Bureau, Clinton Lerm, has done an about-turn in his support of an anti-nuclear power plant campaign in the area of his jurisdiction, reports the Cape Times.  

The two proposed ESKOM nuclear power stations are to be built at Bantamsklip, 4 km from Buffelsjagsbaai and 6 km from Pearly Beach, on the Cape Whale Coast beyond Gansbaai.  The “site lies within the hottest internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot”, the Save Bantamsklip website says, and is regarded as a SA Natural Heritage Site and is a Historic Monument.  It is adjacent to Dyer Island Nature Reserve, breeding ground of the penguins, and to the Great White Shark Marine Sanctuary.

Tourism and marine life conservation bodies have been up in arms about the proposed nuclear plant, and Lerm in November expressed his support on behalf of the Hermanus Tourism Bureau to the Save Bantamsklip awareness campaign.  Furthermore he pledged R 1 000 to the campaign, and offered his services and those of his members to participate in a march against the proposed power plant in December, at which time a petition opposing the construction of the power plants was delivered to the Overstrand Municipality in Hermanus.   The petition was signed by the Managers of the Hermanus and Gansbaai tourism bureaus, which report to the DMO.

Now Lerm has withdrawn his support of the campaign, after he was called to a meeting with the Mayor of the Overstrand Municipality, the R 2,5 million funder of the Cape Whale Coast DMO.   

Last week the Mayor of the Overstrand, Theo Beyleveldt, released a statement to state that “his inquiries had found Save Bantamsklip had been “dishonest” in claiming that several organisations had supported its views.    Beyleveldt claimed that Dyer Island Cruises had also turned against the Save Bantamsklip campaign, but its head Wilfred Chivell angrily negated this, saying :”There is no way I will back off from supporting Save Bantamsklip.  This nuclear power station will be horrible for tourism and I will fight this menace”!  Chivell is a founder member of Save Bantamsklip. 

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

Tourism and travel in 2010 will remain depressed, but travellers will demand more individualised holidays, and will be seeking value for money, in the form of good rates, travelling to countries that offer good exchange rates, and joining clubs that offer exclusive discounts, according to the website www.mrandmrssmith.com, reports The Star.

Stark minimalist hotels will be replaced with homely “granny-chic” ones, which are comfortable and “homey”.   “Green” travel becomes more important, with travellers checking out the “green credentials” of their destinations.

The Top 10 specific travel and tourism trends highlighted by the website are the following:

1.   “Cheap-chic holiday houses and apartments”, opening up more self-catering accommodation with higher levels of service and presentation

2.   Guest Houses and B&B’s will become “Boutique”, as have their hotel counterparts, to give them “come-hither sexiness”

3.   All-inclusive packages, with no hidden service charges or extras

4.   Hotels are increasingly becoming environmentally independent, to lower their carbon emissions - water from a local spring, solar energy, saving seabirds,  etc.

5.   “Bleisure” travel will increase, whereby business and leisure travel are combined, with business travellers wanting their corporate travel needs met, but within a leisure environment, or adding on extra time to a business trip, to which they invite their partner.

6.   Mexico, and surrounding countries, have increased in attractiveness as a luxury travel destination

7.   “Traincations”  will increase, with high-speed train travel across Europe.

8.   “Flashpacking” is backpacking with a higher budget and more style, closer to 5-star accommodation than youth hostels

9.   “Granny chic” is a move away from “look-don’t-touch minimalist” to “traditional-with-a-twist homey comforts” hotels.

10.   “Hip hotels” that are family friendly - they not only “tolerate” children, but welcome them and make the family holiday an enjoyable one.

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

“Cape Town tourism plummets” was the dramatic headline of EyeWitnessNews yesterday, reflecting the decline in tourism this season so far, particularly in the Western Cape interior.

The report quotes Cape Town Routes Unlimited, which it mistakenly refers to as “Cape Town’s official tourism marketing body”, as admitting that “the Mother City is experiencing a dismal year, with the number of visitors significantly lower than in previous years.”   According to the report, Cape Town Routes Unlimited CEO Calvyn Gilfellan has visited Western Cape tourism districts, and received feedback of varying tourism numbers, especially along the Garden Route.

The Whale Cottage Portfolio can also confirm this scenario, with November being a poor month in Franschhoek (32 % occupancy - normally this month is close to fully booked), in Hermanus (66 % occupancy - usually close to fully booked), and in Plettenberg Bay (28 %).   Only Whale Cottage Camps Bay in Cape Town held its own with an occupancy in November of 88%, yet down from 96 % last year.

The festive season period is almost fully booked at the Whale Cottages in Camps Bay and in Plettenberg Bay, the cricket match in Cape Town in early January being a big boost for Camps Bay bookings.   Hermanus is seeing the poorest bookings over the festive season, despite the area having a new Destination Marketing Organisation, but which is just not bringing in the bookings.

South African Tourism’s Global Manager: Product, Hanneli Slabber, states in her Christmas message that this “..has been one of the industry’s toughest years”.  She encourages emphasis on Service Excellence, in that it is the little touches that makes visitors return to a destination and a tourism product.  “What our visitors want in 2010 is something their money can’t buy.  It’s called Service Excellence - and it comes from being professional at what you do, competent in how you do it, and treating people with genuine warmth and respect when you do it” she writes.

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

Peter Bacon, former Sun International CEO, and current Chairman of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, has been appointed to two illustrious tourism positions - as Chairman of the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa Awards Committee,  and as a Board member of South African Tourism, reports The Citizen.

The Awards Committee of the Tourism Grading Council evaluates the stars awarded to accommodation establishments, not just for new establishments, but also for the annual renewal.

The Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, lauded the appointments of Bacon: “It is a privilege to have Mr Bacon on board to help us with the challenge to grow tourism to a major sector of the South African economy.   His experience in the hospitality industry will be of immense value to the Tourism Grading Council and I am very pleased that he has agreed to make this important contribution to our industry.   The quality assurance credibility of South Africa is of utmost importance and will be a very important factor in our successful hosting of the Soccer World Cup in 2010, as well as the continued growth of the sector beyond 2010″, he said.

Bacon appears to be a very low-key operator, not having made any public statements since he took over the chairmanship of controversial Cape Town Routes Unlimited two years ago.   He is perhaps more publicly known as the husband of Anneline Kriel, a former Miss World.

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