Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

The World Cup was an unprecedented success, in terms of its organisation and the tremendous goodwill it caused amongst locals as well as international soccer fans.  In addition, and having a longer lasting effect, is that the above-the-line media as well as social media impact of the World Cup set new records for this event, not just for South Africa, but for the soccer body FIFA too.

*   3,2 million soccer fans attended the 32 matches around the country, and about one third of the tickets were bought by about 350000 international visitors - the word-of-mouth feedback to their friends and family is the most credible marketing South Africa could wish for, and is free-of-charge!

*   Highest TV coverage ever was achieved, and reached an unprecedented 700 million viewers for the Final alone 

*   The online coverage was the most dramatic, because much of it was a new way of communicating to soccer fans and about the World Cup, reports the Weekend Argus:

     +   BBC News online ran 120 stories, and the Washington Post 48 stories during the World Cup, both being influential online newspaper services

      +   The FIFA.com website had 150 million unique visitors during the World Cup, three times as many as in 2006. 

       +   South Africa’s unique identity, personality and character was woven into the soccer reporting by the international online media, and so the country’s ability to manage the tournament, and our unique vuvuzela and makarapa became world terms on blog posts, Twitter, comments to blog posts and online articles, and on Facebook.

       +   The value of the online coverage was just short of R30 million, based on 148 million persons communicating about South Africa in the context of the World Cup online, calculated by BrandsEye, a local online agency.   This value was created by soccer fans and the media for free, and did not cost South African Tourism a cent in coverage!

       +   Just more than half of the mentions (58%) about the country came from the USA, a surprisingly small 10% from the UK, and only 8% from South Africa.

       +   The mentions were analysed in terms of degree of positivity, and 55% were “strongly positive”, 40% were factual or neutral in terms of content, and 5% were negative.

       +   Twitter played an important role in spreading the word about South Africa, not only via celebrity (e.g. Paris Hilton has more than 2 million followers) and soccer star Tweets, but also Twitter accounts with huge numbers of followers (e.g. Sports Illustrated, with close to 285000 followers).

In June traffic to the Whale Cottage website almost trebled to 129000 unique visitors, due to the World Cup, but also due to the engagement of Prince Albert and Charlene Wittstock, as the blog contains a post about the couple attending a New Year’s party in Fresnaye 18 months ago. 

It has also been reported that the great World Cup coverage for South Africa has raised the bar for the marketing of Brazil.  The 2014 World Cup host country has started its marketing already, by launching an international marketing campaign four years ahead of its tournament, a first in the history of the FIFA World Cup, says Dr Niklaus Eberl, an internal branding consultant for the German and South African World Cups (no doubt for Brazil to come too!).

In Business Day Dr Eberl was reported as saying the the Brazilian tourism agency Ambratur has launched an ambitious marketing strategy, which plans to double the number of tourists to Brazil (to 10 million per year, the same target as that of South Africa) and treble the value of tourism in the next ten years.  The “Brazil is calling you” campaign aims to reach 400 million consumers in 100 countries, with a budget of $30 million this year alone.   Brazil’s President Lula da Silva said: “The success of our African brothers represents a tremendous challenge to the Brazilian people.  We are learning from them to ensure that we will present a World Cup as beautiful as 2010″.   The Brazilian marketing budget is said to make that of South Africa look like “small change”!   Brazil is planning to spend five times the R30 billion of South Africa on its infrastructure.  The country also wants to equal or better South Africa’s 90 % score from FIFA for its handling of the World Cup.

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

For the first time the hospitality industry of Cape Town has had a taste of the power of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with about 25 000 England supporters streaming into the city on Friday, to see their team play Algeria, in what many described as a most disappointing match, with a goal-less draw.  The visitors to Cape Town are loving the city and its fantastic “winter” weather, today in particular, and it will be sure to have a good tourism spin-off for future visits.

Accommodation establishments are booked out, restaurants and pubs are filled with patrons, and the V&A Waterfront was reported on Twitter to be “swarming with tourists”, with a warning issued to locals to ”do not go”!  The most popular pub in the Waterfront for the English fans is Ferryman’s Tavern, its special ale suiting the British taste, reports The Times.   A pod of whales even came close to the Cape Town Stadium in Table Bay, in honour of the British visitors!

The accommodation bookings were extremely last minute, with the last available four of the 11 rooms at Whale Cottage Camps Bay, for example, being sold out in the last 24 hours prior to the start of the match.  The average length of stay is just three days, until the England fans head off elsewhere tomorrow.   Camps Bay’s beachfront was spilling over with fans packing pavement cafes and restaurants, as on a summer’s day, despite the overcast day yesterday.

The city is looking festive, with the red-and-white England flag adorning many an accommodation establishment, and restaurants and pubs.   The feared soccer hooligans did not travel to Cape Town, it would appear, the cost of the ticket prices being a deterrent.

A highlight for Cape Town is the VIP presence at the match on Friday of the Princes William and Harry, looking very uncomfortable in their suits; Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London; and David Beckham, sitting at the edge of the pitch.   Johnson said: “I’ve been to Cape Town for just two days and the atmosphere is mind-blowing.  The nation is united in enthusiasm and the tournament is progressing nicely”, according to the Cape Argus.

It appears that the number of visitors to South Africa has increased since the earlier depressing news that the number of international visitors had reduced, with so many last minute bookings.  It appears that many charter flights have entered Cape Town, with groups of 20 - 30 soccer fans on board each, all seemingly last minute bookings.  The England fans have been followed by the British media, and it is heartening to note how the reporting  by the British media, SkyNews in particular, has changed to reporting far more positively about our country.  Last night the TV station showed an interview with its correspondent in Cape Town, filmed on Signal Hill with a beautiful backdrop of the Stadium and Table Bay.   The reporter referred to England needing the Cape of Good Hope for its next match!

South African Customs have reported that 456 000 international visitors had entered South Africa between 1 - 13 June, compared to 345 000 visitors in the same period in 2009, reports The Times.   Obviously not all visitors are attending the World Cup, especially as many of them flew in as late as 11 June, so they may include the regular cross-border visitors from neighbouring African countries, coming to shop in South Africa.  

Next week looks more depressing, the Portugal versus North Korea, and Cameroon versus Netherlands matches not having as much appeal, if accommodation bookings are anything to go by.  All fingers are crossed for strong teams making the round of 16, the quarter final and semi-final in Cape Town, as this will fill up Cape Town again.  

Good performances by England, Germany, the USA, and the Netherlands in their next matches will have an important influence on last minute fans coming to South Africa, says FEDHASA, reports Fin24.  This effect will not be felt if Brazil and Portugal progress to the final stages of the tournament, it is speculated.   Only 10 000 German visitors came to South Africa for the World Cup, after national soccer hero and FIFA executive member Franz Beckenbauer expressed his concerns in earlier days about the World Cup having been awarded to South Africa.   He bravely changed his tune when he briefly spoke at the World Cup Kick-Off Concert.    

No matter who plays whom in the next 20 days of the World Cup, the accommodation bookings are far better in Host Cities than they would have been in any other June and July ever.  Whale Cottage Camps Bay now has an occupancy of 65  % for the World Cup, having improved its occupancy by 5 percentage points in the first ten days of the World Cup.   Given last minute bookings for the Quarter and Semi Finals, occupancy could end off at around 70 % for Whale Cottage Camps Bay.  The reality, however, is that May had the worst occupancy ever, thus balancing the gain with the loss.  The Whale Cottages in Hermanus, Plettenberg Bay and Franschhoek have barely gained from the World Cup.

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

The Sweet Service Award goes to Donovan Dreyer, the new Food & Beverage Manager of Grand Provence in Franschhoek, who came over to introduce himself when a colleague and I popped in to see the latest exhibition at the art gallery and had a cappuccino and a dessert each.  We were served the most beautiful desserts I have ever seen, and they matched their visual attractiveness with exquisite taste as well.    My colleague had an apple and mango tart with a tiny toffee apple on top, as well as the greenest scoop of apple ice cream on a chocolate biscuit base.  My dessert was a mini chocolate-filled croissant-like pastry, served with a thick vodka cream.  Executive Chef Darren Roberts is a talent to be watched. Donovan refused to let us pay, and we left Grand Provence impressed with their friendliness and professionalism. 

The Sour Service Award goes to Lime Media Marketing/Media Mountain, a company that has changed its name a number of times since calling in the past six months or so.  In heavy recognisable (almost trademark) Manchester accents the staff introduce themselves as a “Google certified company” and promise immediately to put one at number one position “on the first page of Google”.  I was offered a special for the Plettenberg Bay accommodation page, at a discounted rate of R 1 300 per month, down from R 4 600.   When I asked where it would be located on the Google page - as an ad on the right hand side, as an ad at the top, or as a normal Google listing, tele-sales caller Matthew could not reply, passing me on to Ben.   Normally Google ads are charged on a pay-per-click basis.    It is obvious that the company is a call centre, as one hears the buzz of numerous other callers (I heard the same salescall go out to an accommodation establishment in Hout Bay whilst speaking to Matthew).  No written communication is sent, the transaction being done electronically, so that one cannot see the paperwork at all, which makes one suspicious already.   A guest house colleague in Camps Bay, Sally from Atlantic Suites, has also experienced the pushy nature of the company, having been intimidated by them when she did not pay immediately on what the company had felt had been a done deal.

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 World Cup has always been said to have the benefit of showcasing South Africa, and the world’s media are descending on the country to prepare profiles of South Africa.  Some of it is negative, but much so far has been positive, especially in showing off the beauty of Cape Town.

A South Africa-based correspondent for SkyNEWS seems to be in the townships every day, negatively reporting about the poverty of these residents, while the ’rich’ sector of the country benefits from the World Cup, it is highlighted continuously.

Much more positive reporting is coming from ZDF, Germany’s largest TV station, which is pulling out all the stops to showcase South Africa.  Yesterday, for example, the station did a 24 hour broadcast on its online channel, about our country, a conglomeration of various documentaries the station had produced on previous occasions.  Unfortunately an on-line broadcast is not as powerful as a television broadcast, but it will have attracted a young audience.   ZDF put a lot of advertising muscle behind the 24-hour broadcast, so it created strong awareness amongst ZDF viewers.   The country brand ’Suedafrika’ is definitely top of mind. 

However, 90 minutes of the on-line broadcast was broadcast on ZDF TV throughout the day, in three sets of 30 minutes each.   The programme started with beautiful shots of Table Mountain, and then of Cape Town filmed from Table Mountain.   It was said that a trip up the mountain by cable car is a must for every visitor.   Then the documentary jumped in contrast to a school in Wuppertal, showing children in a boarding school having to brush their teeth in an irrigation canal, because there are not enough facilities in the hostel for all the children.  Then it moved to showing burning tyres, set alight by taxi drivers protesting against the new BRT bus system to be introduced.   A township resident was interviewed, who positively stated that he would never leave his township : ‘I do not want to change my life for anything’, despite the poor facilities in the township.   Children receiving a swimming lesson in Khayelitsha were filmed, and a sangoma throwing the bones interviewed.   Then the production team interviewed Pieter-Dirk Uys, who initially spoke in German, but switched to English when he spoke about how dangerous it was for him to have mocked the Government when he first started, and melodramatically stated that had he been black, he would have been imprisoned!  (He did not tell the interviewer that he has declared Evita se Perron in Darling soccer-free during the World Cup!).

Then the action moved to Captain Crash, who chases after stolen cars and minibus taxis in his helicopter (I have seen this insert twice already), and then to a Soweto-based Event Manager Tshepiso Mohlala, who is involved in the organisation of the World Cup Concert on 10 June.   A lot of airtime was given to a German wedding co-ordinator from Wedding Concepts, who was organising a wedding at Allee Bleue outside Franschhoek.

Capetonian and ex-Miss South Jo-Ann Strauss features regularly in a ZDF TV advert for the World Cup Concert, from which Strauss and revered ZDF talk-show host Thomas Gottschalk will be presenting for ZDF.  She speaks near-perfect German, her partner being from Munich, saying: ‘Suedafrika begruesst die Fussballwelt’ (South Africa welcomes the football nations).

Other programmes, like ‘Traumstaedte’ (Dream Cities), start off positively, with beautiful views of Camps Bay beach, the Promenade, the Bay Hotel, the Waterfront, but soon move to the townships, and interviews are conducted with extremely negative residents, talking about the crime and drug situation in the townships.   The ZDF reporters talk about Cape Town’s ‘Hell and Paradise’ not the lasting impression we would like to create marketing-wise amongst international viewers.

‘Traumflug durch Afrika: Von Kapstadt nach Kenia’ (Dream flight through Africa: from Cape Town to Kenya) was far more positive, documenting a Eurocopter pilot flying over beautiful Cape Town (Table Mountain and Cape Point), flying 3 meters above the sea, the Garden Route to George and Knysna for some golf and oysters at the Dry Dock restaurant, to the Addo Park for a safari, to St Francis, Coffee Bay, the Hole in the Wall, and then off to Lesotho, reaching his end destination of Kenya. 

In a cooking program with some of Germany’s top chefs, the cooking stars all wore German soccer jerseys, to show their pride in and support for the German team, indirectly attracting attention to the World Cup.

Given that Cape Town Tourism has appointed PR companies in Germany and the U K, and in other European countries, we trust that the city’s tourism body will help influence the content of documentaries of our city, and that they show the tourist side of Cape Town, without having to focus so much on the townships.

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

The Sweet Service Award goes to Jenny Hobbs and Sheenagh Tyler, the organisers of the Franschhoek Literary Festival, which took place in Franschhoek last weekend.  Not only was it extremely well organised, with more than 30 talks and discussions, but it also attracted other cultural events to Franschhoek over the weekend, being the opening of an excellent winter art exhibition (with works by Gordon Vorster, Dylan Lewis and Cecil Skotness) at Ebony, as well as outstanding music performances by Christopher Duigan in the NG Church.   The weather was perfectly organised too!   In addition, it ‘booked-ed” out many accommodation establishments and restaurants over the weekend, a much needed occupancy given the otherwise poor winter lying ahead for Franschhoek in terms of bookings.

The Sour Service Award goes to Le Quartier Francais and its owner Susan Huxter.   Ilse Schermers, curator of the new IS (Ilse Schermers) art gallery, that opened at Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek last week, had to call this writer to cancel (without explanation) an invitation she had been sent to attend the opening, on the instruction of Mrs Huxter, even though the writer has been a client of the Grand Provence gallery, where Ms Schermers was the curator until recently, for years. 

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.

After sitting through a 2-hour Service Excellence workshop to turn South Africans into service ambassadors for South Africa during the World Cup, run by Be and Jeff from the Disney Institute of Orlando at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) in Cape Town on Friday, I could not help but be disappointed relative to the high expectations the invitation to attend the workshop had created.

First, an invitation to attend a Disney-run service excellence workshop is not to be sneezed at, especially if attendance is free, and there was no restriction on attendance numbers from a particular company.  The target audience was frontline staff of the South African Police, Department of Transport, Department of Home Affairs, Tourism Business Council, South African Revenue Services, the Retail Association of South Africa, the Banking Association of South Africa, airlines, hotels (we are sure that they meant guest houses and other forms of accommodation too!), and restaurants.

The Auditorium of the CTICC holds an audience of 1000 - no more than 100 front-line staff attended the Friday afternoon session - the morning session had been attended by about 700 persons, the organisers estimated.   The previous day the sessions had been held at a church in Goodwood- this was the sum total of the workshops for Cape Town’s hospitality, tourism and general service front-line staff.   A Friday afternoon, and a rainy one at that, probably is a bad day for attendance in Cape Town, and parking anywhere near the CTICC was impossible to find, given the Good Food & Wine Show, which had dominated the CTICC, especially given its star attraction Gordon Ramsay. 

Having obtained parking, we sat in the massive auditorium, and the two Disney staffers tried a number of participative techniques to get some life and energy into our audience, including blowing a vuvuzela.   I have been to Orlando, and attended a Relationship Marketing Conference at Walt Disney World a good 15 years ago - I loved every minute of the Disney Magic, and I know that the Disney Institute is regarded as the ‘University of Service Excellence’.

All the more the disappointment of the lightweight presentation by our two Disney “cast members” - all staffers are on show, and therefore they have this designation.   Leaving the presentation, I could not help but think that this was the cleverest way in which Disney could have marketed its Walt Disney World (and related parks in California, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and soon to open Shanghai), and be paid for the pleasure of it!   A gi-normous Disneyworld park (biggest employer in USA with 60 000 employees in Orlando alone), could in no way compare to our little tourism and hospitality businesses in South Africa, excitedly facing the event of a lifetime, the World Cup.

We were shown videos and photographs of Walt Disney World, and interviews with South Africans working at the park, all eschewing the Disney mantra of smile, smile and smile!   The presentation was mainly focused on Disneyworld, and once in a while the presenters seemed to remember that they were in South Africa, and that they had to adapt their material to our big event.

The presentation in essence covered the following:

1.  Setting a vision - we know what it is for Disney (to be universally recognised as the most admired company in the world).  For World Cup South Africa it was defined as follows: “Deliver a pleasant and unforgettable service experience for the world visitors during the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa and beyond”.

2.   Defining a “common purpose” - at Disney this is for all ‘cast members’ to pick up the garbage and to give directions to their guests (not “customers”) with two fingers (not just one) or the whole hand.  For World Cup South Africa this was defined as follows: “Just now to WOW all customers“.  This mantra was repeated over and over again.  The “just now” introduction was a “South Africanisation” of the Common Purpose, supposedly reflecting how we speak (I’ll do it ‘just now’), badly reflecting service excellence, in that one would do something for the customer “immediately”, and not “just now”!

3.  “Guestology”, a Disney term for getting to know one’s customers in terms of where they come from, who they are, how large their party is, the length of their stay, and what their needs, wants and expectations are.   The presenters presented the audience with the profile of the typical World Cup soccer fan : travelling in groups of eight persons, predominantly males, 25 - 45 years old, wanting to experience things in-between the matches.

Key service excellence tips presented throughout the presentation were the following:

1.   Company leaders must share the company vision with their staff - this rarely happens

2.   The bottom-line will reflect good service excellence, but should never be the end-goal

3.   Everyone in the company is responsible for excellent customer service

4.   Customer service is not a department, it is an attitude

5.   Customer service is not only provided to customers, but should also be provided to colleagues

6.   The staff’s interaction with customers creates “magical moments” but can also cause “tragical moments”.

7.   “Treat every customer as if they sign your paycheck… because they do”

8.   Service must evoke emotion and drive repeat business

9.   Put a smile in one’s voice.

10.   Surprise and delight one’s guests

11.  Sometimes the guests are wrong, or cannot be served in the way they desire - say “NO”, but offer them an attractive alternative

12.   “I may not have the answer, but I’ll find it.  I may not have the time, but I’ll make it.”

13.   Make eye-contact and smile, smile smile…

14.  It all starts with respect

The bottomline: a most disappointing presentation, given the calibre of the Disney Institute.  It lacked the WOW it was meant to instill in us as front-line staff meeting soccer fans in 25 days from now.   It did not teach us anything new in how we deal with our guests.  It was a monumental fail, given that the Department of Tourism is said to have spent R 9,5 million on putting an estimated 250 000 (the number is questioned, given the poor response in Cape Town, perhaps only 10 % of this number) attendees through 75 two-hour workshops in all the Host Cities and related areas.    The Department of Tourism’s 3-page evaluation questionnaire we received on arrival was poorly typed, in that the rating scale from 1 - 5 was not aligned to match the written descriptions of the scale in numerous places.  It asked us to rate a “facilitator”, but we had two, and they had very different personalities, meaning that they could have been rated very differently.  The structured questions were not all suited to the answer options provided.   Certain questions were in grey panels, making them unreadable, an irony as the service excellence Disney had been preaching to us for two hours was not reflected in this poorly drafted questionnaire, which was meant to evaluate the Disney performance!  A pleasant surprise was that we did not have to pay for the very expensive CTICC parking!

We all left with a “Certificate of Successful Completion (of) the The Disney Approach to Service Excellence, World Cup and Beyond”.    We also received a business card with 3 “Service Guidelines & Behaviours”, to carry with us at all times:

 ”.  I present a positive attitude at all times

  .  I am considerate and respectful to ALL customers

  .  I go over and above in my position”      

To see the objectives of and motivation for the Department of Tourism’s Tourism Service Excellence Initiative (the poor Disney presenters just could not get their tongues around the name of the Initiative) Service Excellence workshops, read here.

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

The Department of Tourism has announced a last minute service excellence campaign “Tourism Service Excellence Initiative” (TSEI) for all front-line staff dealing with soccer fans during the World Cup, less than one month prior to the start of this world sport event.   While its intentions are extremely noble, and it will be offered for free, a two-hour session will hardly make any difference to generally poor service attitudes in Cape Town and South Africa.

The Department of Tourism has contracted The Disney Institute from Orlando to conduct a number of free two-hour seminars around the country, the Cape Town ones taking place next Thursday (at His People Center in Goodwood) and Friday (at the Cape Town International Convention Centre), at 10h00 and 14h00 on each of these days.  The same presentations will be held in Stellenbosch on 15 May, in George on 17 May, and in Knysna on 18 May.

The Disney Institute is a highly regarded “university of service excellence”, and a company like Pick ‘n Pay has regularly sent its managers to Orlando to improve its stores’ customer care and service excellence.   But it is impossible to change a service mentality in 2 hours!

The Western Cape province sent the invitation to attend the seminars in Cape Town as a Press Release, and it states that one can call to make a booking (a friendly and reasonably efficient process requiring ID numbers of staff, and more) or go the TSEI website www.tsei.co.za.    Dr Laurine Platzky, the “2010 FIFA World Cup Coordinator from Provincial Government Western Cape”, describes the seminars as “energetic” and “inspiring”, their aim being to “give all football guests an unforgettable experience in the Mother City and the Province”.

The TSEI document has the logos of the Department of Tourism, TSEI and the Disney Institute, as well as of FEDHASA, at the bottom of the document. FEDHASA’s has a web address linked to it (no other web addresses are supplied), but it is not FEDHASA’s web address - it is the web address of FEDHASA CEO Brett Dungan’s private Rooms4U booking portal, which has been criticised on this blog previously!

The TSEI document states that customer service should be improved “in anticipation of the millions of guests to the games” (our underlining).   One wonders where this statistic comes from - 3 million tickets are meant to have been sold, but this does not mean 3 million ticket holders, given that tourism consultancy Grant Thornton has estimated that each visitor will watch 5 matches on average, reducing the number of ticketholders to 600 000 on average!   Also, one talks about “games” for the Olympics, but for the World Cup they are called “matches”!   In a “mastery” of copywriting, it claims that The Department of Tourism had in 2008 already “crafted” (did they mean drafted?) the Tourism Service Excellence Strategy, to “take Service Excellence in the Tourism Service Value Chain to greater heights”. 

It then explains why service levels must be taken to greater heights, in that service excellence in the past has been hampered by (wait for it…….) “the negative impact of apartheid (!), a largely autocratic management style (!), the lack of an established culture of customer service, insufficient training, systemic educational concerns, the poor image of the service industry by most, and the harsh economic realities of many workers who remain focused on survival rather than service” (our exclamation marks).  Phew!  

Internationally, we rank in the middle, at 62nd of 124 countries, on competitiveness, in the 2007(!) World Tourism Council Competitiveness Report.   The Department says that the level of service delivery ranges from good to very poor in our country.   That is why it has appointed The Disney Institute to conduct Service Excellence Seminars, “which are designed and focused in creating a culture of service excellence”.  Come on - can a 2-hour seminar create a culture of Service Excellence, no matter if it is presented by The Disney Institute?! 

Boldly the document continues about the objectives of the Service Excellence Initiative, all defined as being for “2010 and beyond”:

1.  “Championing service transformation

2.   Creating a customer service orientated SA

3.   Crafting a ’solution-minded’ customer service culture in SA

4.   Providing human behaviour solution to SA

5.   Ensuring SA delivers world-class customer service

6.   Touch the entire service economy so that 2010 leaves a legacy”.

While it is clear that not all points are meant to be addressed by the seminars, the last one is - once again, how can they think that they can achieve this in two hours?!

The document states who should attend, and it lists immigration and customs officials, the police, tourism officials, “local government”, as well as private sector front-line staff in tourism and travel, hospitality, petrol stations, transport and banking.  Each participant is to receive a certificate and a Service Guideline Card, for which an extra half an hour has been allowed.

The best is kept for last - the value that a company’s staff will gain from attendance at the seminars:

“*   Engage employees to be personally involved in creating and delivering quality customer service

 *   Explore the significance of performance accountability, ensuring an equal weight value between business results and employee behaviors (sic) that enhances a positive work culture (straight from the Disney Institute literature no doubt)

 *   Learn the significance of creating and sustaining a corporate culture by design rather than default (?)

 *   Introduce the concept of “Common Purpose” as the organization’s chief global service driver” (we are tiny local non-global tourism related businesses in the main!)

The final best is the “dynamic” pay-off line that the copywriter ends off with : “Be Brilliant - Tourism Service Excellence Initiative” !!!!!!!!!! 

If the Department of Tourism’s Tourism Service Excellence Initiative document is anything to go by, its Service Excellence Workshops will be Mickey Mouse!  I cannot wait to attend, to experience this magical 2-hour transformation in Service Excellence!

POSTSCRIPT:  After writing this post, I found an article written earlier this week by Natalia Thomson of S A Tourism Update about the same topic.  She writes that the Disney Institute contract is worth R 9,5 million, and that 250 000 persons will be put through the workshops around the country.   Read her cynical and critical article here.

Read our follow-up article about the presentation here.

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

The boom projection of foreign attendance of the World Cup of 483 000 has been revised to a still-optimistic 373 000 by Grant Thornton, the tourism consultancy that created the original projection about 3 years ago, a drop of 23 %, reports SA Tourism Update.

The Grant Thornton estimate contradicts the FIFA estimates that the number of international soccer fans attending matches in South Africa has dropped by almost half, from 500 000 to 220000, reports The Times.

Based on the original optimistic international soccer fan attendance, the hospitality industry saw $-signs , and actively renovated their establishments, and put excessive price tags onto their properties.  Private home owners did quick renovations of their properties in the major cities, and planned to travel overseas during the World Cup period, spending their rental income, only to find the rental market being almost non-existent for the World Cup, given the over-supply of accommodation.

MATCH, the accommodation and ticketing agency for FIFA, also greedily added a 30 % surcharge onto the accommodation it contracted, and will have added similar commission rates to transport, flight and ticket prices, giving South Africa a dreadful label of “rip-off” pricing in the international media.  It is the fear of the excessive costs as well as the soccer fans’ fear of the perceived crime risk, that has kept soccer fans away in the main, report the international media.

Grant Thornton only revised its international attendance projections in the last month, when it became clear that MATCH could not sell all its contracted rooms, and gave them back to establishments, and that more than two-thirds of the tickets sold to date are to South Africans.  Even World Cup sponsors and football associations have not been able to sell all their tickets, and have returned them to MATCH.  

One wonders why it took Grant Thornton such a long time to revise the estimates, as its first estimate set the expectations for the hospitality industry.   The tourism consultancy now blames the credit crunch (which has been around for 2 years) and the distance of our country from the qualifying nations as the main reasons for the poor international bookings.  It also says that accredited Tour Operators also did poorly in selling packages.   Such Tour Operators had to pay $ 30 000 for a licence fee per country in which they were looking to sell packages, reports The Daily Maverick.

MATCH cancelled 1,3 million room nights out of the 1,9 million it had originally contracted, reports SA Tourism Update.    Many of the rooms released were in Zimbabwe, Mauritius, and in smaller local country towns (e.g. Plettenberg Bay, Hermanus).  The Protea Hotel Group has had 60 % of its rooms returned, in Cape Town, Durban and smaller towns, having originally been forced to allocate 80 % of their rooms to MATCH.  The Kruger National Park had 25 000 room nights returned.

Grant Thornton is trying to put a positive spin on the tourism benefit of the World Cup, by claiming that the average length of stay now is 18 days as opposed to 14 days as estimated originally, and that the average spend per trip would be R 30 200 as opposed to the originally estimated R 22 000.  On average, international soccer fans will watch 5 World Cup  matches, as opposed to the 3 previously estimated.

Attendance by African soccer fans has fallen to an estimate of 11 000, in what was meant to be an “African World Cup”, reports Business Report.    High ticket prices and lack of access to credit cards and the internet in other African countries has been blamed on the poor support from this continent.   It had originally been estimated that 48 000 African soccer fans would attend the World Cup, which still would not have been a satisfactory attendance level.

Grant Thornton in 2007 estimated the impact of the World Cup on the economy of R21,3 billion, with 159000 new jobs created.   International consultants Morgan Stanley published an estimate two months ago, of 350000 international fans attending and the local economy benefit being R15 billion.  The government has spent R33 billion on the tournament, for the building of stadiums and upgrading its infrastructure around the country to date, reports The Times. 

Grant Thornton now says that no new jobs appear to have been created due to the World Cup, but that it has prevented job losses, reports Business Report.   An estimated 2,5% – 3,5 % growth in the GDP of South Africa has been drastically reduced to 0,54 %.   Many fans have chosen to book via the internet, and are booking at B&B’s and guest houses, rather than hotels, and therefore are not booking via the “official MATCH-hosted channels”, says  Business Report.

FIFA President Sapp Blatter will be staying in the 5-star Michelangelo Towers during the World Cup, while the rest of his FIFA entourage of 200 will be accommodated at the Michelangelo Hotel next door, reports The Times.   Herr President’s requirements are a minibar stocked with South African wines, which is a good boost for the local wine industry, but the ice cubes in his fridge must be made from Evian water.  He will be protected by 5 bodyguards.   While sponsors’ products are meant to be used, which would mean that Blatter would have to drink Coca Cola’s Bonaqua, he is breaking protocol by drinking imported San Pellegrino mineral water.

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

What was a disaster for many thousands of air passengers around the world, created an unexpected boom or bust for the tourism industry, as well as for exporters and importers around the world. Stranded passengers were named “Volcation” tourists, a new and unique tourist category!

Not only did the world’s now most famous volcano create havoc with airline schedules around the world, and those in Europe in particular, but it also prevented dignitaries from attending the Polish Presidential couple’s funeral, and the birthday celebration of Queen Margrethe of Denmark. Actor John Cleese was so desperate to get home from Norway that he rented a taxi from Brussels (having got there by train) at €3 800 to get back to London.

In South Africa the fresh fish industry (hake exporters in the main) lost R1 million and the fresh flower market (mainly proteas, fynbos and chrysanthemums) lost R2,5 million in sales, reports the Cape Argus. Many local authors and book publishers could not get to the London Book Fair, at which they had been booked, which fell into the volcano no-fly period.

Cape Town Tourism was the only tourism authority, as far as we are aware, that appealed to its members to charge reasonable rates to the “grudge” tourists that were stuck in Cape Town. For many, however, it was one of the nicest places in the world for them to have been “stuck” in. Many accommodation establishments gained from the “Volcation” tourists, in that these had to stay in Cape Town for up to 10 days, being disadvantaged by the airlines in having to wait for cancellations to be able to fly back on their booked airline. Those passengers that had booked tickets for just after the opening of the skies were allocated first priority to use their tickets for already-booked flights. Few incoming passengers cancelled due to the volcano, and some arrived later than their original booked date, but were generously accommodated by establishments in this regard. This was a boon to the hospitality industry, given that the last ten days of April had originally looked very quiet in terms of bookings.

Airlines suffered heavy losses, as their insurance cover was uncertain, given that this was an “Act of God”. Their liability towards their passengers was also uncertain, for the same reason. SAA suffered a loss of revenue of R 14 million per day. Ryanair publicly refused to compensate its passengers, other than for the value of the ticket cost, given its low fares. Virgin appears to be compensating its passengers for the accommodation costs.

We are grateful to the Shepley family, Lucy and Graham Cannell, and to Jean and Andrew Lovett for having booked at our Whale Cottages in Camps Bay and Hermanus for their “Volcation”.

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

Four food festivals in April will give food lovers something to look forward to, and will be a tourism boost to the towns in which the festivals will be taking place.   Unfortunately, some of the festivals overlap, but being longer than one day each, may still attract visitors to all events.

The South African Cheese Festival takes place over the long weekend (for those taking Monday 26 April off) from 24 - 27 April at Bien Donne, outside Franschhoek.  It offers Turophiles (cheese lovers) lots of cheese tasting, with artisan cheese makers displaying their special cheeses, as well as more standard supermarket ones at the Checkers Cheese Emporium.  Well-known entertainer Nataniel will be one of the celebrities doing a cooking demonstration, as will Soli Philander (Cape Talk), Beyers Truter (Beyerskloof), and food editors of women’s magazines.   Related products such as breads, pestos, wines, preserves and olives will also be sold.   The Festival is open from 10h00 - 18h00 daily, and the entrance fee is R 110 on the weekend days and R 90 on the week days.  Tickets must be bought at Computicket and Checkers, and are not available at the gate.  More information: www.cheesefestival.co.za

The Lamberts Bay Crayfish and Cultural Festival runs from 22 - 25 April, and offers crayfish at R 70, which includes salad, potatoes and a choice of two sauces.  Oysters will also be available at R 10 each.   Paella will be served at beach restaurant Muisbosskerm.  More than 100 stalls will be set up, and a new addition is the Music Festival, which includes performers such as Steve Hofmeyer, Thys die Bosveld Klong and DJ Ossewa, amongst others!   Ticket prices change per day of week, and range from R 40 - R 140.  More information: www.kreeffees.com

The Riebeek Valley Olive Festival takes place for the 10th year in Riebeek Kasteel and Riebeek West from 30 April - 2 May.   Olives are prepared and presented in numerous ways, to taste and to eat, as are the excellent wines, especially shiraz and ports (Allesverloren in particular), from the region.   No entry fee.  More information: www.riebeekvalley.info

The Prince Albert Olive Festival is only two days long, on 30 April and 1 May, and is a celebration in honour of the Prince Albert valley and what is produced from it, focusing on olives.  Entertainment is offered with the play “Dinner for one”, “antique” films will be screened, open gardens can be viewed, historical walks are offered, and a half marathon has been organised.   African Relish is offering a Cookery Course.  More information : www.patourism.co.za

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