After the worst ever tourism winter, which has seen the closure of many restaurants and hotels not only in Cape Town, but country-wide, business is slowly
picking up, but it is nowhere near the occupancy
levels experienced in previous years. The pressure
on the tourism industry has created pressure on the
tourism bodies responsible for the marketing of
their cities and towns. Oddly, the Cape Town tourism
marketing bodies have become very defensive when we
identified the Tourism Crisis in the Cape, playing
with words to downplay the extent of the tourism
downturn.
We have been observing that the Tourism Bureaus in
Hermanus and Cape Town have been increasingly using
personal politics for personal gain. In the case of
Hermanus, the members saw through the shenanigans of
the previous Board of the
Hermanus Tourism Bureau, and of the Cape
Whale Coast Destination
Marketing Organisation, and took matters
in their own hands to get both these Boards closed
down. In the case of Cape Town Tourism, the
mismanagement of Tourism marketing monies, and the
use of Social Media to settle personal scores, is
becoming increasingly evident, and we have taken the
drastic step of not renewing our longstanding
membership. Interesting is that what we have written
about Cape Town Tourism recently on our Blog has led
to an unprecedented bullying threat by Cape Town
Tourism to muzzle us!
We have covered a large amount of material in this
newsletter, and refer our readers to the links
provided, to read further detail.
Chris von Ulmenstein
Owner, Whale Cottage Portfolio
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Article1 |
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It was
our
blogpost
about
the
Australian
Strategetic
Consultants’
(headed
by Ian
Macfarlane)
appointment
to write
a
‘strategic
plan’
for Cape
Town
that
appeared
to have
irritated
Cape
Town
Tourism
and its
management,
when we
asked
the
critical
question:
“So who
the
‘bloody
hell’ is
Cape
Town
Tourism’s
new
Australian Strategetic
Consultant?”. I
have
been
intrigued
by the
appointment
by Cape
Town
Tourism
of its
new
strategy
consultant
from
Australia,
ever
since
the
city’s
tourism
body had
him on
the
stage to
part-present
the
so-called
‘Strategic
Plan’
for Cape
Town in
August.
The more
I
searched
for
information
about
consultant
Ian
Macfarlane,
the less
I found!
My first
impression
of him
at the
meeting
was one
of being patronised
by an
Australian
comedian,
cracking
jokes
with a
‘dof’
Cape
Town
tourism
audience.
We were
served
obvious
information
about
the
state of
the
international
tourism
world,
and told
to focus
on
‘urban
tourism’.
We were
told
controversial
things,
such as
the
exchange
rate has
no
bearing
on
tourism
arrivals.
It was
Macfarlane’s
business
card
that
intrigued
me.
Billed
by Cape
Town
Tourism
as a
brand
strategy
development
specialist,
I was
surprised
when
Macfarlane’s
business
card,
for his
company
Strategetic
Consultants,
had a
non-existent
web
address’.
I
wondered
if his
attention
to
detail
could be
so poor
that he
cannot
get his
company
website
address
correct
on his
business
card.
Macfarlane’s
biggest
‘claim
to
fame’,
which
would
have
motivated
Cape
Town
Tourism
to
appoint
an
international
consultant,
was his
‘involvement’
with the
‘100%
Pure New
Zealand”
and “So
where
the
bloody
hell are
you?”
campaigns
for
Tourism
New
Zealand
and
Tourism
Australia,
respectively,
many
years
ago. In
doing
the
Google
search
about
the Aus$
180
million
Tourism
Australia
campaign,
I read
on
Wikipedia
that
this
campaign
was a
miserable
failure,
and had
to be
canned,
as the
UK media
refused
to
flight
it, due
to its
headline!
Tourism
numbers
dropped
as a
result
of the
campaign,
not
quite
what
they had
planned,
one
would
think.
Surely
this is
not what
Cape
Town
Tourism
wants
for Cape
Town?
The
Google
search
about
Macfarlane
interested
me from
a
Marketing
perspective,
because
a
strategy
consultant
with
such a
strong
marketing
‘involvement’
could be
expected
to be
reasonably
good at
marketing
himself
and his
consultancy
services.
This is
not the
case at
all! His
appointment
by Cape
Town
Tourism
was not
pre-announced,
and his
name is
no
longer
visible
on the
Cape
Town
Tourism
website.
As a
Cape
Town
Tourism
member,
Macfarlane’s
appointment
signalled
that
Cape
Town
Tourism
is
incapable
of
writing
a
Strategic
Plan and
a
Marketing
Plan for
Cape
Town,
having
been
entrusted
with R40
million
by the
City of
Cape
Town to
market
Cape
Town as
a
business
and
leisure
tourism
destination.
What
interested
me was
that an
Australian
consultant
was
appointed,
and not
a Cape
Town or
South
African
one, and
what his
credentials
were to
be
appointed
as the
Strategic
Consultant?
Cape
Town
Tourism
CEO
Mariette
du
Toit-Helmbold
was
defensive
in her
reply,
in
motivating
the
expenditure
of a
maximum
of
R170000.
Our
request
to
receive
a copy
of the
‘Marketing
Strategy/Plan
has
received
no
response.
We
question
whether,
as an
Australian
‘tourism
consultant’,
Macfarlane
is the
right
man to
have
been
appointed
to
prepare
a
‘Strategic
Plan’
for Cape
Town,
particularly
as he
lists
Sydney
as a
client,
a city
which is
a
significant
competitor
to Cape
Town!
The
actual
scope of
the
project
sounds
vague
and even
academic
in many
respects,
and
could be
a
concern
in
itself,
as a
poor
brief
could
lead to
a poor
plan.
The
domestic
market
must be
an
important
focus,
one
would
think,
in these
trying
times,
but it
is not
mentioned
in the
Cape
Town
Tourism
brief at
all, and
Macfarlane
would
have no
expertise
of the
local
market.
Given
Macfarlane’s
poor
ability
to
market
himself,
his
business,
and
Australia,
we
question
his
ability
to do
this for
Cape
Town!
It
took
Cape
Town
Tourism
two days
to
formulate
a
response
to our blogpost,
posting
a
detailed
reply on
their
website.
Cape
Town
Tourism
conducted
a series
of
‘Brand
Cape
Town’
workshops,
to share
with its
members
as well
as
bloggers
and
other
stakeholders
what the
outcome
has been
of a
brainstorming
session
to find
a
positioning
for Cape
Town and
what it
can/should
be, and
to focus
its
marketing
activities,
not only
from a
Tourism
perspective,
but also
from a
general
Business
approach.
Scanning
the
external
environment,
it
identified
a number
of
threats,
including
the
reality
that the
seasonality
in Cape
Town’s
tourism
industry,
unique
to our
city
compared
to
others
in the
country,
reflects
that
Cape
Town
does not
have
enough
Business
Tourism.
Comparing
the
positioning
of major
world
cities,
e.g.
Paris is
Romance,
New York
is
Energy,
London
is
Tradition,
it has
historically
been
Beauty
for Cape
Town.
Through
its
analysis,
it was
identified
that the
positioning
of
Inspiration
is an
overarching
one that
can
position
Cape
Town
beyond
its more
narrow
tourism
focus,
to a
broader
one,
reflecting
the
strengths
of the
City in
respect
of
beauty,
freedom,
innovation,
hope,
creativity,
diversity,
dreams,
ideas,
and
solutions
to
problems.
Despite
our
feedback
that
Edinburgh,
Korea
and Pick
‘n Pay
have
used
this
positioning,
Cape
Town
Tourism
has not
amended
its
point-of-difference
for
marketing
the
city!
|
The Cape
Town
Tourism
“A
Strategic
Plan for
Cape
Town
Tourism
and
Destination
Brand
for Cape
Town”
workshop
was
wishy-washy,
and did
not meet
the
promise
of a
“Strategic
Plan”. I
left the
two-hour
presentation
concerned,
convinced
that
Cape
Town
Tourism
does not
have a
clue
about
Marketing,
despite
the
appointment
of the
consultant!
When
Cape
Town
Tourism
CEO Mariette
du
Toit-Helmbold introduced the session at the Baxter Theatre, I was concerned when the word ‘Marketing’ was not mentioned at all. |
|
Contrary
to the
invitation
to hear
the
presentation
of a
’strategic
plan for
Cape
Town’, Mrs
Helmbold
talked
about an
‘intervention
strategy’
that was
to be an
open-forum
discussion,
to which
they
wanted
input.
Much of
what she
had said
at the
Brand
Cape
Town
presentation
was
re-packaged,
but with
some
changes.
For
example,
the
upturn Mrs
Helmbold
had
predicted
for 2014
just two
months
earlier
is no
longer
on the
table,
saying
that we
will
never
recover
to 2008
levels.
She
urged us
to
become
’scouters
of
change’.
She said
it would
be
suicide
if we
looked
for new
markets,
such as
business
tourism
and the
domestic
market,
and
neglected
the 80 %
of
tourists
coming
from our
traditional
European
(Germany,
Netherlands,
France
and
Italy),
UK, and
USA
markets,
contradicting
what she
had said
at the
‘Brand
Cape
Town’
presentations.
The
marketing
message
for Cape
Town
must be
changed
to be
relevant
to more
people.
Most
people
in the
world
are in
’survival
mode’,
and not
thinking
of travelling.
“We must
speak to
people
in their
mindset,
so that
they put
us on
their
bucket
list”!
In the
past 24
months,
118
tourism
businesses
closed
in Cape
Town,
she
said. No
job
creation
is
occurring
in
tourism,
given
the
reduced
tourism
growth
since
2008. We
are
over-reliant
on the
traditional
long-haul
market,
and
should
attract
more
locals,
but the
international
tourism
spend is
far more
lucrative.
The
domestic
market
is the
toughest
‘nut to
crack’,
she
said, as
it comes
with
such
established
preconceptions
about a
city
like
Cape
Town,
e.g. it
rains
all the
time, it
is so
expensive,
and it
is so
far
away!
For the
domestic
market
these
are
realities.
This
market
should
be
attracted
to Cape
Town for
short
city
breaks.
The only
element
of a
‘Strategic
Plan’ I
picked
up was
its
Vision:
“To make
Cape
Town a
‘must
visit’
city”!
This
means
that
visitors
must be
encouraged
to come
now and
spend
more.
Very
briefly,
some
marketing
activities
were
mentioned,
too
specific
to be a
‘Strategic
Plan’,
including:
| • |
promotions of the city, with showcases on Discovery (interestingly, the Tourism New Zealand campaign also focused strongly on the Discovery channel, and the channel is a client of Macfarlane) and National Geographic channels, a joint project with the tourism offices of Durban and Johannesburg, as well as of SA Tourism. Within these programs, city-specific ads and promotional programs will be placed. |
| • |
packaging food and wine events under one umbrella, to establish Cape Town as the Gourmet Capital of Africa (the city cannot lay claim to this, as this accolade belongs to Stellenbosch) |
| • |
tourists must go beyond the usual city tourist attractions, and should be involved in the history of the city, in experiencing the story of freedom in a creative way, and incorporating the Fan Walk. |
| • |
proactive PR |
| • |
do more direct marketing with the consumer via the Cape Town Tourism website, with real-time bookability |
| • |
‘community-building’ on-line via social media |
| • |
appointment of an ad agency, to create a brand campaign, to be launched on 17 October. |
| • |
local content about Cape Town is to be created and distributed via the Cape Town Film Commission |
| • |
reviewing and probably reducing the number and location of the Cape Town visitor centres,
eighteen
being
too
many. |
| • |
A Brand Ambassador campaign, using Cape Town residents as communication icons, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Olympic swimmer Natalie du Toit,
and
SABC3 Expresso
Show and
Kfm
presenter
Liezl
van der
Westhuizen.
The day
after
the
presentation,
the Cape
Argus
headline
screamed
“Tutu:
tax
wealthy
whites”,
hardly
the
brand
ambassador
needed
for Cape
Town!
|
| • |
inviting visitors to Cape Town to attend blog club meetings |
| • |
targeting the ‘young black market’ |
No exact
’strategic
plan’,
let
alone a
Marketing
Plan for
Cape
Town,
was
presented,
which is
what we
were
expecting!
It was a
collection
of
clichés.
After
the
presentation
of the
‘Strategic
Plan’,
our
concern
about
the lack
of
marketing
by Cape
Town
Tourism,
and the
wasteful
expenditure
when it
does
spend
money,
grew. An
example
was that
Cape
Town
Tourism
embraced
the ‘100
Women
100
Wines’
competition,
promoting
it
actively,
doing
its
publicity,
and
listing
it in
its
‘Strategic
Plan’ as
a means
to
’stimulate
domestic
tourism
demand’.
The
competition
brought
100
women to
the V&A
Hotel in
the Cape
Town
Waterfront
for one
day,
hardly a
major
boost to
domestic
tourism,
especially
as a
number
of the
participants
were
from the
Cape
anyway!
The wine
industry
slated
the
event as
‘frivolous’,
’patronising’,
and
a
’joke’!
Sponsors
of the
competition
were
TOPS by
Spar, Newmark
Hotels
(V&A
Hotel),
Destiny
magazine
(with a
circulation
of 26128
‘black
diamonds’),
and Cape
Town
Tourism
paid R20
000 to
Clare
McKeon-McLoughlin
of Spill
Blog to
be a
sponsor,
an
unheard
of
expenditure
by a
tourism
body,
which
usually
just
lends
its name
to an
event.
The aim
of the
competition
was to
generate
“South
Africa’s
Best 100
Wines”
list, a
ludicrous
claim
made by
Cape
Town
Tourism
in its
patronizing
media
release,
which
stated
that
‘this
event
will see
women
from
different
backgrounds
being
empowered
as
opinion
leaders
in the
field of
wine,
and will
set in
motion
the
debunking
of the
myth
that
this
right is
reserved
for the
connoisseurs
and the
‘bourgeois”.
Their
website
post
also
stated
that the
participants
reflected
the
South
African
demographic
profile,
but the
‘black
diamonds’
dominated.
Wine
writer
Neil Pendock
was
heavily
involved,
but was
’shy’
about
disclosing
his
role.
Pendock
is known
as a
very
critical
wine
writer,
and
would
have
slated
such a
frivolous
competition,
had he
not been
involved
in its
organisation,
especially
as the
wines
were
‘judged’
sighted
at the
event,
his
biggest
criticism
of
Platter
judging.
The
ANC’s
Lynne
Brown
(previous
Premier
of the
Western
Cape)
and
Carol
Beerwinkel
are
blaming
Premier
Helen Zille
for
having
caused
the
tourism
crisis
in the
province.
Writing
on Politicsweb,
the ANC
politicians
stated
that it
is the
‘DA’s
politicking’
that
caused
the underfunding
of
tourism.
The R40
million
budget
allocated
to Cape
Town
Tourism
by the
City of
Cape
Town is
too
little
to
‘properly
market
and grow
the
Western
Cape as
an
international
desired
destination’,
they
wrote
(the
budget
goes to
the
marketing
of Cape
Town
only).
They
state
that it
was Ms Zille,
in her
previous
role as
Mayor,
who cut
the
budget,
‘to
plunge
the
industry
into the
dire
situation
it finds
itself
in now’.
From
having
been the
top
tourist
destination
for
local
tourists,
the
Western
Cape has
slipped
to
fourth
position.
They
blame
the DA
for
playing
‘political
football’
with an
industry
that has
an
important
job
creation
responsibility.
This led
to Cape
Town
Routes
Unlimited
and Cape
Town
Tourism
being
divided,
which
meant
that
Cape
Town
could
not capitalise
on the
World
Cup,
‘with
many
tourism
products
like
hotels
and
restaurants underutilised‘,
they
wrote.
‘Today
we see a
fragmented
and
scattered
messaged
marketing
plan
which is
very
dangerous
to the
industry’,
they
wrote in
poor
English.
The
writers
conclude
that ‘no
amount
of money
in the
short
term
will fix
the
problem,
if some
basic
problems
are not
addressed
in the
industry’,
and they
call for
an
Indaba
to allow
the
transformation
of the
industry.
We agree
that the
Marketing
Plan is
poor
(being
‘dangerous’,
as they
describe
it, may
be an
exaggeration),
but one
wonders
how they
know
what is
in the
Marketing
Plan, as
no one
in the
tourism
industry
has seen
a copy
of the
Plan,
Cape
Town
Tourism
refusing
to make
it
available
to
members,
and it
has not
been
posted
on their
website.
Ms Brown
appears
to have
forgotten
the
tourism
structure
in the
province.
She
should
know
that
Cape
Town
Tourism
is only
focused
on
marketing
Cape
Town.
The poor
tourism
performance
since
the
World
Cup
cannot
be laid
at the
door of
Premier Zille,
but
rather
must be
blamed
on the
recession,
the
excessive
rates
charged
by
FIFA’s
MATCH
agency,
and the
oversupply
of
accommodation,
developed
to cash
in on
the
world’s
largest
sporting
event.
We must
also
question
how the
City of
Cape
Town
could
have
allocated
the
marketing
funds to
Cape
Town
Tourism,
without
evaluating
the
Marketing
capabilities
of the
organisation.
With
Cape
Town
Tourism’s
CEO
having
no
marketing
experience,
her
organisation
had to
appoint
a
Marketing
Manager,
and the
first
incumbent
of the
job was
Lianne
Burton,
a
journalist.
Cape
Town
Tourism
was
anchorless
as far
as
Marketing
goes
when she
left at
the
beginning
of this
year, at
a time
when the
tourism
industry
slid
into
crisis
mode. We
doubt
that the
newly
appointed
Executive
Marketing
Manager
Velma
Corcoran
will
make any
difference,
coming
from
FMCG
brand
strategy
and
research
consultancy
OIL,
linked
to the
Lowe
Bull
group,
where
she
headed
up its
Cape
Town
office.
Mrs
Corcoran’s
first
faux
pas, on
the day
before
joining
Cape
Town
Tourism,
was to
rant as
follows
on
public
medium
Twitter
(@VelBotha)
about
SAA, an
important
partner
for
tourism
in Cape
Town,
and her
turn of
phrase
in such
a senior
position
is not
impressive
:“EVERYTHING
about #SAA
makes me
grumpy,
miserable
and
pissed
off.
They
seem to
take
pleasure
in
making
it
difficult”!
As much
as the
City of
Cape
Town
evaluated
the
performance
of Cape
Town
Routes
Unlimited
in terms
of
meeting
its
Marketing
mandate,
we
believe
that the
City of
Cape
Town
should
do the
same
with
Cape
Town
Tourism,
as many
tourism
players
do not
believe
that
they are
doing a
satisfactory
job in
marketing
Cape
Town.
Neither
Cape
Town
Tourism
not Cape
Town
Routes
Unlimited
has the
creativity
nor the
expertise
to
devise
nor
implement
a
Marketing
Plan for
the
city,
and
therefore
a fresh
and new
joint
city and
province
tourism
marketing
body is
needed,
we
believe..
After a
number
of
critical
blogpost
by
ourselves
about
the poor
marketing
of Cape
Town by
Cape
Town
Tourism,
given
the
tourism
crisis,
we
received
a letter
from the
Chairman
of Cape
Town
Tourism,
Ian
Bartes,
who
heads up
the Cape
Town
branch
of the
Airports
Company,
asking
us to
justify
in a
9-page
lawyer-written
letter
why Cape
Town
Tourism
should
not
terminate
our
membership,
due to
two
comments
written
by
readers
on our
Blog. We
wrote
back,
denying
all
allegations,
and
announced
to Cape
Town
Tourism
that
we
had no
intention
to renew
our
(expired)
membership,
due to
the lack
of
delivery
on
promised
membership
benefits, and due
to the
lack of
respect
which we
have
been
shown by
Cape
Town
Tourism’s
Mrs
Helmbold
and her
Communications
Manager
Skye
Grove.
Ms Grove
has been
at great
pains to
disparage
our Blog
and its
writing,
tried to
close
down our
website,
and has
Re-Tweeted
defamatory
Tweets
about
us.
Complaints
lodged
with Mrs
Helmbold
about
the
defamation
and
disparagement
we
received
as a
member
of Cape
Town
Tourism
were
rejected,
showing
the
organisation’s
lack of
understanding
of the
law of
defamation.
We have
seen a
very
nasty
collection
of
commenters
slash,
trash
and bash
either
Cape
Town
Tourism
and its
staff,
and also
myself
and my
company
on our
Blog,
without
concern
for the
law of
defamation,
whenever
we
posted a
story
about
Cape
Town
Tourism.
To
remove
the
censorship
role
that
Cape
Town
Tourism
has
taken
upon
itself
on
behalf
of the
tourism
industry,
we took
the
decision
to
impose a
ban on
all
comments
for any blogpost
we write
about
Cape
Town
Tourism,
and
closed
the
comment
facility
on past
Cape
Town
Tourism
blogposts.
Genuine
commenters
are
welcome
to send
an
e-mail
with
their
point of
view,
which we
will
feature
as a
Postscript
to the
relevant
Blogpost,
if it
does not
contain
any
defamatory
or
disparaging
remarks,
to
whalecot@iafrica.com.
This
means
that
Cape
Town
Tourism
can save
money on
legal
fees,
and its
staff
can
spend
its
valuable
time on
Tweeting
more,
organising
lunches
with
fellow
Tweeters,
and
perhaps
do some
marketing.
We
apologise
to our
regular
readers
for this
self-imposed
censorship
of
comments,
but the
‘Blog-bashing’
on
Freedom
of
Speech
by Cape
Town
Tourism,
reflecting
a
paranoia
that is
most
surprising
for an
organisation
that has
set
itself
up as
being
tech-savvy,
and
which
has a
Communications
Manager
who
dishes
out
insults
on
Social
Media
platforms
against
Cape
Town
Tourism
members,
and even
the
funders
of her
employer
(the
City of
Cape
Town),
is
unprecedented
in
Social
Media
terms,
to our
knowledge.
Cape
Town
Tourism
will
never
stop us
from
Blogging,
and
writing
on
Facebook,
Twitter,
and in
our
WhaleTales
newsletter
what
needs to
be said
about
tourism,
the
marketing
of Cape
Town and
the
Western
Cape,
and
about
Cape
Town
Tourism!
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Article22 |
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GERMAN TOURISM INCREASES, UK TOURISM
PLUMMETS
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Given the near drought of UK
accommodation bookings for the coming summer
season, it is gratifying to see an
above average number of bookings from German
tourists. A recent visit to South
Africa, and to Cape Town specifically, of a
group of German travel agents should see an
even greater number of German tourists. The
2010 Soccer World Cup led to the immediate
benefit of German bookings, given the
outstanding coverage our city and country
received on each of the days that the German
team played during the World Cup. German TV
station ZDF used our ex-Miss South
Africa Jo-Ann Strauss as its presenter. Last
month a group of 55 travel agents from
Meier’s Weltreisen, a tourism company
specialising in long-distance package tours
for Germans and Austrians, visited South
Africa, and spent time in Cape Town too.
Meier’s Welreisen is one of the largest
German tour operators, and is celebrating
its 30th year of operation this year. “Germany
is a key and crucial tourism market for
South Africa, and we invest significantly in
encouraging Germans to visit here. While our
arrivals from the country are already
posting a strong recovery, more than 17.5%
increase recorded for the first five months
of 2011, we also recognise the need to
continue strengthening trade relations as an
avenue to long term sustainable growth”,
said Fiona Buchner, Regional Director:
Europe, of SA Tourism. Buchner said that
over and above showing the agents the
tourist sites, they also wanted to show them
the ‘welcoming people and enriching
experiences‘ of the country, being the ‘typical
encounter that the German traveller sees’.
Meier’s Weltreisen Director of the Africa
Division, Martina Beeken, said: “South
Africa is one of our most important partners
in terms of long-haul travel and we look
forward to fully experiencing the
fascinating cultural mix; warm, friendly and
welcoming people and the beautiful scenery
that South Africa offers. South Africa is a
world-class tourism destination with an
outstanding hospitality offering of which
service, accessibility, and value for money
are the foundation”. Fantastic praise
indeed! In Cape Town the group was spoilt
with a welcome dinner at which Cape
Minstrels performed, an Amazing Race-style
event through the V&A Waterfront, ‘champagne
and oysters’ at Cape Point, and a transfer
to the Winelands in vintage cars, reports
The Event. The Whale Cottage Portfolio
has seen a marked increase in bookings from
German guests, some being return visitors,
and others booking at Whale Cottage Hermanus
in particular, to see the whales, guests
seeing listings about the guest house in a
number of German travel guides.
Cape Town Routes Unlimited is focusing its
marketing work for Cape Town and the Western
Cape on South America. A Special Edition of
the Cape Town Routes Unlimited CEO Update
provided interesting information about a
recent trip to South America
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SAA São Paulo
Workshop, which was attended by
33 Brazilian tour operators,
wholesalers, and incentive houses.
At the workshop a ’speed-dating’
approach was used, whereby the Cape
exhibitors and the Brazilian tour
operators were each given 15 minutes
to represent their tourism products,
resulting in 841 business
connections. |
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Visit SA Expo in
Buenos Aires |
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More time was spent in Brazil, and here Cape
Town Routes Unlimited picked up the positive
perception that our country has ‘extraordinary
tourism offerings, friendly people, a safe
environment, and top-class infrastructure’.
Their economic growth at 5% per annum
appears to have been more resilient to the
world recession, and tourism to South Africa
grew by 69 % in 2010 (no numbers provided).
With its massive population of 200 million
it has fantastic potential for Cape tourism
marketing. Brazilians travel for language
training, events, wildlife, golf, adventure,
and surfing in the main. |
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They are ‘habitual’ travellers, enjoying returning to
destinations that they have had good
experiences in. Marketing collateral is
recommended to be provided in Portuguese,
and SA Tourism is commended for having a
website in Portuguese. The BRICS inclusion
of South Africa will open a platform for
tourism, investment, trade, sport and
cultural exchanges, writes Gilfellan. Online
Travel sells packages to Brazilians visiting
South Africa, and 120000 brochures will be
provided by the tourism body to the South
African embassy. Media visits are on the
cards, and host sponsors are sought. A group
of 100 golfers is visiting our country this
month, and one hopes that the Cape is on
their agenda. Wine and golf workshops are
planned for next year with Brazilian tour
operators. A jazz exchange programme between
the Cape Town International Jazz Festival
and the Bourbon Street Jazz Festival in
Brazil is being considered, allowing
performers from each festival to perform at
the other festival. A Memorandum of
Understanding is to be signed between Cape
Town and Rio de Janiero, and a twinning
agreement to be established between Robben
Island and Ilha Grande, a former political
prison island in Brazil. An African Fan
Village is being considered in Rio de
Janiero for the 2013 FIFA Confederations
Cup, 2014 FIFA World Cup, and 2016 Olympic
Games. It is time for Cape tourism players
to brush up on their Portuguese and Spanish
language skills, to welcome tourists from
Brazil and Argentina. With excellent flight
connections via Air Malaysia from Buenos
Aires and from Brazil via SAA, Cape Town and
the Western Cape are sure to benefit from a
new tourism market.
Two major film productions are to be
filmed in Cape Town soon, not only
benefiting the local film industry, but the
tourism industry too. This will help to
establish the film industry in Cape Town as
‘one of the world’s most respected
filming and TV destinations’, said the
Cape Town Film Commission CEO Denis Lillie,
reports the Cape Times. ‘The
History of Great Britain’ will be filmed
by an American company. ‘Labyrinth’
will be shot in the city later this month by
internationally acclaimed director Scott
Ridley. In addition, a coup is the filming
of a 22-series TV series ‘Law and Order’
from March next year, a revenue boost for
the city of R66 million. Lillie said that
the local film industry employs 12500 staff,
and contributes R5,5 billion to the Cape
economy, and he expects the value of the
industry to grow in the next year. The Cape
Film Commission is also working in
distributing films of local filmmakers
through trade agreements with other ‘film
capital cities’ such as Hong Kong, London,
Chicago, Los Angeles, and Mumbai. The
support received from the Cape Town Film
Permit Office, the City of Cape Town and the
Western Cape provincial government has ‘enabled
Cape Town to become a world-class
film-friendly city’, Lillie said. There
is a possibility that the filming of the
completion of the latest James Bond movie
may move from India to Cape Town, it has
reported. It is hoped that ‘Carte
Blanche’, the latest James Bond
book, will become a movie too, and will be
filmed in Cape Town.
Cape Town is one of
three finalists for the World Design Capital
2014, with Bilbao and Dublin. The city
competed against 56 cities for this
prestigious accolade, which was won by Seoul
last year, and has been awarded to Helsinki
for 2012. A World Design Capital city is
selected every two years by the
International Council of Societies of
Industrial Design, to a city that uses ‘design
for social, cultural and economic
development’. The Cape Town Partnership
managed the bid for the award. The
recent decision to position Brand Cape Town
as an innovation hub supported the World
Design Capital bid, and uniquely
differentiates Cape Town from other South
African and African cities. Odd was the
information contained in a ‘Newsflash’ sent
to Cape Town Tourism members, which stated
that “..Cape Town’s bid theme is about
the City’s use of design to overturn the
negative legacies of its colonial and
apartheid past that saw design dividing
people, disconnecting the city, and
relegating both people of colour and the
urban poor to the fringes”. This
mouthful of a statement, which does not make
sense in blaming design for apartheid, gets
worse in the rest of the ‘Newsflash’, and
one hopes that the bid book contains a more
uplifting and positive motivation for Cape
Town to be selected as the World Design
Capital 2014! The visit by the two judges
from the Montreal-based International
Council of Societies of Industrial Design,
Dilki de Silva and Martin Darbyshire, to
evaluate Cape Town’s bid for World Design
Capital 2014, took place in July, in
very wintry weather.
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The judges were put through an active
programme of activities, having flown in
from Dublin. In their honour, yellow
material was wrapped around 100 trees on
Heerengracht Street, and the lights shining
on Table Mountain were changed to yellow
over the three day visit of the judges. Cape
Town Partnership had used yellow as the colour for its bid, to represent optimism,
and it was chosen as ‘an
attention-grabbing, creative and
inspirational colour. We chose it to
represent our World Design Capital bid and
it represents our passion for design as a
force for change.’
On arrival at Cape Town International, the
judges were shown the World Design Capital
2014 stand which had been designed for the
Design Indaba exhibition in February, a
rainbow-coloured perspex structure on which
Design Indaba attendees were invited
to write their words of inspiration
about the city. The two judges were driven to the city
centre in a
MyCiti bus, and from the Civic Centre
bus station to the Taj Hotel in a Green Cab.
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There was no rest for the judges thereafter,
being driven to the Cape Town International
Convention Centre for a 7h00 breakfast the
following day, at which the judges were
addressed by Mayor Patricia de Lille, Cape
Town Partnership CEO Andrew Boraine, Cape
Town Tourism’s Mrs Helmbold, Cape Town
International Convention Centre CEO Rashid
Toefy, and Premier of the Western Cape,
Helen Zille. Driven in Africa’s first
electric car built in Cape Town, the Joule,
the judges were taken to the Montobello
Design Centre, to Khayelitsha, to view the
Violence Protection through Urban Upgrade
project and a community library, and
thereafter to Mitchell’s Plain to be shown a
Design Indaba inspired low-cost housing
project. A highlight must have been a
helicopter flip over the city. An evening
event took place at The Assembly nightclub
in Harrington Street, the most shabby,
unsuitable and non-design venue that could
have been chosen, and the industry was
invited to attend this poorly organised
function. An 8h00 breakfast with a
temperature of 5°C at that time, seemed
poorly planned, even if it was held at the
beautiful
Green Point Urban Park. After breakfast
the judges were driven to Stellenbosch
University’s Sustainability Institute and
the Lynedoch Ecovillage, taken to Spier, to
The Fringe in Canterbury Street, not the
most savoury part of town, to the District
Six Museum and the Fugard Theatre, and the
Freeworld Design Center. We congratulate the
Cape Town Partnership for its bid making the
Finalist stage, but are sceptical of Cape
Town’s success in this bid, for its heavy
focus on the apartheid legacy, and design’s
role in this, given the 17 years of a
transformed political landscape. Claims that
winning as World Design Capital in 2014 will
bring in hordes of tourists should be taken
with a pinch of salt, given that even being
the number one
TripAdvisor Travel Destination has not
brought any tourists to our city! According
to the Cape Times, the bids ‘are
primarily assessed in terms of vision rather
than pre-existing city features’, but no
future vision appears to have been reflected
for Cape Town, with its too great a focus on
the past! The winning World Design Capital
2014 will be announced on 26 October.
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For the 20th year the
Two Oceans Hermanus Whale Festival paid
tribute to the Southern Right whales, who
visit Walker Bay in Hermanus from May -
December to mate and give birth, giving
Hermanus the enviable reputation of offering
the best land-based whale watching in the
world. Food and wine pairing formed a strong
foundation of the Festival this year,
sponsored by Two Oceans for the first time.
The focus was educational, incorporating
whales, sharks, dolphins, penguins and
seals, the ‘Big 5′ for the Cape Whale Coast.
Saving the endangered rhinos was
incorporated into the Festival too. |
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On the
arts side, the Festival was mainly
music-focused, with concerts by well-known
performers such as Chris Chameleon, Dr
Victor and the Rasta Rebels, Steve Hofmeyer,
and Prime Circle. Kfm did a fantastic
job in promoting Hermanus and the Whale
Festival, and 150000 visitors were expected
to have visited the town over the weekend.
Franschhoek understands the value of regular
events, and the power they have in
attracting visitors to the village. During
October it is hosting its first
‘Franschhoek Art in Clay’ ceramics
exhibition, a Ceramics Fair, a pop-up
ceramics shop, and setting up ‘pop-up’
restaurants in some of the participating
galleries too. In addition, the summer
season of ‘Cook Franschhoek’ takes place,
and a Classical Music Festival will end off
the month on a high note. The driving force
behind the ‘Art in Clay’ event is David
Walters, who is one of South Africa’s
leading potters and has been working in
Franschhoek for a number of years now. The
participating galleries are Ceramics
Gallery, Artefact, Ebony, Gallery at Grande
Provence, IS Art, and La Motte Museum. The
‘Pop-Up’ Ceramics shop will be located in
The Yard, and the Cape Craft & Design
Institute and Ceramics SA will display
and sell their crafters’ pottery on Saturday
29 October.
‘Cook Franschhoek’ takes place this weekend,
and allows food lovers to rub shoulders with
the local chefs and winemakers. Chef Chris Smit of Café BonBon is pairing with Haut
Espoir wine; Chef Adrian Buchanan of Freedom
Hill will prepare a meal paired with wines
from the estate,
Salmon Bar’s Chef Judy Sendzul will
do a salmon and trout tasting, paired with
Boekenhoutskloof wines; Chef Paula Johnson
of Le Verger at Le Franschhoek Hotel will
pair chocolate hazelnut dacquoise with La
Bri wines; Chef Ryan Smith of
Ryan’s Kitchen will do an ice cream
and sorbet pairing with Antonij Rupert
Wines; Chef Chris Erasmus of
Pierneef à La Motte will demonstrate
cooking meat using La Motte wines,
Franschhoek Food Emporium's Chef
Robert Rittel will pair patés and terrines
with Lynx Wines; Chef Shaun Schoeman of
Fyndraai Restaurant will talk about veldfood
flavours, pairing with Solms-Delta Winery;
Chef Margot Janse pairs with Haut Espoir
wines; and
Chef Reuben Riffel will cook miso
glazed Franschhoek salmon trout, paired with
Boekenhoutskloof wines.
To end the month-long Franschhoek ceramics
exhibition on a high note, talented Steinway
pianist Christopher Duigan has organised the
8th Classic Music Festival for the last
weekend of October. The programme kicks off
with a tribute to ‘The Phantom of the
Opera’, with Zorada Temmingh performing in
the Dutch Reformed Church, utilising a
restored 1925 silent movie version of the
film, with organ improvisation, on Friday 28
October. On 29 October Claude Bolling’s
suites for flute and jazz piano will be
performed; a Food, Wine and Music tasting
takes place outside Taste South Africa, with
music by accordionist Stanislav Angelov; and
‘Music of the Night’ with Louise Howlett and
Albert Combrink at Café Bon Bon, with
dinner. On Sunday Christopher Duigan will
perform ‘Liszt vs Liszt’; classical
guitarist James Grace performs at Bread &
Wine; and a ‘Festival Finale’ will be held
at Café Bon Bon.
In May we
conducted a survey of top-end hotel rates
in Cape Town. Given the tourism crisis in
the Cape, we repeated the survey, calling
the same hotels, asking them for their
August rates. Ellerman House remains the
most expensive Cape Town hotel by far,
starting at R5000 per room, and the
Peninsula All Suite Hotel is the least
expensive 5-star hotel, at R1500 per room.
The survey found that the average August
rate of the sixteen 5-star Cape Town hotels
was R 2715 per room, just under R1400 per
person, an average decrease by 8% relative
to the May rates. Across all 27 hotels
surveyed, the average rate per room was
R2227, or just over R1100 per person, only 8
% lower on average than in May. Guest Houses
in areas such as Camps Bay charged a third
of this rate!
Tony Ehrenreich, City of Cape Town
councillor, has blamed the
‘crisis in tourism’ on overcharging
international tourists: “The
exorbitant prices for wines and crayfish are
contributing to visitors feeling ripped off.
And so the important word of mouth that
underlies a tourist destination’s success is
not assisting the South African industry.”
Mr Ehrenreich also attacked provincial
Minister of Tourism, Alan Winde, in
excluding workers from the recently elected
board of Cape Town Routes Unlimited: “As
Cosatu we will insist that the workers’
interests be directly represented by a
labour representative, before the funding to
support the industry is released. We will
further call for an independent body to
examine the crisis, as the industrial
players have been colluding with government
at a local level. This collusion is
demonstrated by the City Council giving the
tourism industry R40 million to spend on
themselves”! Mr Ehrenreich seems to be
confused, in mixing up the roles of Cape
Town Tourism and Cape Town Routes Unlimited.
Minister Winde recently handpicked the Cape
Town Routes Unlimited board, without
advertising for nominations. Mr Ehrenreich
served on the Cape Town Routes Unlimited
Board for two years, and embarrassed the
tourism industry as well as Cape Town Routes
Unlimited when he made inappropriate and
widely reported media statements, claiming
that the Waterfront was charging rip-off
prices, referring to the cost of crayfish at
Panama Jack, which is not even located in
the V&A Waterfront! He had to be silenced
during his term as director, due to the
damage he caused the tourism industry.
Minister Winde has no say over the City of
Cape Town’s R40 million allocation to Cape
Town Tourism. If the Tourism Crisis would be
so easy to attribute to wine and crayfish
pricing, one could do something about it.
Being’ ripped of’ for these delicacies is
the least of the worries of potential
tourists - rather it is being ‘ripped off’
by the airlines in terms of their fares that
is their real concern. It shows that Mr
Ehrenreich is completely out of touch with
the reasons for the current crisis in the
Tourism industry - high domestic and
international airfares, the exchange rate,
the severe economic recession in the UK
(Cape Town’s major international source
market), future uncertainty about Greece’s
ability to repay its debt and other European
countries experiencing similar problem, the
current financial crisis of the USA, the
oversupply of accommodation, and crippling
cost increases whilst accommodation rates
have remained the same or are being slashed! |
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Article3 |
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Cape Town was put on the national map
last week, when the first episode of the
‘Charly’s Cake Angels’ TV series, focused on Charly’s Bakery, was
flighted on SABC 3 on Saturday
afternoon. Each of the thirteen episodes
focuses on a unique aspect of Cape Town,
and will make Cape Town synonymous with
Cake Town! Mother-and-daughters-team of
Jacqui, Alex, Roche and Dani Biess are
excited about the ‘mucking afazing’
(their cheeky slogan) opportunity they
were given to not just make their
well-loved distinctively pink bakery
famous, but also Cape Town, the city
they love, with its creative qualities.
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Charly’s Bakery has operated for 21
years, and has become known for its
designer cakes, and no design request
for wedding and birthday cakes has been
insurmountable, be it representing Cape
Town, cars, fashion accessories, and
many more designs.
In a most unusual manner, the tourism
assets of Cape Town and beyond are built
into the TV series. So, for example, the
cake that Charly’s Bakery baked to
represent Cape Town, and showcased at
the
Design Indaba earlier this year, is
covered in the ‘Cape Town Cake’ episode.
So too, in conjunction with
Cosmopolitan, a range of handbag and
shoe cakes was produced and became the programme theme for the ‘Fashion’
episode. The ‘Revenge of the Rhino’
episode is dedicated to the birth of a
rhino, particularly poignant, given the
death of rhinos due to poaching at
Aquila Game Reserve, where footage was
shot for this episode. Table Mountain
features in many of the episodes. |
The number of
2012 American Express
Platinum Fine Dining Programme
restaurants dropped for the
first time in its 14 year history, down
from 88 restaurants in 2011 to 78 this
year, with twelve of last year’s winners
having closed their doors, reports
Chef!. This demonstrates the severity of
the hospitality crisis. The dominance of
the Western Cape, with 33 of the 78
awards, highlights that the province is
the cuisine capital of South Africa. New
award entrants are also largely from the
Cape, being
Nobu,
Bistro Sixteen82,
Planet Restaurant,
Reuben’s at the One&Only, and
Pierneef à La Motte, out
of eight new entrants. Three
re-admissions are
The Restaurant at
Grande Provence,
Bosman’s
at the Grande Roche Hotel, and Saagries
in Johannesburg. The major criterion for
consideration by the Programme organiser
Tamsin Snyman, in partnership with
restaurant critic Victor Strugo, is
accepting payment by American Express,
which may have disqualified many other
top restaurants from being eligible for
evaluation. The judges evaluated the
quality and creativity of the cuisine,
the service, the wine list, decor and
ambiance, the overall excellence, and
acceptance of a booking for a table of
four on the same day. The 2102 American
Express Platinum Fine Dining Programme
restaurants are as follows, according to
Business Day:
CAPE PENINSULA:
Aubergine,
Buitenverwachting, Bukhara (city bowl),
Catharina’s, Constantia Uitsig, The Food
Barn, Gold, The Greenhouse,
Haiku; Il
Leone, La Colombe, Roundhouse, Savoy
Cabbage
CAPE WINELANDS: 96 Winery Road,
Boschendal, Bread & Wine, Fraai Uitzicht
1798, French Connection Bistro,
Jardine
at Jordan, Mimosa Lodge,
Overture @
Hidden Valley, The Pavilion,
Reuben’s
(Franschhoek), Seafood @ The Marine,
Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français
EASTERN CAPE: Hacklewood Hill (Port
Elizabeth)
FREE STATE: De Oude Kraal
KLEIN KAROO: Kalinka Karoo Cuisine
GARDEN ROUTE: La Locanda (George), Sand
@ The Plettenberg, Zinzi @ Tsala (Plettenberg
Bay), Serendipity (Wilderness), Trans
Karoo (Great Brak), Pembreys, Zachary’s
at Pezula (Knysna)
JOHANNESBURG: Bellagio, Bellgables,
Bukhara (Sandton), Butcher Shop & Grill,
Byzance, La Cucina di Ciro, Gramadoelas,
La Campagnola, Le Canard, Mastrantonia,
Metzuyan, Osteria Tre Nonni, Piccolo
Mondo, Pigalle (Sandton), Roots @ Forum
Homini, Saxon, Sel et Poivre, Wombles,
Yamato
PRETORIA: Geet, La Madeleine, La Pentola,
Mosaic, Ritrovo Ristorante
KWAZULU-NATAL: Cleopatra Mountain
Farmhouse, Daruma, Hartford House,
Harvey’s, Ile Maurice, Roma Revolving
Restaurant, Spice, Sugar Club
We looked forward to attending the
Toffie Food Festival and Conference, but many aspects left much
to be desired, the organisers making a
number of promises which they did not
deliver on, it was very expensive to
attend, and an odd collection of
speakers was on the programme. It was
the talk by ex-blogger Julie Powell,
theme of the movie ‘Julie & Julia’, that
made me book, disappointingly hungover
for her talk! Despite enjoying the
morning sessions on Saturday, it was the
organisers reneging on the confirmed
booked secret dinner venue that was the
final straw. There was no theme
commonality for the Conference overall.
The venue was a tacky dark room in the
City Hall, on a noisy corner with
taxi-hooting disturbance from outside,
and not in the downstairs main City Hall
auditorium, as one had expected. We sat
on uncomfortable cheap plastic chairs
which had been wrapped in brown paper
(this was the ‘creative’ decoration used
throughout), which meant that there was
a lot of rustling in the venue when one
moved on one’s chair. The organisers
clearly struggled to fill the venue, and
’gave away’ tickets on Groupon, unfair
to those who paid for the weekend in
full, as well as offered seats as give-aways
on M-Net. Free Secret Dinner seats were
offered via Twitter! The speakers at the
Toffie Conference tried their best to
make up for the poor organisation and
behind-the-scenes dramas happening
outside the presentation venue:
* Kobus van der Merwe, of the cutest
Paternoster eatery Oep ve Eet, spoke
about his love for foraging for West
Coast foods in the preparation of his
meals, including soutslaai, dune
spinach, veldkool, seevygies,
waterblommetjies, wild sage, and wild
rosemary. He grows some of his own
vegetables and herbs, and has access to
free-range farm eggs, Khoisan salt,
bokkoms, cow’s milk, and flour close by.
Not only do Kobus’ dishes look beautiful
from the colourful wild plants he adds,
but he is also inspired by shapes from
nature, having developed a breadstick in
the shape of a branch, and uses
streussel to create the look of soil.
Bobotie made with calamari, meat or
vegetables are a staple at his
restaurant, as are gemsbok sosaties.
Kobus calls his focus at Oep ve Eet
‘Earth-to-plate’, or ‘Terroir food’ His
food ideas and creativity in its
presentation are well worth a book, and
can be seen on his blog
Sardine Toast.
* Eloise Alemany is a small-print-run
publisher in Argentina of her own books,
written in Spanish, and which she
described as combination food journal,
cultural diary, story book, and cook
book. Her passion is photography and
publishing. The choice as speaker was
unusual, as many a local cook book
writer and publisher could have probably
been more useful to food writers wishing
to have guidelines about how to get
their work published. Unusually the
covers of her books ’Libro de Cocino’
and ‘Cuaderno Dulce’ have no food on
them. She launched secret dinners in
unique venues, such as an art gallery
and a shoe shop, each with a theme,
first for friends, and then expanded
these when the unusual dinners received
coverage in the Buenos Aires media.
Buenos Aires experienced a ‘restaurant
food revolution’ after the country’s
financial crisis five years ago, and it
led to interesting small neighbourhood
restaurants opening.
* Anna Trapido was a lively and
informative speaker about the
foods that
have shaped Nelson Mandela’s life, being the author of ‘Hunger for
Freedom’, and was the theme for the
unusual lunch we were served.
• Julie Powell’s success as a blogger,
and subsequent author, in documenting
her cooking of Julia Child’s recipe book
in one year, and leading to the making
of the movie ‘Julie & Julia’, cost her
her marriage, which became the theme of
her second book, called ‘Cleaving: A
Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession’.
With her marriage on the rocks, Ms
Powell decided to do a butcher’s course,
a good escape for her, and she enjoyed
‘hacking up meat’. It is very ‘hip’ to
be a butcher these days, she said.
|
She
is concerned about the origin of her
meat, and it must be organic,
sustainable, and hormone-free. For her,
food has good, joyous, generous and
loving memories, as well as nasty and
divisive memories. She turns to food in
times of crisis. She said that she was
judged for being a blogger, and stopped
blogging when her first book was
published. She does not follow blogs
now, she told Elle Decor. She watches a
lot of TV, but does not watch food programmes, finding them boring. |
|
In New
York pop-up restaurants and food trucks
are a new trend. ‘Technology and blogging have woven us together and made
the food conversation more cacophonous
than ever before’, she said. An
increasing number of people want to know
where their food comes from ethically
and environmentally. Ms Powell is
working on her third book, not
specifically about food.
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I was
fortunate to receive an invitation
to a media conference about the
celebration of Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday in July, and a meal
was prepared at his last home before his
release from Victor Verster (now
Drakenstein) Prison, with 67 school
children, 67 farmworkers, and 67 senior
citizens being féted by four chefs to
mark the 67 years that Mr Mandela
sacrificed to ‘make the world a better
place’. Chefs Jenny Morris, Reuben Riffel, Uncle Merv, and Marco Radebe
prepared the birthday meal, the menu
including Mr Mandela’s meals at Victor
Verster and Robben Island, and those
prepared by his present cook, to
represent Mr Mandela’s favourite food.
The menu was as follows: Cream of Tomato
soup with wholewheat bread; Chicken
liver on mash, or hake; Roast chicken,
brown rice, carrots and beans; Salad;
and Trifle, in rainbow colours.
Journalists were shown around Mandela
House at Drakenstein Prison, reminding
us of the humility and statesmanship
of our country’s greatest leader.
|
He had a
television set, and read the daily
newspapers. We were shown the lemon tree
which Mr Mandela planted on the
property. Mandela House is a national
heritage site, and we sat at the table
at which the historic draft constitution
was signed by then-President FW de Klerk
and Mr Mandela. Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of
Cape Town Routes Unlimited, said that it
was due to Mr Mandela that South Africa
had an upsurge in tourist numbers, only
surpassed by last year’s World Cup.
Given that Mr Mandela was released from
Victor Verster, it was felt that the
function to celebrate the birthday
should reflect the Winelands’ reputation
of being the Gourmet Capital.
The Cape Town city centre is seeing an
ever-growing collection of
good restaurants and coffee shops, including
Hemelhuijs,
Dear Me Foodworld, Tjing Tjing Bar, Escape Caffe,
What’s On Eatery,
Valora,
Skinny Legs &
All, Roberto’s Signature Restaurant,
6
Spin Street,
French Toast, Jason’s
Bakery,
Haas Coffee,
Piroschka’s
Kitchen,
Il Cappero,
Maria’s,
Bird Café
and Gourmet Eatery, and
the newly opened Rose Wale Lifestyle in
Bo-Kaap.
Restaurant news is the recently
re-opened
Haute Cabriere Cellar
Restaurant, with new chef
Ryan Shell; the recently re-opened
Bird
Café and Gourmet Eatery,
with chefs Leigh Trout and Kevin Mink;
Toro Wine & Aperitif Bar;
BREAD restaurant
In the Bromwell Boutique Mall; the new value
for money Summer Special offered by
Bosman’s Restaurant at the Grande
Roche;
Cuvee restaurant on Simonsig wine estate, celebrating its
40th anniversary of making Kaapse Vonkel
this month;
Valora Restaurant on
Loop Street; the opening of an outlet
for
Martin Senekal, one of
the most creative classic cake makers; a
most disappointing dinner at
Reuben’s
Franschhoek; and the
collection of
35 restaurants on Kloof
Street in Cape Town. Café Le Chocolatier has opened
Le Chocolatier
Factory, making
delectable Lindt chocolate and offering chocolate
tours and courses.
|
I was fortunate to obtain a seat for the
gourmet highlight of this year, prepared
by Chef Richard Carstens of Tokara Restaurant, a
13 course dinner in honour of the closing of the restaurant
El Bulli of the master of
deconstruction cooking, Ferran Adria.
Chef Richard’s food was
characteristically El Bulli, with foams,
and smoking, utilizing liquid nitrogen,
and the unique dinner, which earned Chef
Richard and his team a standing ovation,
will put Chef Richard at the top of the
Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards in
November, in our opinion. |
|
Another
talented
chef to
watch,
who has
just
taken
over the
kitchen
at
What’s On
Eatery, is Oliver Cattermole, who ran the Dash kitchen at the
Queen Victoria Hotel.
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I had the most heavenly experience,
visiting the little-known and relatively
new
Hermanus Wine Route, with
outstanding wine estates located in the
beautiful Hemel en Aarde Valley outside
Hermanus recently. It was at Creation
that I received a number of A4 copies of
the brand new Hermanus Wine Route map,
with 17 wine estates: Creation, Jakob’s
Vineyards, Domaine des Dieux, Mount
Babylon, Ataraxia, La Vierge Collection
, Spookfontein, Newton Johnson Vineyards
(with new chef at its Heaven
restaurant), Sumaridge, Bouchard
Finlayson, Ashbourne, Hamilton Russell
Vineyards, Southern Right, Whalehaven,
Hermanuspietersfontein, and Benguela
Cove. |
A most beautiful as well as informative
coffee table book about South Africa’s
sparkling wine industry has just been
published. ‘Celebrating
Méthode Cap Classique’ has been
written by Di Burger, and is the first
complete bubbly book. The book traces
the history of champagne to South
Africa’s sparkling wine industry, which
innovated with Cap Classique forty years
ago, being a bottle-fermented bubbly
made in the traditional French style.
Kaapse Vonkel was made for the first
time by pioneer winefarmer Frans Malan
at Simonsig in 1971, while ‘Cap
Classique’ wines were made for the first
time in 1992. Chairman of the Cap
Classique Association, Pieter ‘Bubbles’
Ferreira of Graham Beck Wines, writes in
the introduction to the book that ‘South
Africa has the oldest grape growing
soils in the world’. Combined with
its bountiful sunshine, the Western Cape
is a perfect location for growing grapes
of excellent quality for the production
of Cap Classique. Méthode Cap Classique
(MCC) is the term which describes the
South African bottle-fermented
production of sparkling wines in the
French Méthode Champenoise style. They
are dry, with less than 12 grams of
sugar per litre. The book includes
profiles of the major sparkling wine
producers (Simonsig, Boschendal, Graham
Beck, JC le Roux, Pongrácz, Villiera,
Haute Cabrière, The House of Krone,
Laborie, Backsberg Estate, Avondale, Bon
Courage Estate, Van Loveren, De Wetshof,
High Constantia Wine Cellar, Steenberg
Vineyards, La Motte, Morena MCC,
Saronsberg, Colmant, Veenwouden Private
Cellar, Mooiplaas, Quoin Rock Winery,
Chabivin, Klasiek by Catherine, Namaqua
Wines, MC Square, Domaine des Dieux,
Lourensford, Old Vines Wine Cellars,
Neil Joubert, Teddy Hall, Welteverede
Wine Estate, Charles Fox, Francois La
Garde, Longridge, Silverthorn Wines,
Genevieve, LovanE Boutique Wine Estate,
Saltare Wines, Tanzanite Wines, Ros
Gower Wines, Wonderfontein, Cederberg
Private Cellar, Riebeek Cellars, Groot
Constantia, Dieu Donné Vineyards,
Roodezandt, Aurelia MCC, Bramon,
Viljoensdrift Wines, Sterhuis, Perdeberg
Winery, Véraison MCC, and Allée Bleue
Estate).
The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club was
treated to a wonderful feast of
Bistro Sixteen82 tapas with five
excellent Steenberg Vineyards wines,
and informed about their Social Media
activities last month. Sales and
Marketing is managed by Anetha Homan.
Graham de Vries was recently appointed
to manage Social Media for Steenberg
Vineyards, and their ‘Totally Stoned’
Blog focuses on the wine side of the
estate, but also incorporates
information about Bistro Sixteen82 and
Catharina restaurants. Social Media was
first introduced at Steenberg in 2007,
and Tweeting and Blogging is done
corporately. In 2009 Steenberg Vineyards
did its first Twitter Tasting, and it
was a creative way for the wine estate
to attract attention. This was repeated
on a larger scale a few months ago.
Research findings on Twitter trends in
2010 of South Africans (most Tweeters
live in Cape Town, most Tweeting is done
on Tuesdays, and from 7 - 8 pm) has been
implemented in the Social Media strategy
of Steenberg Vineyards. Twitter,
Facebook, and Blogging has given
Steenberg Vineyards a consumer
communication channel, to pass on
communication in a fun and informal
manner, but even more importantly, to
receive feedback from their consumers.
New friends have been made via Social
Media dialogue, and these have become
Followers and, even better, Brand
Ambassadors. The immediacy of sharing
information is a major advantage.
|
Brad
Ball has been the chef at Bistro
Sixteen82 for two years, having opened
it at Steenberg Vineyards. They have
appointed Linda Harding as the Social
Media consultant for the restaurants and
hotel on the estate. Thoughts and
experiences of customers are shared, and
they look for interaction with guests.
They like the flexibility of being able
to promote a particular dish
immediately, and not wait for three
months or more until they receive
coverage in a magazine. ‘Our blog is our
press’, Brad said, referring to it as a
cost-effective communication medium.
Chef Brad has recently opened his own
personal Twitter account (@BradBallBrand),
to allow him to Tweet more personally,
but he does realise that he still has
limitations as to what he says,
as he is linked to Steenberg and
the Bistro. |
 |
He
advised that consistency in content is
important for the reader of blogs. He
says that one ‘eats with one eyes’, and
that is why they post photographs of
their dishes on the blog as well as on
Twitter, Tweets being carefully
scheduled. The power of Social Media was
demonstrated to the Bistro after they
re-opened after a three week break at
the beginning of September, to a fully
booked first day, and it has been full
every day thereafter. The Bistro did not
stop Tweeting while they were closed,
and competitions were run, with a
count-down to opening day. The Social
Media program for Bistro Sixteen82
positions it as a fun, vibey and enticing
restaurant to eat at. We commend Chef
Brad for being the only restaurant chef
to have attended meetings of the Food &
Wine Bloggers’ Club, demonstrating his
dedication to and understanding of the
benefits of Social Media.
To close the meeting, Matt Allison, one
of the speakers at our August meeting,
shared his experience of being the only
South African to attend the MAD Food
Camp organised by the world’s top
restaurant, Noma in Copenhagen, led by
its owner Rene Redzepi last month. It
was a huge honour for Matt to have been
selected as one of 250 urban gardeners
and chefs from around the world. The
Food Camp was the largest Northern
European food festival, and alongside it
ran the workshop, focusing on the
relationship between restaurants and
purveyors of fruit and vegetables. Chefs
are encouraged to grow their own
produce, if feasible. He was wowed by
what he saw and heard, for example
Amazonian ants preserved in gelatine by
the chef of South American restaurant
Dom. Matt is passionate about honouring
the value of food. He has become such an
authority on urban farming, working with
local Cape Town restaurants and farming
his own vegetables and herbs, which he
sells on Wednesdays at Starlings Café,
that he has been featured in the
Sunday Times and the New York
Times.
The
August Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club
meeting,
held at Den Anker, and addressed by Matt
Allison of ImNoJamieOliver Blog and
Nikki Dumas of Swirl! Blog, was
characterised by PASSION: not only in
terms of the blogger speakers, but also
in the fantastic food paired by Den
Anker with excellent Jordan wines.
|
Nikki Dumas presented each of
the attendees with a sheet of
her ‘Twenty-one Commandments’ on
how to blog successfully. She passionately expressed
her love for wine, and all things
related to it. Nikki’s suggestions for
successful blogging are: 1. write
something useful 2. write
something unique 3. write
something newsworthy 4. write
something first 5. write
something that makes those who
read it smarter 6. write
something controversial 7. write
something insightful 8. write
something that taps into a fear
people have 9. write something
that helps other people achieve
10. write something that elicits
a response 11. write something
that gives a sense of belonging
|
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12. write
something passionately 13. write
something that interprets or translates
news for people 14. write something
inspirational 15. write something that
tells a story 16. write something that
solves a problem 17. write something
that gets a laugh 18. write something
that saves people time or money 19.
write something opinionated 20. write
something that is a resource 21. write
something about something ‘cool’.
Nikki’s passion for her own brand came
to the fore, and she is a confident blogger, who knows exactly where she is
going. She has two blogs -
Swirl! is a blog she uses to
document information about the wine
industry, coming from PR agencies, for
example. She does not allow comments on
this blog.
Winestyle.biz is the blog on which
she writes her own blogposts, with about
4000 hits since she started it in April.
She allows comments on this blog, even
if they are controversial, to create
debate. She emphasised that she is not a
writer nor journalist, and that she will
only write about something she judged to
be good. Everything she experiences in
terms of food and wine she evaluates
against her career in restaurant
management. She likes using Google’s
Blogger platform, saying it is
user-friendly. Her blogpost attracting
the largest number of hits is the
anonymous survey she conducted on
restaurant listing fees for wines. She
said she is a ‘Mac junkie’, and
evaluates her blog performance through
all the statistics that Google makes
available, including Google Analytics,
AdSense, and more. She knows exactly
where her traffic is coming from, and
which keywords are used to get to her
blog. Nikki offers restaurant wine
training, is a wine consultant in
designing winelists for restaurants,
assists wine estates in getting better
sales in restaurants, and sells branded
Wine Journals.
|
Without any notes, Matt Allison
spoke from his heart, reflecting his
passion and principles. With careers in
the wine trade, as a graphic designer,
and first as a musician and then as a
music producer, Matt realised that he
was spending too much time away from
home, not what he wanted with his new
baby boy. He realised he needed a
change, and became a rare
‘house-husband’, spending almost all his
time with his son at home. He loves
food, and became the cook for the
family, and his blog ‘ImNoJamieOliver’
was born a year ago when he decided to
cook all 60 recipes of a Jamie Oliver
recipe book in 90 days. He lost twenty
days when he had his kitchen redone.
|
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We
laughed when he told us that his mother
had engendered independence amongst her
children, and it was a matter of ‘cook
or die’ in their household. He has since blogged
a further 60 recipes from a second Jamie
Oliver recipe book.
Matt
presented who he is honestly, and
described himself as a person with a
30’s nature, a 50’s style, living in
2011. Matt told us that blogging for him
is a means to an end, and he has changed
direction in that his interest now is
the provenance of food. He has rented a
piece of land from the City of Cape
Town, and now grows 40 vegetable and
herbs, not counting different varieties.
This has led to seasonal eating, fresh
out of his garden. He does not grow
potatoes and corn, as these take too
much space. Matt is critical of
Woolworths, for their vegetables sourced
from countries such as Kenya. He told us
horror stories about supermarket
vegetables being picked unripe weeks
earlier, and artificially ripened He
would like people to question where
their food is coming from. He believes
that obesity and diabetes can be fixed
via ‘healthy food’. With his help, Cape
Town and Winelands chefs at restaurants
are moving to sourcing their herbs and
vegetables from small ‘bio-dynamic’ (he
does not like the word ‘organic’)
producers, or planting their own. He
likes restaurants that serve local,
seasonal, and sustainable food, and
operate ethically in all respects. Matt
has about 5000 unique readers of his
blog per month, and about 1300 Twitter
followers, but his readership is of no
consequence to him. He is ruthless in
unfollowing and blocking on Twitter. He
recently changed his Twitter name to @MattAllison,
to build his own brand. Given his focus
on the provenance of food, he will be
launching a new blog “Planting Thoughts”
soon. Matt says we pay too little for
our food in South Africa, and told us
what it costs to raise a chicken. He
buys his meat from Gogo’s Deli in
Newlands, or directly from farmers. Matt
encouraged us to ‘think about your
food’, that one should not evaluate
a restaurant if one has not been a chef
and a waiter, given that most chefs put
their heart and soul into their meals.
For him a good restaurant is one in
which the chef comes out of the kitchen,
offers great service, and has staff who
love what they do. He encouraged one to
do one’s own blogging and Tweeting, to
reflect one’s personality, and to not
outsource Social Media.
The
July Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club
meeting, held at
What’s On Eatery, was a bubbly
affair, with
Batonage
bloggers Maggie Mostert and Hennie
Coetzee sharing their passion for the
good things in life, being eating out
and drinking wine, and then blogging
about it. Siris Vintners kept things
bubbly too, by taking the bloggers
through a tasting of five
Moreson sparkling wines. It was the
first Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting
to be sold-out the day before the event.
Batonage is made up of two very
passionate foodies and wine lovers, says
its Blog introduction: “Together we
decided to create a record of our
adventures in food and wine, something
we indulge in almost daily. We are avid
wine hunters, always on the lookout for
something new and unique to talk, write
and spread the word about. When it comes
to food we consider ourselves
adventurous eaters, scavenging the
latest food and wine pairing at the best
eateries, but equally happy to indulge
in uncomplicated fare at our local
bistro. The focus will be on visiting
wine farms and restaurants, both old and
new, and telling you dear reader, of our
experiences there. Every attempt will be
made to make the information relevant
and we might even make you smile once in
a while”. What makes Hennie and
Maggie interesting and unique is that
their day job is far removed from their
food and wine blogging, and that they
write about both wine and food on the
same Blog. Hennie was a Sommelier at
Singita, and Maggie’s experience as a
student-waitress and her accountant’s
perspective gives her a unique
evaluation of restaurants and wineries.
She advised bloggers to be honest
‘nicely’, and to write what they would
be prepared to tell someone to their
face. Photographs and writing should not
be ‘ho hum’, and one must spellcheck.
She advised newer bloggers to attend
functions, to eat out and drink a
cross-spectrum of wine, and to discover
new things. Hennie advocated the
drinking of sparkling wine on more than
just special occasions, and even
Champagne, when the occasion calls for
it.
The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club was
formed to reflect the tremendous growth
in and power of food and wine blogs in
forming opinion about food, restaurants
and wines. Most bloggers do not have any
formal training in blogging, and learnt
from others. The Food & Wine Bloggers’
Club aims to foster this informal
training, and to serve as a social media
networking opportunity. Each of the two
bloggers talk for about half an hour
about their blog, and what they have
learnt about blogging. The Club gives
fledgling as well as experienced
bloggers the opportunity to learn from
each other and to share their knowledge
with others. Attendees can ask
questions, and get to know fellow
bloggers. The Club meetings are informal
and fun.
Future Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club
meetings have been organised as follows:
|
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19 October: Roger and Dawn Jorgensen
of Jorgensen’s Distillery,
and Anthony Gird and Michael de
Klerk of Honest Chocolate,
with a chocolate and potstill brandy
tasting, at Haas Coffee on Rose
Street. |
|
• |
12 November: Visit to new
Leopard’s Leap tasting room and
cookery school in Franschhoek |
Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club, Cape
Town. Bookings can be made by e-mailing
Chris at
whalecot@iafrica.com. The cost of
attendance is R100. Twitter: @FoodWineBlogClu
Facebook:
click here.
The pioneering
Stellenbosch Wine Route, founded in
1971 by winemakers Frans Malan of
Simonsig, Neil Joubert of Spier, and
Spatz Sperling of Delheim, celebrated
its 40th anniversary with an extensive
wine and food feast and fest in July.
The Route has established itself not
only as one with the largest number of
outstanding wine farms of the 18 wine
routes in the country, representing 18%
of all vines planted in South Africa,
but also with the largest collection of
outstanding restaurants in South Africa,
Stellenbosch now wearing the Gourmet
Capital crown. The trio which
established the Stellenbosch Wine Route
was inspired by the wine route Routes de
Vins at Morey St Denis in Burgundy, the
late Frans Malan and Neil Joubert
returning from their 1969 trip and
connecting with Spatz Sperling to
establish the Stellenbosch Wine Route,
the first wine tourism activity in our
country. I was delighted to meet
Spatz Sperling and his family on
their Delheim wine farm recently. To
create the Stellenbosch Wine Route, the
founding wine farmers had to overcome
red tape and bureaucracy, and even had
to have wine legislation rewritten to
accommodate the new Stellenbosch Wine
Route. Meals were not allowed to be
served at wine estates, and bottled wine
could not be sold from a winery in those
days.
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The renamed Stellenbosch American
Express Wine Routes has 147 wine farms,
making it the largest wine route in our
country. We wrote last year that the
Stellenbosch Wine Route should create
the
Stellenbosch Restaurant Route,
in honour of the cuisine excellence in
Stellenbosch, including Rust en Vrede,
Overture, Terroir, Delaire, Indochine,
Jordan Restaurant with George Jardine,
The Long Table Restaurant and Café,
Warwick, Eight, Wild Peacock Food
Emporium, Pane E Vino, Bodega @Dornier,
Cuvee Restaurant, Tokara,
Towerbosch Earth Kitchen, Johan’s at
Longridge, and Delheim restaurant. |
A controversial and damaging 96-page
report, entitled ‘Ripe
with Abuse: Human Rights Conditions in
South Africa’s Fruit and Wine Farm
Industries’, published by the New
York-based Human Rights Watch, was met
by a strongly worded media release by
Wines of South Africa (WOSA). The report
implicates the tourism industry too,
benefiting from wine tourism. The Human
Rights Watch report described less than
acceptable conditions on fruit and wine
farms. WOSA challenged the report, in
that the selection of the more than 260
respondents for the report was not
specified. WOSA CEO Su Birch wrote: ”The
study relies on anecdotal evidence that
uses the cover of respondent protection
to avoid substantiating the claims it
makes.” She added that the
international media release to announce
the report was not balanced in its
presentation of information about
conditions in the wine industry, making
it misleading. The media release of the
Human Rights Watch, entitled ‘South
Africa: Farmworkers’ Dismal, Dangerous
Lives’, blamed the wine industry for
denying their staff ‘adequate
housing, proper safety equipment, and
basic labor rights’, and calls on
the South African government to ‘take
immediate steps to improve their working
and housing conditions’. More
specifically, the report highlights ‘on-site
housing that is is unfit for living,
exposure to pesticides without proper
safety equipment, lack of access to
toilets or drinking water while working,
and efforts to block workers from
forming unions. While the Western Cape’s
fruit and wine industries contribute
billions of rand to the country’s
economy, support tourism, and are
enjoyed by consumers around the world,
their farmworkers earn among the lowest
wages in South Africa. The report also
described insecure tenure rights and
threats of eviction for longtime
residents on farms. The wealth and
well-being these workers produce
shouldn’t be rooted in human misery’,
said Human Rights Watch Africa Director
Daniel Bekele. It points a finger at the
South African government in the main, in
not monitoring conditions of workers,
and in not enforcing labour laws. Only
3% of the local wine workers are
unionised, the report says, and there
were only 107 labour inspectors to
investigate 6000 farms in March this
year. Mrs Birch added that the report
did not write much about the good work
which the Wine Industry Ethical Trade
Association and Fairtrade are doing, and
about the wine farms with empowerment
deals. “With positive examples of the
progress made in redressing past wrongs
rendered virtually inaccessible to all
but the most serious readers, the report
negates the work of those who should be
allowed to stand out as role models to
their peers”, says Mrs Birch. The
Wine Industry Ethical Trade Association
has more than eighty farms audited by
the Wine Supply Chain Support Programme,
and many of the members of the
Association are writing compliance
requirements into supplier contracts. In
addition, training is being done about
workers’ rights amongst both farm
managers as well as their workers, in
addition to a training programme ‘addressing
discrimination and sexual harrassment’,
writes WOSA. The largest number of
Fairtrade wine producers worldwide are
in South Africa. WOSA’s response to the
complaint relating to lack of protection
for workers spraying pesticides is that
clear guidelines for the use of
pesticides and worker protection are
specified in the Integrated Production
of Wine protocol, and is regularly and
independently monitored. Should
producers fail to meet the guidelines in
this regard, they could lose their
accreditation, and therefore their
ability to export their wines. Housing
conditions are also addressed in the
Report. WOSA acknowledges weaknesses,
but states that 200000 workers are
housed on wine farms, and quotes Charles
Back of Fairview questioning whether any
other South African industry provides
housing to the extent that the wine
industry does. Responsible Alcohol Use,
anti-alcohol abuse, and Foetal Alcohol
Syndrome programmes are funded by the
wine industry. Mrs Birch concluded by
saying that the damaging report affects
a South African wine industry already
struggling with sales due to the strong
Rand and the global downturn, and
thereby affecting the jobs of the
farmworkers even more. She states
strongly: ”Let me make it very clear:
we condemn out of hand any and all human
rights abuses on wine farms. Our
disappointment in the bias in the report
is in no way an indication of our
support for inhumane practices. It
expresses our concern that trade and
consumers all over the world could
become alienated from South African
wines. We call on Government to partner
the wine industry in accelerating reform
and in rooting out problems”. The Human
Rights Watch media release ends off on a
positive note for the wine industry:
‘The answer is not to boycott South
African products, because that could be
disastrous for farmworkers. But we are
asking retailers (in the UK,
Netherlands, Germany, USA, other
European countries, and Canada) to press
their suppliers to ensure that there are
decent conditions on the farms that
produce the products they buy and sell
to their customers’, urged Bekele.
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In walking around Franschhoek during the
Bastille Festival in July, I was
surprised to discover
Taste South Africa,
the most beautiful transformation of what was previously the Le Grange decor shop in The Yard, off the main road in Franschhoek. Taste South Africa belongs to Fiona Phillips of Cybercellar (”Where else can you
buy virtually all your South African
wine?”, her business card asks
cleverly), and is the first multi-brand
winetasting venue in Franschhoek. Fiona
started Cybercellar twelve years ago, having been an equity trader on both the London and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges. |
It represents more than 700 wine estates
in South Africa, with deliveries of
wines made by courier 3 - 5 days after
purchase. Taste South Africa will
function as a tasting venue not only for
South African wines, but for local
products too, such as olive oils, and
cheeses. Not only is the concept unique
for Franschhoek, and the interior design
by Xperiencemakers is impressive. Wine
will not be physically sold from the
tasting venue, but orders can be placed
via Cybercellar while one is at the
tasting venue. Taste South Africa is an
exciting new asset of Franschhoek, and a
beautiful showcase of South African
wines. Exciting functions have been
planned, including food and wine pairing
events, bloggers’ dinners, Twitter
tastings, and a live-feed Twitter screen
is to be added. The next Taste South
Africa tasting venue will open at
Melrose Arch in Johannesburg.
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Article9le9 |
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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
info@whalecottage.com.
Winners of the Sweet and Sour Service
Awards can be read on the Friday posts
of the
WhaleTales blog,
and in the
WhaleTales
newsletters on the
www.whalecottage.com website..
The latest
Sweet Service Awards winners are
the following:
|
• |
PJ Plumbers, for
their speedy service ...
read
more
|
|
• |
Nedbank, for its speedy
service ...
read more |
|
• |
Camerata Tinta Barocca,
for their participation in a
concert in support of Andrew
Merryweather ...
read more |
|
• |
Twelve Apostles Hotel,
for their invitation to the
launch of their new Spa ...
read more |
|
• |
Toro Wine Bar, for their
invitation to share in a
birthday celebration
...
read more |
|
• |
Bingley Tours, for
bringing a forgotten guest
cellphone to the airport ...
read more |
|
• |
Keyworx, for their
service in fixing a remoteg ...
read
more |
|
• |
Leaves Guest House,
for their good service to a
Cape Town guest ...
read
more |
| • |
Western Cape Minister of
Tourism Alan Winde, for
making his contact details
available on Twitter ...
read
more |
| • |
The City of Cape Town,
and its Paul, for assistance in
changing address details ...
read
more |
| • |
The Bastille Festival and
its organisers, for a wonderful
Festival with excellent weather ...
read
more |
| • |
Catherina’s Restaurant,
for replacing a bottle of wine ...
read
more |
The latest
Sour Award nominations have been the following:
|
• |
African
Day Wine Club, for not honouring an
order which had been paid for ...
read
more |
|
• |
Coco’s
in Hermanus, for poor service ...
read more |
|
• |
Play Bar,
for being unable to provide service
before and after Baxter shows ...
read more |
|
• |
The
parking marshalls of Sea Point, for
their rudeness
...
read more |
|
• |
OR Thambo
Airport, for not having a clear
smoking area ...
read more |
|
• |
Ons Huisie,
for excessive charging ...
read more |
|
• |
V&A
Waterfront, for its parking payment
machines being out of order so often ...
read
more |
|
• |
V&A
Waterfront, for offering a prize to
a Zambian hotel ...
read
more |
| • |
SARS, for its poor service
at its Paarl office ...
read
more |
| • |
The
City of Cape Town, for
not removing palm fronds coming
crashing down in wind storms in
Fresnaye and Camps Bay ...
read
more |
| • |
ACSA, for its massive
increase in airport taxes ...
read
more |
| • |
Vodacom, for a 4-hour
countrywide network failure ...
read
more |
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