Lufthansa Increases Its Schedule To Cape Town

Lufthansa is increasing its schedule to South Africa with the seasonal and popular flights between Frankfurt and Cape Town being re-introduced from 31 October 2011. These additional daily non-stop flights will increase the airline’s capacity by 60% within five months.

“Operating the Boeing B747-400 to Cape Town will give us the additional capacity boost so needed during South Africa’s summer season,” says Axel Simon, Director Southern Africa for Lufthansa German Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines.

Besides the seasonal schedule to the Cape predominantly used by the leisure market, Lufthansa also runs a daily non-stop flight between Johannesburg and Frankfurt throughout the year using the Airbus A380. Since deploying this aircraft, the capacity per month has increased by more than 6000 seats.

Wine Farm Loses Its Fiz

The historic family-owned Twee Jonge Gezellen wine-producing business has been placed under provisional liquidation after it emerged that it was in dire straits financially and had only R1 million “at its disposal”.

The provisional liquidation, made an order of the Western Cape High Court earlier this month, comes after the owners of the estate made attempts to try to save the business.

In an affidavit before the court, sole director and shareholder Nicolas Krone said Twee Jonge Gezellen’s financial difficulties started when it suffered a loss of earnings of R21.6m after it was supplied with contaminated bottles.

This led to lengthy unsuccessful litigation and an additional R1.5m in suppliers’ costs, which it was ordered to pay. “The legal battle crippled the applicant,” he said.  Later, it started falling into arrears with its repayments to the Land and Agricultural Bank of SA (Land Bank). This led to litigation and, in terms of a high court judgment, the business owes the Land Bank R38m.

According to Krone, he and his wife had already exhausted their pension funds and personal savings to invest in the business. He said that they had only R1m at their disposal. Recent audited financial statements were not available, he said.

The case returns to court on October 27, when interested parties have to show cause why a final liquidation order should not be granted.

Source: ARGUS

Getaway Drives Them Away

On 12 September, Getaway International will hit the shelves for the first time. It’s an exciting new venture for R.S & P. but for us, it's going to drive our potential visitors away.

For 22 years, Getaway has focused primarily on African travel. But over the past decade, we have, on occasion, run stories featuring destinations beyond the continent. These have proved hugely popular with our readers and so we decided to address this growing interest.

Right now the rand is strong and credit is cheap. So it’s an ideal time to head overseas. With an ever-increasing number of airlines offering international flights from South Africa, and fierce competition bringing the prices of foreign holiday packages down, South Africans are travelling abroad more than ever before. Indeed, these days it can be considerably cheaper taking a holiday in Thailand or Argentina than in Botswana or Mozambique.

In our inaugural issue, we’ve gone big and tried to present exciting options from just about every corner of the globe. We’ve looked for destinations that will appeal to South African travellers and we’ve found packages and deals that are easily doable for locals.

An Uncertain Future For Whaling

In a recent article, Andrew Darby, long-time reporter on whaling politics for the Sydney Morning Herald, reported on all the obstacles facing the annual whale hunt. The Japanese government has concluded a review of the whaling program’s future after its clashes with Sea Shepherd last summer. Details of the review were leaked and Darby suspects that a majority from the hard-line Japanese Fisheries Agency stand by the hunt. However, he noted that one respected consumer advocate on the review panel—Hisa Anan, Secretary General of Shodanren, Japan’s national consumer organisation—has publicly rejected the need for any more lethal "research."

New obstacles

Then there is the ban the International Maritime Organisation has placed in Antarctica on the use of heavy fuel oil, which is used by Japan’s whaling factory ship the Nisshin Maru. Will the IMO let Japan get away with the charade that the hunt is for research purposes and therefore allow an exemption in the same way the International Whaling Commission has? And for how much longer will that charade last at the IWC anyway, now that the Australian government is taking Japan to the International Court of Justice for abusing the IWC loophole for scientific research?

Doing the right thing

As Darby reports, “There are other problems weighing on the government in its decision over whaling. Whale meat stockpile statistics published earlier this year showed it was not selling. This means the cost of propping up the whaling fleet is blowing out at a time when all available government yen must be pressed into earthquake recovery.”

It's time

One hopes the portents are true and Japan will decide it is time to leave whaling behind; however, the battle to keep the commercial whaling moratorium in place at the IWC will certainly continue regardless of this recent turn of events. At the 2011 annual meeting, the pro-whaling bloc resorted to new lows to sabotage the voting process by staging a walkout before a key vote to approve a new whale sanctuary. As a result, there was no longer a quorum of countries in the room for the vote to take place.

Unfortunately, even if Japan does decide to abandon its costly hunt in the Southern Ocean, we must still work to persuade Japan, Norway, Iceland and Korea to desist from the coastal commercial whaling programs they each conduct under different guises.

Source: HSI

The Class Room Restaurant In A Class Of Its Own

Joan-Anne and I decided to visit The Class Room Restaurant in the Hemel en Aarde Craft Village, Hermanus on Sunday for their Set Black Board Lunch.  The advertising and info from the website that I have seen up to now describes the restaurant as supplying 'relaxed, fine dining'. All looks rather nice, but I'm sure it'll be mighty expensive I thought as we entered.  Nothing could have been further from the truth.

The decor is beautifully chosen and classy, reminding me of a fine French restaurant. The tables are spaced far apart enough so that I did not have to endure some other couple's conversation and not too far apart so that I felt adrift.  The set menu for the day was a choice of soup or fish for starters, main course of two meats, mini table dessert buffet per person and coffee. All this for a staggering R130!  Needless to say we could not do justice to the dessert buffet which can be seen on their Contact Us page on their website. No jokes, that is exactly how it was presented to us.  Not only to us, but all the tables received identical mouthwatering desserts.

The young chef made a visit to the tables which was appreciated and the waitrons were 'invisible until needed'. Superb and out of this world to say the least.

Do visit their website at www.theclassroomrestaurant.co.za and see for yourself what relaxed fine dining is all about.

SA Tourism Figures Just Don't Figure

Will the real Mr Stats please stand up. The figures for tourism supplied by SA Stats have up to now shown that tourist numbers were increasing on a quarterly basis. Now, this has not made sense to me as the dire position our industry is in does not go hand-in-hand with what is being published.

This month SA Stats' figures are a lot more realistic. Here are the latest figures for May 2010 - May 2011.

Netherlands down 22%

Italy down 16%

UK down 16%

Argentina down 47%

Mexico down 55%

Brazil only down 2% (Here is a market to nurture)

New Zealand down 12%

Asia is looking good in general with Malaysia up 138% (Another market to nurture)
Zimbabwe up 76% (Are these visitor figures? 'Go figure.')
 
Source: SA Tourism

Eat Out To Announce Top 10 Restaurants

Every year we acknowledge and celebrate the best of the South African restaurant industry with the Eat Out Restaurant Awards. This year the winners will be announced at a glittering gala dinner on Sunday 20 November at the Rotunda at the Bay Hotel in Camps Bay.

The evening will start at 17h00 with champagne and canapés, followed by a truly special four-course meal with wine pairing. Each course of the meal will be prepared by one of the country’s top chefs. Announcing the top ten restaurants, as well as the winners of the Chef of the Year and Service Excellence awards, is Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly.

The 2011 celebrations also introduce additional honours: Best New Restaurant, the Boschendal Style Award, and five new category awards for the best Asian, bistro, Italian, steakhouse and country-style restaurants in the country.

Tickets are limited and cost R1 000 per person. To book your ticket to Mzansi’s foodie Oscars, please contact Alicia Erasmus at mailto:alicia.erasmus@newmediapub.co.za