Issue 4 2011

CONTENTS Issue 4 of 2011 (July/Aug)

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PUBLISHER Tourism Tattler (Pty) Ltd. PO Box 891, Umhlanga Rocks, 4320 KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Company Reg.No.: 2006/015252/07 Website: www.tourismtattler.co.za MANAGING EDITOR Des Langkilde Tel: +27 (0)32 947 2554 Cell: +27 (0)82 374 7260 Fax: +27 (0)86 651 8080 E-mail: editor@tourismtattler.co.za Skype: tourismtattler EDITOR Marjorie Dean Tel: +27 (0)11 886 9996 Fax: +27 (0)11 886 7557 E-mail: communications@satsa.co.za Skype: satsa-comms ADVERTISING MANAGER Bev Langkilde Tel: +27 (0)32 947 2554 Fax: +27 (0)86 656 3860 Cell: +27 (0)71 224 9971 E-mail: bev@tourismtattler.co.za Skype: bevtourismtattler SUBSCRIPTIONS Email: subscriptions@tourismtattler.co.za Skype: subscribetourismtattler DESIGN & PRODUCTION Michelle Bode Tel: +44 1873 812131 Cell: +44 7783 985762 E-mail: michelle.bode@gmail.com skype: michellerobynbode www.tourismtattler.co.za PRINTING Pinetown Printers Tel: +27 (0)31 701 8019 MAILING Lithotech Africa Mail Tel: +27 (0)31 208 6132 Official Trade Journal of the South African Tourism Services Association (SATSA) P O Box 900, Ferndale, 2160.

Third Floor, Petrob House, 343 Surrey Avenue, Ferndale, Randburg, Gauteng, South Africa.

Tel: +27 (0)86 127 2872 Fax: +27 (0)11 886 7557 Website: www.satsa.com

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Seatrade Cruise Forum Summary

04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16-17

LETTERS Letters to the Editor EDITORIAL From the Editor’s Desk / Message from the President NICHE TOURISM Africa - Last Cruise Frontier Starlight Cruises Cruise Tourism Youth Trends AVIATION & AIR ACCESS Africa Air market key for growth The truth behind arrival stats ACHIEVEMENTS & ACCOLADES Safari Awards 2011 Winners BUSINESS & FINANCE The new profit rules - Part 2 R200m for Jo’burg Business Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year EVENTS George Cheese Festival Indaba in retrospect

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German Market Facts & Figures

18 18 19-20 21 22 23 24 25-27 28 29 30 31 32-33

CONTRIBUTORS Anna Malczyk Anna-Marie Roux Charlie Cook Cindy Clokie Dave Snuggs

GLOBAL TOURISM Plant for the planet SA First for Global Leaders HEALTH & SAFETY Legionnaires Disease Medical evacuation procedures HOSPITALITY Green guest houses Nanotechnology for Hospitality LEGAL & LEGISLATION Complying with the CPA MARKETING The German Leisure Market - # 1 PROCUREMENT Branded amenities extend marketing RESPONSIBLE TOURISM Green is a lifestyle Tourism faces fuel hikes TRANSPORT Mercedes Vito review TRADE NEWS

COMPETITIONS

Des Langkilde Dr. Peter Tarlow Janna Strang Laura Vercueil

04 15 22

Win a book Win a case of Deetlef’s wine Win 3 nights at Madikwe Hills

ADVERTISE IN THE TOURISM TATTLER Reach over 13 000 subscribers (100 000+ readers) in the southern Africa tourism trade. Published alternate monthly (6 issues per year) in Jan/Feb, Mar/April, May/ Jun, July/Aug, Sept/Oct and Nov/Dec. Back issues available for download 365 days a year at www.tourismtattler.co.za Contact our National Sales Director Beverley Langkilde on +27 (0)32 947 2554 / +27 (0)71 224 9971 / bev@tourismtattler.co.za Disclaimer The Tourism Tattler is published by Tourism Tattler (Pty) Ltd and is the official trade journal of the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA). The Tourism Tattler digital e-zine, is distributed free of charge to bona fide tourism stakeholders.

Letters to the Editor are assumed intended for publication in whole or part and may therefore be used for such purpose. The information provided and opinions expressed in this publication are provided in good faith and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Tourism Tattler (Pty) Ltd, SATSA, its staff and its production suppliers. Advice provided herein should not be soley relied upon as each set of circumstances may differ. Professional advice should be sought in each instance. Neither Tourism Tattler (Pty) Ltd, SATSA, its staff and its production suppliers can be held legally liable in any way for damages of any kind whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from any facts or information provided or omitted in these pages or from any statements made or withheld or from supplied photographs or graphic images reproduced by the publication.

2/2011

THE TOURISM TATTLER IS A RESPONSIBLE READ Please enjoy your copy of Tourism Tattler secure in the knowledge that it is produced responsibly. The Tattler is printed on Sappi Triple Green paper, which is wood-free, chlorine-free and acid-free. Even the litho printing inks are environmentally friendly as they are soya based and water soluble, so in fact we’re pretty ‘green’ there too.

SATSA Tourism Tattler Trade Journal

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters to the Editor Winning Letter Dear Editor, from the SA ht be interested in hearing I thought your readers mig promoting in e’ report ‘from the coalfac Tourism Office in Italy – a the Brand for ss gre pro ic made fantast South Africa. We have n to much itio add r the last three years in ‘South Africa’ in Italy ove . wth gro ual bined ann better than expected com ual roadshow on our calendar is our ann The next important date th–Nov18th). v11 (No M WT r in just afte which will take place aga dation and mo om show, including acc We expect the cost of the 3 500 and € en we bet be to certain meals domestic transport and details. € 4 000. See below for 0 – 54 641 result registered in 201 nt ifica sign the Following 9) the new 200 percent compared to arrivals from Italy (+8.7 222 Italian 4 1 201 y uar Jan In trend. year started with a positive ect to the resp h ica: +10.4 percent wit tourists chose South Afr s year. same period of the previou ncing directly ed that living and experie We are deeply convinc effective way st mo the is ly uties actual the country and its bea nts to know age el allowing Italian trav to promote South Africa, this strategy h wit line In t. bes tion at more and sell the destina s in travel fair e trad normally spent on we are reinvesting budget both the (via nts age el trav Five training.

Trade agent educationals, and Fan ok ebo che.com and the Fac website agenti.haisentito to attend ted invi re we y) Ital Tourism page of South African Reporter’ on buyers. Thanks to ‘Indaba ‘Indaba 2011’ as hosted our fans are y’, Ital rism Tou ican uth Afr our Facebook fan page ‘So r is being tou al ion 500. A new educat now slightly less than 1 among ed ruit rec be will tors ber. Opera planned for next Septem be the will ers sell t South Africa: bes the travel agents who sell

winners. to 500 Italian s a trade kit will be mailed Over the next few month ter promote bet and d nde bra s be thu travel agencies which can

miss TTG In October we will not destination South Africa. be set up and will th boo l ima min a 0, Incontri – Rimini; as in 201 roadshows stand. We will increase no partners will be on the ionals. fess ing at training tourist pro and fam-trips, mainly aim 18th to h 11t from ce will take pla s Our 2011 Roadshow citie s ude incl gramme at the moment e, November. The draft pro enc Flor e, Rom i, Bar a, Italy: Catani from South to North of ian travel as last year will offer Ital at form e sam The an.

Mil tination des our ut abo re n to know mo agents a unique occasio r operators as tou ian Ital ized cial spe and meet directly with the travel operators. As in 2010, well as with South African nity to ortu dshow will have the opp agents attending the Roa s of utie bea the live nce r and experie win an educational tou ted mo pro ts ries including the produc South Africa along itinera during the Roadshow. g some of e journalists representin For Indaba we hosted thre ia, Guida Ital TTG s: ine gaz ian trade ma the most prominent Ital hosted we lists iano. Two of the journa Viaggi and Travel Quotid sonally per s thu and rs tou post Indaba also took part in pre- and rist trade press tou The ica.

Afr th Sou experienced travelling in from Italy, on focusing on the arrivals gave us good coverage, . The MICE ject Indaba Reporter pro Indaba as well as on the tination to des al ide an as th Africa press, too focussed on Sou es. Good mm s and incentive progra host meetings, congresse ss. pre er sum by the con coverage was also given Kind regards Lance Littlefield African Tourism Direttore: Italia, South africano.com sud smo turi e-mail: lance@

Win CONGRATULATIONS to Lance Littlefield of South African Tourism Italy whose winning letter has been published in this edition and wins a copy of the ‘Big Cats Odyssey’ DVD with the complements of Livingstones Supply Co - Suppliers of the Finest Products to the Hospitality Industry.

For more information visit their website at www.livingstonssupplyco.co.za The winning letter for the next edition of the Tourism Tattler (Sep / Oct) will receive a copy of the book ‘Maneaters, Mambas and Marula Madness by Mario Cesare’ valued at R188.10 (incl VAT). Letters should be sent to editor@tourismtattler.co.za

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EDITORIAL

From the Editor’s Desk One of the most exciting events to happen around Indaba 2011 was the Seatrade Conference. (See our article on Page 6).

This brought together the operators of many major cruise lines to discuss the possibility of adding South Africa to their itineraries for the future.

Cruising has been a sector of tourism where South Africa has been greatly under represented, since it is now a large chunk of international tourism. There are many reasons for this – one of the most important being that however you look at a map of the world, this country is a long way away from the major cruise markets.

Another is that, with the fast development of very large cruise ships, we have few suitable harbours to offer. That problem can perhaps be solved by the investment in new infrastructure.

Cruising is an increasingly popular kind of holiday, and having in recent years, taken a few cruises myself, I can understand why. It’s certainly a relaxing way to travel – once you are on board and unpacked, there’s no need to pack all your stuff up again until you reach home port. It’s also a great holiday if you are on a travel budget, as you know in advance what your entire holiday will cost. And most cruise lines today offer excellent value for money, providing transport, accommodation, meals and entertainment on board.

Any spare cash left over, and passengers do budget for this, can be devoted to exploring the destinations you will visit. And that’s where our industry comes in. Passengers arrive in a port having spent some days at sea, really keen to get off the ship and explore. So we have to bend our minds to providing exciting, interesting and value for money shore tours.

From my own experience I know that not all passengers on a cruise ship have the same interests. They are quite happy to split up into small groups to explore the things that interest them. Some are keen to see the local flora – others want to exercise their expensive camera

equipment on the scenery. Yet others will want to see wildlife, or local culture; experience our fantastic food and wine, or shop in our worldclass shopping centres. In other words we have to be able to offer a wide variety of South African experiences.

We are good at that – but we have to remember there are time constraints. Cruise companies, over the years, have become experts at getting passengers off and on to their ships efficiently, and we have to make sure our transport is equally efficient. Our seaborne visitors will want to know what there is to see, how much they can cram into each day. Our ‘world in one country’ has so much to offer them.

It’s up to us to study what this new market wants – and then provide it.

Marjorie Dean

COVER STORY Our cover features the MSC Sinfonia operated by MSC Starlight Cruises who, as the only local cruise operator off the coast of South Africa and Mozambique, provide the first introduction to cruising holidays for many locals. The 2011/12 season will see the return of the MSC Sinfonoa and the MSC Melody from November this year up until March 2012. See page seven (7) for special Tattler reader cruise offers.

The President’s Message Okay, so I’m generalising here, but I personally believe that when the going gets tough, South Africans can be categorised under two sectors. Those who are apathetic; complacent and ready to place blame on everyone and everything else; and those who stand up, make a noise and make an effort to do something about it ..... these are the people who make a difference.

We have seen it with our recent election process. I was horrified on the day before the elections to hear a radio interview, interviewing university students as to whether they would be voting or not.

Nine of the 10 students interviewed said “No”!!! They didn’t think it would make a difference; they didn’t believe they were getting the best deal from the current ruling party; they didn’t have time; and so on and so forth.

Then we have the other side of the scenario. The one remaining student stated categorically that it was her democratic right to vote and she would be at the polls, bright and early to cast her very important vote.

She believes she can make a difference. So do I. I wish we had more like her, particularly taking into account these were supposedly educated young people that were being interviewed at university level. These students are of course the future of our country ... a tad worrying I believe.

The tourism industry is in a mess, sorry I’m being blunt, but to the point.

Companies are closing, hotels are experiencing their lowest occupancies ever, restaurants are closing down, staff are being retrenched .... we are all affected by this, even those companies who are managing to keep their heads above water.

We know that inbound international leisure business is down. The statistics might not reflect this, but I’m specifically referring to the

business that the traditional inbound leisure tourism industry benefits from. We know that even if arrival figures are up from existing and new source markets, length of stay and spend is considerably down. I don’t even have to mention the exchange rate.

So what is South Africa doing?

There is focus on the Sports and Event tourism sector. We have the inaugural Sports & Tourism Exchange Conference 2011 taking place in Cape Town in July 2011. SATSA is fully committed to supporting this initiative as we believe that this event will continue to position and enhance South Africa’s reputation of being a leading sports and events tourism destination. Can you imagine how the tourism industry could benefit overall by an influx of sporting events, throughout South Africa going forward, not only in our major centres?

There is focus on the MICE tourism sector. Following Indaba we hosted an extremely successful Cruise Tourism Conference, the first time this conference has been held in Africa. There is an increased awareness internationally that South Africa is a destination of choice to host the MICE sector. Trip Advisor having namd Cape Town as the World’s Top Destination, can’t hurt!

There is focus on the Domestic Tourism sector. There is a new wave of South Africans who are able to, and are, taking the time to explore our beautiful country.

So all is not doom and gloom and I have to say that despite the odds, I personally can’t think of another industry I would want to be involved in.

DON’T FORGET TO VOTE FOR TABLE MOUNTAIN IN THE NEW 7 WONDERS CAMPAIGN!!! SMS ‘TABLE’ TO 34874.

Yours in tourism, Heather

4/2011

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NICHE TOURISM

Africa-The Last CruiseTourism Frontier The first ever Seatrade Africa Cruise Forum took place at the Fairmont Zimbali Hotel & Resort on 10 May, with over 180 delegates gathering from 15 countries, for in-depth conference discussion on the region’s cruise market development, and workshops between regional destinations and cruise line decision makers, writes Des Langkilde who attended this inaugural event.

Neil Palomba, Corporate Operating Officer for MSC Cruises, which has seasonally deployed ships in South Africa for more than a decade, has seen local passenger traffic grow to over 120 000 this past season and a gradual extension of South African itineraries to include Mozambique, Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius and Namibia.

“However, we need more and better port facilities and a greater range of shore excursions,” he said, to grow the market further. Palomba urged stakeholders to work together to address this expansion.

Setting the scene, Seatrade’s Chairman, Chris Hayman said, “The Seatrade Africa Cruise Forum in Durban is the first event of its kind to spotlight Africa’s current role and great future potential in cruise tourism. As the globalisation of cruise ship deployment continues, Africa represents the next frontier in the expanding geography of the cruise industry.”

Silversea has been visiting the region on world cruise programmes for over a decade, normally staying for eight to ten weeks annually from January to March. “Africa is one of the most highly rated of the destinations we visit,” noted Mary Shaw-Delaney, Director Shoreside Programmes, “and guests are clamouring for more.”

Key cruise line decision-makers from a cross section of the major brands, including Silversea, Azamara, Seabourne, The World, Princess, MSC Cruises, Fred. Olsen, Holland America Line, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity gathered in Durban on Monday evening for a dinner hosted by the Cruise Indian Ocean Association and the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, Seatrade’s organising partners for this groundbreaking event.

Claudius Docekal, Manager of Deployment & Destinations for Azamara Club Cruises, said, “Africa holds great potential particularly when cruise lines are looking at new winter destinations.”

Commitment to work together and develop potential During the robust conference sessions, cruise line speakers demonstrated a strong commitment to the region, as well as a willingness to work together to resolve issues affecting development, namely the ongoing threat posed by piracy off the north eastern and central African coast and the changing geopolitical landscape in the north of the continent.

“The World is visiting Southern Africa for three months (November 2011 to February 2012) so our guests are not in a hurry when taking land experiences,” remarked David Vass, Director Destination and Enrichment Services of The World. “Our residents love South Africa and the Seychelles and we have been here three times in nine years,” he said.

Crystal, Silversea, Spirit of Adventure and Fred. Olsen are amongst a growing list of lines operating itineraries originating in South African ports and sailing up the west and east coasts. “As a destination and as a source market Southern Africa has great potential and this is why we have supported this historic event to see how we can move it forward,” said James Seymour, KwaZulu-Natal General Manager Tourism Information.

Session 1 panelists Neil Palomba - MSC Cruises, Gichiri Ndua - Kenya Ports Authority, Craig Milan - Royal Caribbean Cruises, Mary Bond, Editor, Seatrade Cruise Review & Executive Director, Seatrade, Timothy Littley - Seabourn Cruise Line, Simon Douwes - Holland American Line and Claudius Docekal - Azamara Club Cruises.

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The day after the forum, a programme of workshops was held to foster and develop relations between regional destinations and the numerous cruise lines in attendance. Pre-scheduled, one-to-one meetings gave participants a unique chance to present their products and services to the people making decisions on ship deployment in the region.

OUTCOME SUMMARY Session 1 - Opportunities & Challenges for the region • Work together with the leisure industry to create unique shore excursions / experiences • Air access is an issue (fly directly to Durban / Cape Town to join cruise) • Provide ‘fam’ trips for cruise operators to experience excursion options • Red tape, corrupt practices and political instability a major concern • Guide standards, transportation and dock side cleanliness below international standards • Piracy off East and West Africa coasts is limiting region’s potential • South Africa port costs expensive compared to worldwide ports • Promote access to Southern African tourism information • Trade not aligning itself to leverage and facilitate cruise tourism in Africa • Global trend is for short 7-10 day cruises instead of 30 day cruises Session 2 - Shore Excursions • Demographics vary therefore structure itinerary and pitch accordingly to cruise operators • Passengers looking for value with culturally enriching experiences • Unique experiences drive itinerary purchases • Potential for evening and over-night activities • Multiple price choices increase sales volume • Still demand for traditional (three hour) bus tours but fading fast • Create mutual success opportunities • Exclusivity sells • Provide port-to-port variety • Showcase local specialties not trinkets as souvenirs • Lead passengers to shopping malls • Provide bottled water on tours • Advise on gratuities • Guide should know more than guests can Google on web • Ensure 2-year pricing guarantee Session 3 - Port Infrastructure development • Incentivise liners to call in at all four South African ports • Cape Town lacks a cruise terminal • Durban’s N-Shed not ideal location & disembark capacity only 3000 (need 9000) • Lack of optical fibre technology slows down disembarkation process Session 4 - Marketing • Use social networks (Facebook, etc.)

• Communicate with cruise liners • Market the ship as the destination to domestic tourists • Using ship as hotel for events not viable due to 32-day time factor (to and from port) • Encourage port differentiation • Create a seamless experience • Plan long-term • Preserve history (political, cultural, architectural and natural) • Form a regional cruise tourism association • Create awareness and visibility of region to cruise itinerary planners • Leverage South Africa’s brand equity • Market Southern Africa as region instead of Africa as continent • Target tour group volumes you can handle • Under-promise and over deliver

NICHE TOURISM

Port Elizabeth and Bazaruto new ports of call for MSC Sinfonia MSC Starlight Cruises announces two ships and 60 departures for 2011/2012 South African summer cruise season MSC Sinfonia and MSC Melody return to South African shores at the end of the year for the 2011/2012 summer cruise season with a new and varied itinerary of 60 cruises out of Durban and Cape Town to destinations in Namibia, the Cape, Mozambique and the Indian Ocean islands.

The season opens with the arrival of MSC Sinfonia in Cape Town on 8 November 2011 and closes with her departure on 30 March 2012. MSC Melody arrives almost a month later on 6 December and will also have an earlier departure this coming season, leaving for Europe on 18 February 2012.

The luxurious 2 100 passenger cruise liner MSC Sinfonia, which has rapidly become one of South Africa’s most popular vacations of choice, is returning for a third season and will feature Port Elizabeth on the Eastern Cape coast and Bazaruto in Mozambique as new ports of call.

MSC Sinfonia’s busy schedule out of Durban focuses mainly on the sought after two night Indian Ocean ‘Cruises to Nowhere’ weekenders and a variety of three, four and five night cruises to Mozambique featuring stops in Maputo, Portuguese Island, Barra Lodge and Bazaruto.

The elegant, more intimate 1 500 passenger capacity MSC Melody makes her first port of call in South Africa earlier than last year, arriving this time at the beginning of the summer high season on 6 December in Cape Town.

MSC Melody will again feature the Cape collection of short cruises from Cape Town to Walvis Bay in Namibia, Mossel Bay on the Southern Cape coast and several Atlantic Ocean Cruises to Nowhere during three distinct periods in December, January and February.

Creating the dividers between the Cape cruises will be two periods of two cruises each at the end of December and January when MSC Melody will be Durban based and enjoy leisurely voyages to the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius, Madagascar and Reunion.

Bookings for the 2011/2012 season aboard MSC Sinfonia and MSC Melody are already open with over 31 departures listed as Prima Specials whereby the earlier you book the bigger the saving, 36 partner special departures in which a partner pays half price and 36 departures listed for a special ‘buy 2 get 2 free’ deal for four people sharing a cabin.

Visit: www.msccruises.com or www.starlight.co.za for more information on both MSC Sinfonia and MSC Melody.

We are also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/mscstarlight.

NICHE TOURISM

Cruise tourism attracts young workers Over the years there has definitely been a noticeable increase in the number of school leavers going to work on cruise liners and super yachts, writes Janna Strang on behalf of the International Hotel School.

Often the intention is to earn lots of money and travel before they enter tertiary institutions and what better place to achieve both these goals during their ‘gap’ year than entering the luxurious world of yachting or on cruise liners. The attraction to working on these beautiful boats is not limited to the travel and sometimes very hefty tips in dollars, pounds and euros that can be earned, but it’s also the notion of rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous – even if it’s while you’re on hands and knees scrubbing the deck with a tooth brush! And although in most cases people would encourage the youth to take this year off to explore the world and earn some good money while doing it, there is also a possible downside to living and working in this lavish environment.

For some young students who spend more than just one year in this industry it can be very difficult to leave it behind them. With the recent economic recession, business in general is tough, and the hospitality industry especially can be a hard nut to crack for lots of young people entering the market. The idea of leaving a job that pays you significantly higher than what your friends are earning in their first jobs, regardless of the loneliness and very long hours associated with working in the

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maritime world, is in most cases considered a no-brainer. But before you know it, you’ve spent five or six years on these magnificent boats without any official qualifications behind you.

For those wanting to enter a career that requires more than just experience in manual labour or a skipper’s licence, you might find yourself in the somewhat alarming position of being either unemployable in your choice of career, or at a far lower level of earning and job status than your friends.

However, if you are fortunate enough to LOVE being on the water and enjoy the smell of the sea and taking care of passengers - then this area of hospitality is probably just right for you! But getting your qualifications at a tertiary institute that specialises in hospitality still wouldn’t hurt.

For more information contact the International Hotel School on +27 (0)31 267 4700 or e-mail marketing@hotelschool.co.za or visit their website at www.hotelschool.co.za

AVIATION & AIR ACCESS

Africa Air market identified as key for tourism growth to South Africa A research presentation released today by South African Tourism at this year’s INDABA has reiterated the growing importance of African markets to drive future tourism growth, and outlined key strategies to ensure the continent’s tourism potential remains key on the country’s tourism agenda.

SA Tourism’s Regional Director: Africa, Phumi Dhlomo, gave a compelling rundown of the strategy, resources and budgets which will ensure SA Tourism does not simply pay lip-service to African prospects, but backs it up with achievable targets and resources which will see measurable results in tourist arrivals to South Africa from the African continent.

With the Africa region maintaining strong growth of 10 percent in arrivals to South Africa over the last seven years, the intense focus on Africa’s potential has been mandated as a priority in the National Department of Tourism’s National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS).

“SA Tourism’s commitment into fully developing the African market is backed by a more than R60 million investment in marketing efforts on the continent,” says Dhlomo. “Our most recent research has given us a key indication of areas that require strategic shifts in mindsets in the approach to attracting African travellers and we look forward to leading industry efforts in ensuring we take full advantage of the huge potential on our doorstep.”

The overview

SA Tourism’s research presentation encompasses an overview of the organisation’s growth strategy across four key markets, namely Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya and Nigeria. Key aspects of the

presentation show the attractiveness of each market in terms of volume, spend and market potential, including insight into consumer travel behaviours. The ability of each market to act as launch pads to develop regional hubs is also further explored, with Kenya and Nigeria proving significant potential to centralised tourism functions within East and West Africa respectively.

Nigeria remains the leading African market in terms of developmental characteristics; a key aspect when anticipating growth in tourism arrivals. Their large population characterised by high economic growth has demonstrated consistent growth of 7, 8 percent in arrivals over the past three years.

Angola, on the other hand, has the smallest population out of the four countries included in the report, but demonstrates a huge tourism potential given the average GDP growth rate of the country and the relatively high ratio of travellers that have visited South Africa previously (39,557 in 2010). Total spend by Angolans visiting South Africa is also a contributing factor to the market’s importance, accounting for the highest spend of the four countries in 2009 (in excess of R729 million). According to the report, Kenya’s high technology usage trends and great potential to act as a hub for the East Africa region, together with a stable increase of volume and growth between 2007 and 2010 necessitate continued efforts in the region, supported extensively by growth strategies that will counteract the relatively small size of the country as a standalone market.

A similar focus will be put on the DRC; whose unprecedented growth in average spend is indicative of the rapid growth of the middle class market within the country. Visitors from the DRC have shown the greatest growth in total spend in South Africa, with an impressive 42 percent increase reported between 2003 and 2009.

“Each country within our focus over the next few years has its own unique nuances and opportunities,” continues Dhlomo.

“Perhaps the most significant conclusion we have reached with our report is that Africa still represents a holistic untapped potential, and that our current arrivals 4/2011

figures stand to grow exponentially as the African travel market emerges from purely purpose-based travel into a true leisuredrive tourism market.

The future

“Going forward, a phased approach is required, using the market insights gained in the report together with a strategic look at the unique consumer demands, media channels and tactical opportunities which exist to fully develop our offering to the African traveller.”

As part of the research conducted, much work was completed with regards to identifying high growth consumer groups within each market. This direction will allow marketing activities within each region to have maximum effect on consumers, with minimal resource wastage and higher conversion. In addition, the report outlines consumer groups to maintain or defend, as well as messages, channels and product offerings required per market to deliver on growth potential.

SA Tourism has already shown their commitment to growing the African markets through extensive groundwork over the last few years with the opening of an Angolan office as well as a permanent placement of a trade relations manager in Angola in April this year. A fully-fledged Nigerian office planned within over the next few years.

“With the projected increase in focus on our Africa air markets, we will continue increasing our efforts in Africa land markets, maximising our efforts to ensure that the South African offering remains entrenched in countries such as Botswana and Mozambique. Holistically, the value that Africa brings to the South African economy goes far beyond tourism and has major benefits for other sectors such as manufacturing, trade and investment and therefore we need to look at inclusive strategies across the region.

In turn, our commitment to Africa is further demonstrated in the job creation opportunities made available with the extension of the SA Tourism footprint across Africa. We are proud to be a part of Africa’s continued growth and we look forward to driving mutually beneficial successes going forward,” concludes Dhlomo.

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AVIATION & AIR ACCESS

The truth behind the arrival stats

Recently there has been a lot of frustration and confusion from the tourism industry when the official tourism arrival figures were released. These figures have shown an increase, while the tourism industry has experienced declining occupancies and rates. The reasons for this discrepancy are multiple and apply to a greater or lesser extend to an enterprise depending on where they are located and which market they are targeting, says Martin Jansen van Vuuren , Director: Grant Thornton Strategic Solutions, and a member of SATSA’s ExCO.

The answer lies in a compilation/amalgamation of the following factors: 1. A misunderstanding of the total foreign arrival figure. In 2010 South Africa received around 11.3 million foreign arrivals of which 3.3 million where same day visitors who did not spend a night in South Africa. This leaves 8 million foreign arrivals that stay overnight in South Africa. Of these around 5.7 million arrivals are from Africa and 2.2 million from the rest of the World (or overseas). Around 5 million of the African arrivals arrive via land border posts with the majority arriving from our neighbouring countries, namely Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The potential market for a hotel in Cape Town from these foreign arrivals would be around 2.2 million if it targets mainly overseas tourists and not the African market. As the economists say, on the other hand, the potential market from these foreign arrivals would be around 5 million for a hotel in Nelspruit who may mainly target African arrivals. Many tourism establishments believe that they have a potential market of 11.3 million foreign tourists.

2. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of new accommodation establishments (not only hotels but also guesthouses and B&B’s) between 2008 and 2010. Although estimates vary as to the exact amount, we can safely say that the number of available beds has increased significantly in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Accordingly, a hotel in Cape Town (particularly in the upper star grading) has seen a significant increase in competition, and accordingly occupancies and rates will suffer if the supply outstrips

the demand. On the other hand, accommodation establishments in smaller, more rural destinations have not experienced such an increase in the supply of beds, and their market, which is more domestic and business focussed, has not declined as much, with the result that they are not experiencing the same decrease in occupancies and rates as the urban centres 3. There has been a change in the travel pattern of tourists, with the length of stay of foreign tourists in particular, declining in recent years. Accordingly the number of tourists may increase, but because they are staying for a shorter period, the actual number of bed nights is down, resulting in the lower occupancies.

4. Tourists have been spending less on trips due to budgetary constraints, resulting in tourists downgrading from 5-star hotels to 3- and 4-star hotels. On the other hand, some tourists have moved from 3-star hotels to 5-star hotels if the 5-star hotels have dropped their rates to a level close to that of the 3-star hotel.

Accordingly hotels have been gaining or losing market share to each other depending on what their competitors are doing.

Lastly, it should be added that although the industry, on average, has been suffering, anecdotal evidence indicates that some establishments have weathered the storm well by focussing on the domestic business market, and keeping their rates reasonable, with a high standard service offering.

Keeping rooms spotless and being friendly and accommodating will not contribute to your expenses.

SATSA Market Intelligence Report (MIR – June 2011) From Martin Jansen van Vuuren, Strategic Solutions Director, Grant Thornton, Cape.

Introduction: R430) and three-star hotels being down 2.4 percent (to R349).

Welcome to SATSA’s MIR for June 2011. We aim to provide you with For the period January to April 2011, the average occupancy of all hotels useful market intelligence on the tourism industry. was down by 1.5 percent (to 54.5 percent), with ARR being down 2.1 Arrivals: percent (to R875) and RevPar being down 3.6 percent (to R477).

The latest available data from Statistics South Africa shows that South Africa received 370 358 overnight arrivals (excluding same day visitors) ACSA data: from overseas in January and February 2011, which was a 7.4 percent It should be kept in mind that the ACSA data included all arrivals on, for increase over January and February 2010. example, an international flight which may carry international visitors to When assessing South Africa’s main overseas source markets we see South Africa as well as South Africans returning from abroad. Similarly that overnight arrivals from the UK declined by 3.8 percent (to 85 476 the passengers arriving on domestic flights include international and overnight arrivals) in January and February 2011 over January and domestic travellers.

February 2010, while overnight arrivals from Germany recorded 9.8 The data from ACSA for the January and April in 2011 indicate increases percent growth (to 44 834 arrivals). in passengers arriving on international, regional and domestic flights for The USA also achieved growth (18.1 percent to 36 419 arrivals) in all three major airports.

January and February 2011 over January and February 2010.

Overall total foreign arrivals were up 8.2 percent to 1 420 425 Jan & Apr 2011 over Jan Passengers arriving Passengers arriving Passengers arriving on with overnight arrivals from Africa being up 9.2 percent to & Apr 2010 on International on Regional Flights Domestic Flights 1 046 515.

Flights Hotel Stats: The data from STR Global indicates that in April 2011, all OR Tambo 6.4% 5.3% 6.2% hotels in South Africa achieved an average occupancy of 52.4 Cape Town International 1.6% 2.6% 6.1% percent which was down 2.1 percent on April 2010. The Durban International 4.3% N/A 10% average room rate (ARR) increased by 0.6 percent to R848 and the RevPar decreased by 1.6 percent to R445.

What this means for my business: During April 2011 five-star hotels achieved an average occupancy The data from ACSA, which is the latest available indicator of foreign of 48.8 percent (up 3.2 percent on April 2010), with four-star hotels and domestic tourism are encouraging with growth in passengers achieving 52.8 percent (up 0.2 percent) and three-star hotels achieving arriving on international, regional and domestic flights. This bodes well 53 percent (down 1.5 percent). for both foreign and domestic tourism. It should be kept in mind though ARR in April 2011 was down for all grades of hotels with five-star hotels that the number of arrivals is only part of the equation which translates being down 5.2 percent (to R1 507), four-star hotels being down 2.4 into bednights. The current trend is for foreign and domestic tourists to percent (to R815) and three star hotels being down 1 percent (to R658). shorten their length of stay, so an increase in the number of arrivals may RevPar was also down for all grades of hotels with five-star hotels being not automatically translate into an increase in the number of bednights down 2.2 percent (to R735), four-star hotels being down 2.2 percent (to sold.

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ACHIEVEMENTS & ACCOLADES

The Safari Awards 2011 Winner Announced Since the inception of The Safari Awards in 2008 this initiative has gone from strength to strength, and is now regarded as an industry gold standard, writes Rosanne Cobb, Editor of the The Good Safari Guide.

The winners of the 2011 Safari Awards displaying their trophies are from Left to Right: Greg Reis - Explore Gorongosa, Dorian Hoy - Selinda Reserve, Great Plains (collected on behalf of Colin Bell), Dale Jensen - Gibb’s Farm, Rob Janisch - Explore Gorongosa, Evelijn Leon - Londo Lodge, Tristan Boehme - Okonjima (AfriCat won Best Charity category), Grant Cumings - Chiawa Camp, Jos Janisch - Explore Gorongosa, Stefano Cheli - Cheli & Peacock, Sharon Van Wyk - Chongwe, Henry Hallward - Good Safari Guide and Safari Awards Host, Nikky Tilley - Karkloof Spa, Bas Hochstenbach - Asilia, Connie Mathanga - Head of Reservations for Great Plains Conservation in Botswana, Tessa Baber - Ant’s Nest, Jo Pope - Robin Pope Safaris, Eliza Deacon - Nomad Tanzania Mobile Safaris, Rosanne Cobb - Good Safari Guide and Christopher Hurlin - Vamizi Island.

With over three thousand safari lodges, camps and mobile safari operators in Africa there is a need to differentiate between those that provide an average or bad safari experience and the few who exceed expectations. It is not a question of luxury, but of the ‘safari experience’ from your arrival on a remote airstrip to the revelation of the wilderness and how it works by your professional safari guide.

Accommodation and cuisine are vital elements to the enjoyment of any safari but our aim is to identify the safari companies that provide the best overall safari experience, regardless of expense. The purpose of The Safari Awards is to recognise excellence amongst the very best safari lodges and operators in Africa. With nominations from over a thousand luxury travel professionals, hundreds of readers of Tourism Tattler, Condé Nast Traveller, Tatler, Brides and Travel Africa Magazine you can rest assured that any safari business nominated for a Safari Award is amongst the best in its genre. Finalists are amongst the top three percent in Africa and the Safari Award Winners are unquestionably the best, their reputation earned through excellence recognised by people who know what they are talking about.

The 2011 Safari Awards Gala Ceremony was held at Moyo, Durban, on 6th May Zambia emerged as a strong player in the safari sector with Chiawa, winning Best Safari Lodge in Africa, finally recognized as a great safari camp by the votes of over 340 safari specialist tour operators from around the world. Robin and Jo Pope’s work was recognized with the presentation of the Best Personal Contribution to Safari Tourism in Africa Award and Chongwe Safari House scooping the Best Safari House in Africa Award.

Mozambique emerged as the safari destination of the future.

Vamizi retained the Best Beach Property in Africa Award, Explorers

Gorongosa claiming two awards - Best New Safari Property in Africa and Best Ecological Safari Property in Africa. Londo Lodge, a previous runner-up in the Best Safari Cuisine Awards category, won the award.

Kenya, showed they lead Africa in integrating communities into safari tourism with Rekero winning the Best Safari Guiding Team in Africa Award and Lewa Safari Camp being recognized for their community commitment winning the Best Community Safari Property in Africa Award. Tanzania’s Beho Beho, Gibbs Farm and Nomad Mobile Safaris demonstrated their country’s diversity as a safari destination scooping Best Safari Property in Eastern Africa, Best Safari Hotel in Africa and Best Mobile Safari Operator in Africa awards.

South Africa was represented in a spread of sectors with Ant’s Nest Riding Safaris won Best Riding Safari Operator in Africa Award, South African Airways voted Best International Airline to Africa and Karkloof Spa retaining the coveted Best Safari Spa Property in Africa award.

Great Plains emerged Best Safari Accommodation Group in Africa.

Colin Bell, who could accept his Best Personal Contribution to Wildlife Conservation in Africa Award personally, reflected the safari world’s sentiments with his moving words acknowledging those on the front line of conserving our wildlife.

The Best Wildlife/Charity Organisation in Africa Award, rewarding these organisations enabling tourism through their conservation activities, was won by The Africat Foundation in Namibia recognizing the years of dedicated work with Cheetah conservation.

Voting for tour operators only is now open for the 2012 Safari awards at http://www.safariawards.com/vote.

For more information visit www.goodsafariguide.com 4/2011

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BUSINESS & FINANCE

THE NEW PROFIT RULES

8 Rules You Must Know to Prosper in the New Economy

The following article is a synopsis of a book published by Charlie Cook and is published here in two parts (the 1st part in the Issue 3 – May/Jun 2011 edition) with the kind permission of MarketingForSuccess.com

Part 2

In Part 1 we looked at the first 3 rules, namely Rule 1 – FREE is the new business model, Rule 2 - Your customers are in charge, not you and Rule 3 - Personal marketing trumps mass marketing.

Rule 4 - Old school selling is dead Most businesses still use the pitch and get lucky approach to sales. Pitching and peddling are a waste of time and annoy your prospects. The typical salesperson spends 70 per cent of their time trying to identify leads, track those leads and try to get a foot in the door. New technology and standards have made the pitch and peddle sales approach harder and less effective – spam filters, caller ID’s, no-call lists and other innovations make it possible for prospects to avoid pushy sales tactics.

What’s the alternative? One of the biggest mistakes people make in marketing their services is to simply push information about their services and themselves to prospects and hope that this will result in sales. An alternative is to attract prospects and then in the context of a growing relationship, provide them with useful information. Generate interest by focussing on what your potential clients want.

What you need to know about selling in this economy: 1. You are selling yourself 2. One stop selling doesn’t get you far 3. Positioning is everything 4. Trust is earned 5. The internet makes it easy New schools vs old school: Old School • Primary goal is to contact the largest quantity of prospects • Focussed on company and products • Products or service needs to be different in order to sell • Development comes first, then marketing • A solid business plan is the foundation of a profitable business • It’s about getting the message out to your prospects • To sell, you need a compelling story • Spend lots on advertising to attract buyers • The more you spend, the more you will make • Employs PR specialists to make news • Buys lists • Cold calls prospects and asks for appointments • Focus on the transaction New school • More concerned with quality of prospects than quantity • Focussed on prospects’ problems • Success depends on execution and how well your product works • Marketing and development are intertwined • Starting dialogue with prospects • The story must be authentic and compelling • Uses websites and blogs to attract a target audience by providing valuable information • The more you teach, the more you’ll make • Provides free content and spreads the word through other bloggers, online networks • Uses free offers to get people to add themselves to the list • Hosts pre-recorded tele-seminars / webinars for interested prospects

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• Sells through building strong relationships via education and the power of the automated set up Action steps 1. Identify your target market’s concerns 2. Attract prospects with valuable information 3. Position yourself as the go-to expert 4. Build relationships 5. Manipulate supply and demand to increase sales 6. Leverage the internet Rule 5 - Small bumps result in big profits Your existing clients represent a goldmine waiting to be tapped. A real business offers more than one product. Don’t focus on selling just one primary front-end product - the money is in back-end sales. It is easier to sell to someone who has already decided to make a purchase from you or who has bought from you in the past. The biggest profits can be made from repeat buyers - give these buyers the chance and they will buy more. You will make more money if you offer a range of complimentary services and products with a clear price progression.

Cross-selling increases profits by 30 percent. Up-selling increases profits by 28 percent.

Repeat sales can increase profits by 22 percent.

Rule 6 - Marketing partners make you rich Joint ventures are a way to explode your sales by leveraging someone else’s centre of influence. They offer faster and easier growth.

Rule 7 - The less you do, the more you’ll make Highly paid managers spend over 30 percent of their time doing clerical activities – for small business owners, this number sits at between 50 and 70 percent. So are you focussed on the daily grind or on growing your business? No one can succeed in a big way by themselves. Money is a renewable resource – your time is not.

Rule 8 - The speed of implementation determines success The key to success is how fast you learn and how fast you put that information to use. Successful people use a ready, aim, fire approach.

They don’t hide or ignore mistakes. They acknowledge them, learn from the situation and move on.

For more information visit www.marketingforsuccess.com

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Johannesburg Tourism’s Conference and Events Bureau attracts business tourism

Having recently returned from a delegate boosting trip to St Petersburg (Russia) for the CIC Conservation and Hunting Congress - scheduled to take place in Johannesburg in 2012 - the Johannesburg Tourism Company’s Convention & Events Bureau (CEB) is delighted to announce a string of successful bids awarded, with estimated economic benefit to the city of more than R200 million, writes Laura Vercueil, PR & Communication Manager, Johannesburg Tourism Company.

South Africa was chosen as the suitable destination to host the 59th CIC General Assembly due to its unique wildlife ranching model, demonstrating its international leadership in sustainable use.

“Where wildlife is threatened or endangered, CIC through its relationships has been able to provide technical, legal and in some cases financial support, to bring value back to the species and create a sustainable future” says Gary van den Berg of the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation South Africa. “In fact South Africa has moved beyond conservation in many of the species, to a potential for food security – something very important to the African Continent,” says Van Den Berg.

Doping Congress in 2013 – demonstration of FIFA’s confidence in Johannesburg’s ability to host events of any stature. Another milestone for Joburg was to be chosen as the host destination for the 18th Agility World Championships (AWC), an annual event of the Federacion Cynologique Internacional.

Johannesburg will be hosting this event in 2013 in association with the Kennel Union of Southern Africa (KUSA), the first time this event will be held outside Europe.

According to Van Den Berg and other African counterparts, 2012 is not just a routine CIC General Assembly, but one which will make Africa, the focal point, enhancing the view that South Africa as a BRICS member is truly the Gateway to Africa. As such Joburg is the ideal destination for the conference.

In the shorter term, later in 2011, Joburg will be hosting a variety of high profile events – including the Tenpin Bowling World Championships to be held in November, while the 4th Annual Mr Gay World Competition will take place in Johannesburg in 2012.

Future events 2012 will be another busy year for Johannesburg. In addition to the 59th CIC General Assembly, the City will also host the International Small Business Congress and the Europe Africa Business Summit.

Following Joburg’s successful hosting of the 2012 FIFA World Cup™, the City was awarded the bid to host the World Anti-

In 2014 Johannesburg will host the 21st General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association, which will see some 1 700 delegates spending seven days in the city of Johannesburg.

Jo’burg’s position “We are certainly on there on the international campaign and bidding trail, demonstrating that Joburg is Open for Business, with the capacity to host events across a spectrum of size, scope and price,” says JTC CEO Lindiwe Kwele. The Johannesburg Convention and Events Bureau (CEB) - a division of the Johannesburg Tourism Company remains focussed on aggressively promoting the City as a leading global destination for business tourism, as it is a key 4/2011

driver for economic growth and development.

The CEB team is geared to assist with supplying all the necessary advice and solutions relating to meetings, conventions, exhibitions and incentives.

Johannesburg is a versatile business and mega-events destination, capable of handling a vast array of events - from small meetings to massive international gatherings, conventions, concerts, sports tournaments and mega-events.

“One of Johannesburg’s major competitive advantages is its international recognition as the business and commercial capital of the African continent,” says Kwele. Given its accessibility by air (55 international airlines fly in to Jo’burg), that 75 percent of corporate headquarters are based in the city, and being the only city in South Africa that boasts four of the venues, each capable of hosting more than 5 000 delegates – Johannesburg’s success as a tourism destination pivots on business.

“As the continent’s leading hub for business, fashion, music and the creative arts, it’s appropriate that we are hosting a diverse spectrum of events which address these very diverse industry sectors,” says Kwele. “With excellent infrastructure, unique transport features (like the high speed Gautrain and the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit system), increased hotel inventory, spectacular stadiums and magnificent architecture, it’s no wonder that Johannesburg was voted the world’s third best city in Wallpaper magazine’s Design Awards in early 2011.”

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BUSINESS & FINANCE

2011 Entrepreneur of the Year®competition entries open South Africa’s most prestigious entrepreneurial awards are once again open for entries.

The 2011 Sanlam / Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year® awards recognise and celebrate the innovation, drive and commitment of small and medium enterprise (SME) decision makers – the men and women that feed, clothe and grow our country.

Now in its 22nd year, the awards will also introduce a number of new initiatives to further the SME cause.

The hugely successful workshop series has been expanded and 11 regional centres will play host to SME experts in the coming months.

The cream of South Africa’s entrepreneurs will be celebrated in September during the Gala awards ceremony.

In addition to the current categories – overall Entrepreneur of the Year®, Emerging Entrepreneur (business younger than three years old), Small Business Entrepreneur (turnover up to R20 million) and Medium Business Entrepreneur (turnover greater than R20 million) – the 2011 Sanlam / Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year® awards will also honour the essence of entrepreneurship through the Innovation Award.

“There were a number of very apt categories to add to this prestigious award but we feel that the concept and talent to innovate is a vital component for entrepreneurs to stay ahead of the pack,” says Entrepreneur of the Year® Manager, Vicky Nish.

“Innovators will forever be the leaders as they will always be one step ahead. True innovators apply this characteristic in every part of their business and not just in product development. Every year we should see new categories being added to our stable.”

Each category winner will receive R20 000 in cash and the overall winner walks away with R100 000 and the opportunity to visit a tradeshow anywhere in the world.

Martin Beyers, the 2010 winner and co-owner of CERadvance Engineering Ceramics, says the competition’s value should not be underestimated: “Entrepreneurs need this kind of recognition much more often than one tends to think… To have such a competent and well-versed adjudicating team look over your shoulders, probe your business plan, look at your balance sheet, question your sustainability and future strategies and to then give you the nod of approval is a source of great satisfaction.

“It was also a great inspiration to continue with renewed effort, since after nearly 20 years in any industry, one can be forgiven for becoming a bit lethargic at times.

“I am a great believer in benchmarking exercises and personal improvement exercises.”

To enter please visit our website: www.eoy.co.za or call Naseerah Cassojee on 011 713 6600 for more information.

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EVENTS

The Vodacom George Cheese Festival to be held in George from 29 to 31 July 2011 offers tourists the chance to experience the best in local flavours and unforgettable hospitality, writes Anna-Marie Roux, Media Liaison Officer for the George Cheese Festival.

The Vodacom George Cheese Festival held in George from 29 to 31 July 2011 offers tourists the chance to experience the best in local flavours and unforgettable hospitality, writes Anna-Marie Roux, Media Liaison Officer for the George Cheese Festival.

This well-known and wellliked festival promises to treat your palate to a spectacular spread of culinary experiences – no wonder it attracted up to 11 000 visitors during previous years! This year again, the Tour de Cheese, Academy of Whiskey, Brandy Boulevard, Porfolio of Port and all our special events will don its finest garb for the culinary celebration taking place. Put some warmth into winter – join us for a feast for both soul and senses!

The Vodacom George Cheese Festival has a very strong charity support system and policy, and it is run as a fundraising event by the PTA of Outeniqua Primary School. Over the last four years the Cheese Festival has ploughed more than R200 000 back into the community.

Festival hours

The festival is held on Friday 29 July 2011 from 15:00 – 00:00 (exhibitors stalls close @ 21:00), on Saturday 30 July from 10:00 – 00:00 (exhibitors stalls close @ 20:00) and on Sunday 31 July 2011 from 10:00 – 16:00.

Festival venue The main festival is held on the premises of the Outeniqua Primary School, Cathedral Street, George. GPS: -33.959858, 22.463122 Entrance fees This year, the entrance fees were reduced to make the festival even more accessible. Adults: R65pp, children under 13: R30pp (access to Cheese Festival only), McDonalds Kids Zone: R50 (access to Kids Zone & Cheese Festival & include vouchers worth R50). A pensioner’s special is offered at R30pp on Friday 29 July 2011 between15:00 and 17:00 and on Saturday 31 July between 10:00 and 12:00. A special weekend package is available at R150 pp.

READER COMPETITION WIN one of three mixed cases of Deetlefs Estate Wines by answering the following question:

For more information, contact the Cheese Festival Info Line on (044) 874-2332 / 072 532 0189 or e-mail info@georgecheesefestival.co.za or visit the website at www.georgecheesefestival.co.za Bookings for all events can be done through Computicket or at the gates.

When is the Vodacom George Cheese Festival held?

E-mail your answer to editor@ tourismtattler.co.za by 28 July 2011.

Remember to include your contact details.

The first three e-mails received will win a mixed case of Deetlefs Estate Wines, which can be collected from the festival organisers at the event or will be delivered to the winners nearest Postnet office for collection.

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SATSA Tourism Tattler Trade Journal

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EVENTS

Indaba 2011 B

ut first let’s look at the official Whether version. According to South we like it or not, African Tourism, unaudited Indaba now seems to figures show that 11 205 be a permanent fixture in the people passed through tourism calendar in South Africa. the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Although there is much discussion, both International Convention Centre’s doors over the here and internationally about the value four exhibition days, of such ‘monster’ shows, they continue with 1 610 exhibitors to dominate the public face of tourism. and over 7 210 Towards the close of the show, Tattler exhibition personnel across all imaginable editor Marjorie Dean and publisher tourism-related business Des Langkilde made a walkabout categories showcasing their products, and 661 of the show and chatted to local and international media some SATSA members. registering to cover Indaba. The top five exhibitor categories included Accommodation, Tour Operators, Game

Lodges / Nature Reserves, Tourist Attractions and Transport businesses, which accounted for 83 percent of the total exhibitor presence. National Tourism Authorities, Online Travel representatives and Conferencing Facilities also showed an impressive increase in presence this year.

SAT says the Indaba attendance figures included nearly 3 000 international buyers and visitors, an impressive increase of 11 percent on the number of international delegates attending Indaba in 2010, as Africa’s top travel and tourism trade show continues to deliver ongoing trade and awareness to local and international suppliers and generates millions of rands of potential tourism revenue. Of the international delegates and buyers from 98 different countries that attended Indaba 2011, the highest number of delegates per country came from the United Kingdom (267), the United States (166), Germany (138), Zimbabwe (102) and the Netherlands (97).

However, as always figures do not tell the whole story. While the ICC hall and the SADEC tent seemed full and busy, the DEC this year was a disappointment. Most of the times I went into that area it seemed empty of visitors, and stands were not busy. Maybe I just timed my visits badly, but maybe not.

Some of the innovations at Indaba included a unique multi-touch table surface allowing multiple users to view and engage with South African

INTERVIEWS • INTERVIEWS • INTERVIEWS • INTERVIEWS • INTERVIEWS • INTERVI Ilios Travel Ilios Travel were exhibiting for the first time since 2005.

They had done good business through pre-booked appointments, but felt that there were too may people walking about the halls just to sell their products to exhibitors. And a lot of this was misdirected selling by people who had not done their homework.

Drifters We caught up with Andy Dott beside his beloved vehicle – in pride of place by the entrance of the ICC hall. After a bit of thought, he reckoned this was his 28th Indaba. Andy says Indaba these days is much more of a tourism extravaganza than a trade show. If you need to ‘talk turkey’ with your clients, you have to filter out what you really don’t need, and make best use of the rest. He sees it as a great opportunity to network with people

Livingstones Supply Co. Rodger Ellis and Dave Dunkley of Livingstones, have a different view. They are marketing to the trade, selling supplies for lodges, guesthouses, B&Bs and hotels.

“The people who attend this show as exhibitors are actually our customers”, says Roger. “We work mainly though an online shopping site, but Indaba gives our customers an opportunity to see and touch our products in the real world, and it’s a great opportunity for us to meet the people in the industry and get new contacts. It’s mostly a PR exercise but it works for us.”

JMT Tours & Safaris Joe and Sophie Mogotsi are also Indaba veterans, this being the 8th time they had exhibited. Their opinion was that the show was good, although they saw smaller volumes of people about. They stressed the importance of having your appointments diary ready and felt Indaba is a good platform for networking and exposing your product to the trade. They also met people and revived relationships.

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Endevour Safaris Michael Hill of Endeavour Safaris, a company that deals with travel for the disabled was at his 6th Indaba. His experience was that although there was less ‘traffic’ through the halls, the quality of clients and meetings had been good. He feels that a specialised product such as he offers depends a lot on good personal relationships. He found increasing interest in the services he offers, and was enthusiastic about the Tourism Grading Council’s new Universal Access programme, which he feels adds value to the accommodation product.

African outpost Bob Whalley of African Outposts (attending his 28th Indaba), believed this show was much better than last year’s, dominated as it was by the big soccer event.

He believed that more overseas operators would come to the show if it was held in Cape Town – as they perceive that to be a safer destination. Bob says, “It’s really just a PR exercise and should be seen as that, an opportunity to reinforce relationships.”

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EVENTS

in retrospect destination information, video content and social media platforms at the SAT stand, a dedicated INDABA TV channel, as well as exciting new networking platforms and a focus on minimum standards in promoting responsible tourism. I even saw a crowd at the SAT stand waiting to interact with all this new technology, and I found the electronic communications screens were too often blank, showing the wrong stuff, or not showing what I needed to know. Signage was poor and the little maps that were given out had print so small that even with my strongest glasses on I could not read them – and judging by the number of queries fired at staff on the SATSA stand that was just inside the ICC door, neither could most of the delegates.

Facilities for the press were glitzy, but not practical, and the media room was a very long way from anywhere… catering was also mediocre, and

security was either aggressively trying to stop people with legitimate business from getting in, or didn’t quite know what the show was all about. Parking seemed to indicate fewer people around – the overflow parking seemed empty, and parking was not nearly as difficult as we have found it in previous years.

One thing that was very noticeable was that many SATSA members who in the past always had stands, had either seriously reduced the size of their stands, shared or did not have a stand at all. Many cited cost and low return on investment as the reason. They made appointments to meet people for a drink, coffee or lunch, and that’s where business was done.

The liveliest part of the show was the SADEC tent – that always seemed to be humming, and there was a real feeling of excitement among visitors.

Maybe that sends us a message?

RVIEWS • INTERVIEWS • INTERVIEWS • INTERVIEWS • INTERVIEWS • INTERVIEWS Hotel Amenities Suppliers Hotel Amenities, established in the industry for 30 years, has a big stand – the Clubroom, tucked away in one of the smaller buildings on the route between the ICC and the DEC. Again, they are suppliers to accommodation establishments, and Cornelia Vas-Diass says it’s their big opportunity to let these places see, touch, feel and try their products. So for them it’s a great show.

Tourvest Inbound Brain Coetzee wrapped up his 12th Indaba for one of SA’s biggest tourism operators. “For a big company like ours, we are not really interested in walk-ups” he said. “Our business is cyclical. So shows don’t have a huge impact. There were definitely fewer feet in the passages this year, and it’s not a good time to change partners in the current world economy. Indaba has changed. Nobody does deals here anymore. But we can resolve issues and host both customers and suppliers, cementing relationships. We also have to remember that what may seem stale to us is new to many visitors.

South Africa’s biggest problem at the moment is that as a destination we are more expensive than our direct competitors. There are many reasons for this, but it’s a fact. Our policy in tough times is that as a large organisation, we can weather the storm. We’ll buy what we see to be good smaller businesses if offered, but we always leave the entrepreneur who started the business in charge. That’s the way it works best.”

AA Travel Services A less encouraging note was struck by Vanessa Sand, a loyal Indaba supporter of many years. She says, “We have decided to move our Awards Ceremony, always a highlight for accommodation providers, away from Indaba. It has just become too big and too crowded with events. People are too tired at the end of the days.

We will hold the 2012 Awards at the Getaway Show instead.”

Idube Game Reserve / Lukimbi Safari Lodge Rudi Hulshof and Sean Smith manned their stand. Sean believes in the value of a good appointments diary.

“Do your homework and go for quality, not quantity.” is his advice. He felt he had a fair mix of new and old business from Indaba.

Vula Safaris & Tours Another ‘newbie’ to indaba was Stanley Mufamadi of Vuwa Safaris and Tours. He had a simple desk in the Limpopo section and was impressed by Indaba. “We made a lot of contacts and did a lot of networking. We found people who want to partner with us. It’s been a serious learning curve for a small company such as ours”, he says.

Lowveld Environmental Services SATSA stalwart Gavin Jarman was at his 16th Indaba.

He, too, had taken the option of a small desk on the Mpumalanga stand. He feels it is necessary to have a stand, albeit a small one, just to have a proper presence.

He had good quality appointments and reaffirmation of existing business. He also believed Indaba is really about ‘touching base with people’, but also feels that niche operators can be squeezed out in such a big show. “Local tour operators don’t want to negotiate or buy here,” says Gavin, “and for sure emerging entrepreneurs really don’t need a stand. It’s a place to make useful contacts for later following up. It’s a way to see how the system works and where you fit in, and can get into it.”

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So there you have it - Indaba 2011, the good, the bad and the ugly. Southern Africa is what we sell – it’s a great product, but we’ll have to work harder and be more innovative. Does Indaba fit into that? Only time will tell.

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GLOBAL TOURISM

Plant for the Planet Billion Tree Campaign is a worldwide tree planting initiative facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme. People, communities, businesses, industry, civil society organisations and governments are encouraged to enter tree planting pledges on-line.

The campaign strongly encourages the planting of indigenous trees and trees that are appropriate to the local environment.

By the end of 2009, more than 7.4 billion trees had been planted under this campaign – far in excess of the year-end target of 7 billion – by participants in 170 countries. With this success continuing into 2010, the Billion Tree Campaign will make a substantial contribution to the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity, raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity for our well-being. The billions of trees planted by the collective efforts of participants of the Billion Tree Campaign from all parts of society will contribute to biodiversity across the planet.

Fast Facts 1. Trees include the largest and longest living organisms on earth.

2. Millions of hectares and billions of trees have to be planted to stabilise soil and water resources and to meet fuel wood needs.

3. To make up for the loss of trees in the past decade, we would need to plant 130 million hectares (or 1.3 million km2), an area as large as Peru.

4. Covering the equivalent of 130 million hectares would entail planting approximately 14 billion trees every year for 10 consecutive years.

5. Rehabilitating tens of millions of hectares of degraded land and reforesting the Earth is necessary to restore and maintain the productivity of soil and water resources.

6. Expanding tree cover on denuded lands will reduce pressures on remaining primary forests, helping to preserve habitats and to safeguard the Earth’s biological diversity.

7. Article 3.3 of the Kyoto Protocol specifically calls for the maintenance of forests by afforestation and reforestation, and by controlling deforestation.

8. Humans have contributed to carbon dioxide emissions in two ways: by burning fossil fuels and by converting forestlands to other uses.

9. Rainforests cover only 7 percent of the land on earth but they contain nearly half of all the trees on earth. They generate about 40 percent of the world’s oxygen.

10. In one year, an average tree inhales 12 kilograms (26 pounds) of CO2 and exhales enough oxygen for a family of four for a year.

11. One hectare of trees can absorb 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

12. A long haul flight will produce 3.75 tonnes of CO2. (or one tonne of carbon) 13. Agroforestry programmes make trees more accessible and spread their benefits more widely. Trees on farms often yield more biomass.

Nitrogen-fixing trees planted in shelterbelts or interspersed with crops can enhance soil fertility, increase soil moisture and reduce erosion.

14. Agroforestry systems contribute to buffering farmers against climate variability.

15. The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) recommends the planting of deciduous trees where water scarcity is a problem. They consume less water than evergreens during critical periods of water shortage and compete less with crops.

16. Deep roots anchor the tree and topsoil to deeper layers and increase the resistance to landslides and bank erosion under wet soil conditions.

Horizontal roots bind soil and also reduce erosion.

17. Aspirin originally came from the bark of a willow tree. Quinine, the cure for malaria, comes from the bark of Cinchona trees.

18. The net forest loss per day is 20 000 hectares or the equivalent of an area twice the size of Paris.

Source: http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/index.asp

SA First Signatory of Global Leaders for Tourism campaign President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday 04 May 2011 became the first African head of state to sign the Global Leaders for Tourism campaign - a joint UN World Tourism Organisation and World Travel and Tourism Council initiative to boost international travel and tourism.

Speaking at the signing ceremony at Tuynhuys in Cape Town, Zuma said South Africa had identified tourism as one of the six ‘job drivers’ in his government’s New Growth Path framework.

“We aim to increase the number of foreign tourist arrivals to South Africa from seven million in 2009, to 15 million by 2020. We plan to increase tourism’s total contribution to the economy from R189-billion in 2009, to R499-billion by 2020,” he said.

Tourism’s contribution to the country’s GDP had increased from just less than five percent in 1994, to an estimated 7.7 per cent in 2010, and the sector was well positioned to be a

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leading avenue to address unemployment.

“More significantly, this sector has become a fertile environment for entrepreneurs and small, medium and micro enterprises,” Zuma said.

Speaking at the signing, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said international tourism forecasts showed the sector was set to soar.

“Two years ago, there were 935 million tourists (internationally), and in just 11 years, this figure will double to 1.6 billion international arrivals,” he said.

World Travel and Tourism Council president David Scowsill said international tourism was big business, larger than the automotive sector and only just behind the banking industry.

“The [international] travel and tourism industry comes to nine percent of (global) GDP — 258 million jobs and six trillion dollars. It is a huge industry.

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This figure was expected to grow to nine trillion dollars over the next decade.

Zuma said government also wanted to increase the number of domestic tourists in South Africa from 14.6 million in 2009, to 18 million by 2020.

“Most importantly, we want to create 235 000 new tourism jobs by 2020. We will do everything possible to promote and grow the tourism sector so that we can achieve these developmental goals.”

He noted the signing ceremony was taking place on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on Africa, which got underway in Cape Town earlier in the day.

“We encourage the WEF participants to not only focus on the important business of WEF, but to also find time to explore the beautiful sights that our country has to offer,” he said.

Source: iAfrica.com / sapa

HEALTH & SAFETY

Legionella

a health topic we need to know about A small bug causes huge problems

If as a hotelier you receive a letter or e-mail from an ‘Out Break Response Unit’ which forms part of the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), http://www.nhls.ac.za/, and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), http://www.nicd. ac.za/, and the communication states that they have received a report that a previous guest of yours has contracted Legionnaires Disease (Legionella Pneumophila Infection), then it is time to start putting some serious plans into action, writes Dave Snuggs of the Humewood Hotel, Port Elizabeth.

Case history My organisation received one of these letters early in 2010, read it, and as we were not aware of what Legionnaires Disease was, we did the typical South African thing and filed it away for future reference. In early 2011 we received a second letter telling us that a ‘Cluster Alert’ had been issued by the European Centre for Disease Control and that our hotel was a potential infection zone as a second case had been reported and it was confirmed that they had stayed at our hotel.

Along with the cluster alert were a certain number of requirements that needed to be complied with, which include a very costly risk analysis and laboratory sampling of our water supply and two reports that had to be submitted, one within two weeks (confirming that a risk analysis had been done along with sampling), and the second within six weeks stating what steps had been taken as a result of the lab tests and risk analysis.

What no one in South Africa has told us, is that as soon as you are listed in a cluster alert and you do not comply or respond, then you will automatically be blacklisted and this will be transmitted to all tour operators and travel agents in the European Union. In essence, you are Guilty Until Proven Innocent, and if you are serious about your business then you better pay attention as this can destroy your international arrivals.

Legionnaires disease The Legionella Bacteria which causes Legionnaires Disease is seen as a very serious problem in many countries of the world, to such an extent that the ‘European Centre for Disease Control’ (ECDC), http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/ Pages/home.aspx, has a separate division that deals only with Legionella and they are called ‘European Legionnaires Disease Surveillance Network’ (ELDSNet), http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/activities/surveillance/ELDSNet/Pages/ index.aspx.

In South Africa the disease is only legislated in the Occupational Health and Safety Act (to the best of my knowledge) as one of 38 dread diseases and basically if someone should contract one of these listed diseases through your organisation then you will be held liable. So in essence the biggest problem in South Africa with this disease is a general lack of awareness, which results in a lack of statistics, and ultimately a shortage of practitioners who can assist with prevention.

The Legionella Bacteria occurs naturally in up to 75 percent of the world’s water supplies and grows freely in water, especially between 20°C and 50°C. It is dormant below 20°C and dies at 66°C. Get more information from the Wikipedia website, http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Legionnaires%27_disease. The bacteria is inhaled by the patient from

water mist, so any appliance that creates a mist with water is potentially an infection area: a shower, a decorative fountain, the water bottle in your car that sprays your windscreen, spas, misting equipment. The most commonly acknowledged source is cooling towers for centralised airconditioning systems.

Any person who has a compromised immune system is frail, or elderly, is susceptible to the disease. It is not a transmittable disease, so will not be passed from one person to another as is the case with the common cold. The disease has a gestation period of between two and ten days, and starts as pneumonia, progressively getting worse and in severe cases, where treatment is not sought in a timely manner, it will cause death.

What we did We initially thought that it was not that serious, but nevertheless decided to find out more about the disease, and on contacting the head of the Out Break Response team from the NICD, we soon came to realise that we needed to take swift corrective action. The costs involved in having to go through an entire risk analysis are quite major and obviously dependant on the size of your establishment, but one thought always has to remain in the forefront of your mind. Firstly can we afford the cost, and secondly can we afford to lose the business and the stigma that goes with the loss?

Unfortunately the scales of justice dictate that the regular business must come first.

One of the things that you very quickly learn in South Africa is that the ignorance of this ailment is quite enormous, and just trying to find an organisation that will conduct a risk analysis is an education. There are a number of organisations who are prepared to do the analysis, (at a cost quite obviously), but finding an organisation who are accredited and understand the specific requirements of the Legionella virus is near enough impossible. After quite a search we eventually made contact with Alan Sanderson who represents a company called Ecosafe, www.ecosafe. co.za. Alan trained in England and is fully trained and experienced on the proper risk analysis requirements and is also recognised by the NHLS. We also found Alan to be a tremendously accommodating and helpful person and he has been available for telephonic advice ever since, so I personally can recommend his services.

Once a risk analysis has been conducted and the lab samples have been taken the first document, Form A, must be completed, the important thing is that only one of two people in this country can complete this form and that is either Dr. Juno Thomas who heads the Out Break Response or Mr. Rob Stewart who heads the NHLS at Wits University.

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HEALTH & SAFETY Should any other person complete this document it will not be accepted and you could still be black listed.

The cultures from the lab samples take two weeks (14 days) to be grown in the lab. These results only become available post the submission of Form A, so the results from this and appropriate corrective action along with action as a result of the risk analysis will be advised by Alan. You now have a four week window in which to complete the corrective tasks and report back so that Form B can then be submitted by the same two people.

Failure to comply with any of the steps laid out will lead to a black listing and this appears on the ELDSNet website, http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/activities/ surveillance/ELDSNet/Pages/Accommodation%20 site%20list.aspx, and is available to the entire world to see.

Completion of the forms is not where the whole process ends, it now becomes an ongoing process with monthly checks having to be done and one of the key factors in Legionella prevention is record keeping, so in essence, we must maintain a system into the future to ensure that we are not targeted again.

The critical chain What we found to be very critical and important with our case was the chain which must be followed in receiving information regarding contamination and cluster alerts.

1. Any health care professional or establishment diagnosing Legionella has to immediately report it to their country’s health department.

2. The relevant health department must then notify the European Centre for Disease Control who will pass it on to ELDSNet. 3. ELDSNet will then investigate the case establishing where a person has been in the last ten days before diagnosis.

4. ELDSNet will then notify the World Health Organisation (WHO) 5. The WHO will then notify the relevant health department in the affected country 6. The health department will notify the Out Break Response Team 7. The Out Break Response Team will notify the establishment

The entire process is supposed to be handled confidentially, so one establishment should not be aware of another — the reason being to protect your business and afford you an opportunity to respond and comply in good time.

Things can go wrong What happened to my establishment and four others was that the Dutch Health Authority, the RIVM were notified by the relevant health services of a client who had fallen ill, the ‘Rijksinstituut voor Volkgezondheiden Milieu’ (RIVM) in turn informed ELDSNet (which is correct), but where things went awry is that they also informed the ‘Algemene Nederlandse Vereniging van Reisondernemingen’ (ANVR) which is the Dutch Tourism Authority.

The ANVR immediately released an e-mail directly to the entire data base of Dutch tour operators and travel agents, and our first indication of there being a problem was that we had tour operators contacting us, some to cancel bookings, and some to establish what level of compliancy we had regarding Legionella, and as you all know there is no such thing in South Africa. It was only approximately a month later that the official communications were

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received, and unfortunately it has cost each of the five businesses concerned more than just the costs incurred in the risk analysis.

The terrible thing is that a number of other countries also came to find out about the problem through this indiscretion on the ANVR’s behalf and we had communications from Germany, France, Italy, England, Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland, all countries that we deal with. When approached about the indiscretion the ANVR admitted that they had been irresponsible regarding the notifications but to this point no evidence is available of communications to retract or verify that all establishments are compliant. The RIVM do not even respond to e-mails, even when directed to the person who released the information. The effects of the cluster alert on our establishment are quite costly and we are busy with a major awareness drive to change the perception that has been created with our customers. Those that deal with international operators will realise that with block bookings and release periods it is difficult to establish how much business has actually been lost, but we did lose one operator as a direct result of this.

So I urge you to be very aware of these Bacteria, you can be almost guaranteed that it is in your water supply as well, and it can cost you business. It is controllable and there is a list of steps that can be taken to prevent infection, but the most important thing is record keeping.

NB: If you think that it cannot happen to you then please note that there have been two cluster alerts issued this year affecting approximately fifteen businesses in and around South Africa, yours could be next.

HEALTH & SAFETY

Critical procedures in guest medical evacuation Most hospitality establishments have medical emergency contact details available to guests in their rooms but without appropriate procedures and policies in place, this information can have adverse consequences, writes Cindy Clokie, of SATIB Insurance Specialists.

Picture this scene. The parents of a ten-year old child are busy

unpacking suitcases in the second floor master bedroom of their plush game reserve suite, unaware that their active child is happily climbing the balcony balustrade. At the sound of their child’s piercing scream the mother rushes onto the balcony and sees her child lying motionless on the sloping ground eight metres below.

As she is shouting for her husband to phone a doctor as she rushes out the door to her child, her husband dials the medical emergency number provided in the room information directory.

Cradling his cell phone to his ear as he hurtles to his family’s aid, the call is picked up by a highly trained incident manager.

On accessing the guests’ location and situation, the call is immediately patched through to a doctor trained in remote medical prognosis.

Using a combination of questioning and photos sent from the father’s cell phone, the doctor is able to access the child’s condition. He appears to be in a state of altered consciousness with suspected fractures and internal injuries. Advice and instructions on how to immobilise the patient is dispensed while the team is already dispatching a helicopter to the scene for air evacuation to an appropriate hospital.

What can go wrong?

The scene described above is a common enough occurrence, assuming that the lodge did indeed have a competent 24-hour medical emergency service to call upon, but without medical evacuation insurance in place to provide immediate authorisation and payment guarantees for air evacuation, the situation may easily have turned out differently with disastrous consequences to both the guests and to the lodge in terms of reputation and potential liability.

From a procedural point of view, the scene is also fraught with errors. At no stage were the lodge management or front of house staff involved in the process. What happens when the

parents return to the lodge from the hospital? Who will be there to console and manage the situation?

How well an incident is handled can often impact on whether or not an injured party lodges a claim for compensation. Think of it like this: a six represents something bad – a big money law suit and/or your business being forced to close; every time an incident occurs, you have to roll the dice. Now decide how many dice you want to roll at one time. Good crisis management is like rolling one dice. Poor management is like rolling three. A string of really bad decisions and some shocking management is like grabbing a fistful of eight or nine dice. Even then you might get away with it, but how often can you keep doing that before a six shows up and you get burnt?

Avoid being sued People sue because they suffered a loss. Keeping this loss as small as possible decreases the potential for a claim and limits its size. But not everyone who suffers a loss takes formal action. This is the art of ‘Incident Management’, knowing how to maximize the chances of emerging from a crisis with a satisfied, even if injured, guest – and no litigation. In order to plot the lowest risk path through tricky situations consider the following advice: 1. Get the right insurer: You ‘co-defend’ with your financial services provider – or you should – first make sure you have adequate and appropriate cover. Make sure you have a specialist who intimately understands the vagaries of the host-guest relationship and who provides a high level of support during and after an incident. It is worth spending a little bit more on premiums to get the right attitude and approach from your financial partner.

2. Create the right culture: Value a proactive approach to risk containment and pass this on to staff. How? Talk about it, encourage reporting, review incidents constructively, invest in staff, train them in the Incident Command System and related skills, create better than average emergency response plans and get expert consultants to guide you in this. Prepare well, be a team, run practice sessions and have everyone know their roles. Show them you value this and they will too.

3. Offload to professionals: Make sure you or your insurer make financial and logistical provision to get specialists on the case as soon as it occurs – transfer decision making and attendant liability as soon as is possible.

4. Manage people, not just incidents: Remember that people sue, not injuries. This is more than buying dinner afterwards and avoiding admitting guilt. Contain staff emotions, take charge calmly, work well as a team, interact with guests face to face, maintain a high presence in the first 24 hours, follow up correctly, communicate skillfully and via correct channels, be careful with the media, know the character types that raise red flags and always be the consummate professional.

For more information contact SATIB on 0861SATIB4U or e-mail: info@satib.co.za.

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HOSPITALITY

Going green for your guest house Everybody is becoming aware of environmental issues and there has been a big push towards becoming environmentally friendly, or ‘green’ writes Anna Malczyk.

Going green is all about preserving resources, finding more efficient ways of working and cutting down on waste. Not only is this good for the environment, but it will probably benefit your bottom line too – you’ll be saving on resource costs and attracting environmentally conscious visitors. Here are some simple tips for going green.

1. Save power: There are many quick and easy ways to save electricity usage and costs.

Check that your appliances and your boilers are relatively new and in good working order; older or damaged ones use a lot more power.

Consider swapping your electric stove for a gas-powered one, which is much cheaper to run. Small changes make a big difference: you’ll be surprised how much you save by swapping to energy-saving light bulbs, unplugging appliances (especially boilers) that are not being used and turning lights and air conditioners off when you leave the room.

Also, South Africa is blessed with a lot of annual sunshine, so consider investing in solar water heaters; the government has a subsidy scheme in place to make this more affordable.

2. Save water: South Africa is a relatively dry country and saving water should be a top priority for everyone. The two main uses for water are in bathrooms and gardens. There are many technologies available for reducing water use in the bathroom, such as expensive toilet flushing mechanisms and grey water collectors – but there are also cheaper and quicker things you can do. First, place a brick or filled water bottle in every cistern to reduce the amount of water used when flushing.

Second, install water-saving showerheads and tap nozzles, which can lower water use by up to 75 percent. For the garden, make sure that you keep only local indigenous plants, and keep a barrel or tank for collecting rainwater to water the garden.

3. Reuse and recycle: Two of the best ways to save resources are to reuse and recycle whatever you can.

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Don’t provide disposable cups, napkins and containers for guests; rather choose the reusable alternatives.

Also, you don’t need to change all of the bedding and towels every day – nobody does this at home, and it isn’t necessary at a guest house either. If you change these every third day, you’ll save 66 percent of your laundry and energy costs.

When it comes to recycling, the key is to pick the most beneficial products to recycle – glass and metal cans are prime candidates, while paper and plastics are less worthwhile.

Also, organic waste is a great source of compost for your garden, and a compost heap is easy to create.

4. Your physical property: If you are building a guest house from scratch, do some research into the most ecologically friendly building materials.

If your property is already built, consider consulting with a specialist engineer who will point out the places in your building that are wasting energy. One of the cheapest modifications to make is to install good insulation in the roof and walls, and to hang heavy curtains that keep in the heat in winter, and out in summer. Also, consider planting some trees, which not only provide shade and beauty, but also take carbon dioxide out of the air.

The 10-week, part-time UCT Guest House Management short course is ideal for existing and aspiring guest house owners and managers and is presented completely online throughout South Africa. The course starts 5 September 2011.

For more information contact Kerry on 021 447 7565 or kerry@getsmarter.co.za, or visit www.GetSmarter.co.za.

HOSPITALITY

Nanotechnology enters the Hospitality Industry Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale at sizes between 1 to 100th of a nanometre (one billionth of a metre or about 100,000 times thinner than a strand of hair). Working at this ‘nano’ level, NASA scientists were able to develop an ultra thin coating for application to the ceramic tiles of space ships to protect the craft from searing hot temperatures on re-entry into the earths’ atmosphere. Two of these NASA scientists joined Dr. Elio Keller, the founder and CEO of Ceracoat International, in 1988 to help develop the commercial application of Ceracoat ceramic protective coatings.

The coating contains inorganic nanoparticles that increase the contact angle between the surface and water. The larger the contact angle, the more hydrophobic (water repellent) the surface becomes, until the water droplet forms a near-spherical shape which collects dirt as it rolls off the surface. This self-cleaning and waterproof property is known as the ‘lotus effect,’ and is named after the same properties found on the lotus leaf.

Materials covered with Ceracoat are able to withstand corrosion and maintain a clean surface.

cleaning and floor staff uniforms and shoes to increase resistance to soiling and stains. Spray onto bathroom tiles, toilets, mirrors, baths, sinks and shower cubicles to prevent spotting, streaking, mildew and urine adhesion for ease of cleaning without the use of expensive cleaning detergents.

Vehicles are also catered for with a range of purpose-designed formulations. Ceracoat vehicle exterior polish and windscreen wipes protect the surface against bug splat, tar, bird droppings, mud and rust.

Applied to alloy wheels, brake disk residue is removed with ease. A vehicle interior spray product protects seats, carpets and the entire cockpit from stains and soiling, while an oil and fuel additive completes the range by providing improved engine lubrication and fuel ignition efficiency.

Economical Due to the anti-adherence properties of Ceracoat, treated surfaces and fabrics need only be wiped or washed with water to remove dirt and grime. This translates to enormous cost savings for hospitality establishments in cleaning and washing detergent expenditure, while also extending the durability and replacement frequency of treated items.

Due to its microscopic composition, Ceracoat has incredible coverage. On fabrics, just 200ml will waterproof 10m2 and will remain active after 20 washes at 60° C. The product can also be added to the fabric conditioner compartment of washing machines during the last programme cycle. Just 100ml is sufficient to waterproof 3 kg of fabric.

Thermal dying such as tumble-drying or ironing enhances the waterproofing properties.

Through molecular self-organisation, the nanometric building blocks of Ceracoat nano-sealants bond downward, upward and sideward in a three dimensional structure to form an invisible protective layer. When applied to the surface of any substrate, both porous and non-porous, Ceracoat particulates act as an invisible barrier to protect the surface from exterior influences such as dirt, liquid, bacteria, temperature, odour and abrasion without affecting the aesthetic look, feel or porosity of the substrate.

As the molecules from liquid or food spillages cannot penetrate or bond with the surface substrate or fibres, the molecules collect as ‘beads’ on the surface and can easily be shaken off or absorbed with a paper towel.

Even parasites such as bed bugs and dust mites and bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus and pseudomonas aerogunosa are repelled.

Applications The Ceracoat range of products can be applied to any surface or substrate from glass and textiles to metal or plastics, which makes it ideal for application in the hospitality industry.

Applications include protection against liquid or food spills and stains on carpets and furniture upholstery (leather and cloth), wood and stone objects (where the surfaces are absorbent), dining room (curtains, chair fabric, table cloths and napkins) and bedroom linen (sheets, pillow slips and towels). Increase the water repellent and ultra-violet protection properties of outdoor furniture and shade umbrellas. Apply to kitchen,

In 4-stroke engines (diesel and petrol including turbo charged) the oil additive reduces friction (by up to 65 percent), noise and temperature and extends the engine life, service intervals, power and torque.

Fuel consumption has been proven to reduce by between 6.5 to 10 percent and one application lasts for up to 50,000 kilometers Environmentally Friendly Being solvent, silicone and oil free, Ceracoat is ecologically sound. By eliminating the need to clean fabrics and surfaces with environmentally harmful chemical detergents, Ceracoat contributes to the establishments ‘greening’ initiative. Test results from the Universities of Apeldoom (Netherlands) and Ulm (Germany) have shown that the Ceracoat fuel additive reduces CO2 emissions by about 65 percent.

Now in Southern Africa Ceracoat South Africa is the appointed agent and distributor for the range of Ceracoat products throughout Southern Africa.

For more information telephone +27 32 946 2554 / +27 82 374 7260 or e-mail des@ceracoatsouthafrica or visit the facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/CeracoatSouth-Africa/204796156231758

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LEGAL & LEGISLATION

Tourism businesses must take steps to comply with CPA A recent tourism seminar held jointly by Cape Town Tourism and FEDHASA, highlighted some of the laws contained in the Consumer Protection Act that would have direct bearing on the hospitality industry. Whilst there are elements of the CPA that are still somewhat vague, precedents for these elements will no doubt be settled through consumer courts.

Says Cape Town Tourism CEO, Mariette du Toit-Helmbold; “The onus is on businesses to ensure that they are as compliant as they can possibly be.

There are many areas of the CPA that are quite clear, it’s important to be familiar with these and to implement them into your business practice – as well as by training your staff, who represent you.”

In a presentation by FEDHASA’s, Peter Cumberledge, key pointers raised were as follows: Direct Marketing: Individuals have the right to refuse unwanted direct marketing and can register for a pre-emptive block on direct marketing from specific suppliers. Direct Marketers will have to register annually with the Registrar of Companies, and will have to get written permission to approach each and every consumer. Direct Marketers may also not contact consumers on weekends, public holidays, or out of business hours.

Cancelling Reservations or Bookings: Although parameters are unclear at this point, product providers are expected to charge a reasonable deposit or cancellation charge, and must publish their deposit and cancellation policy in clear, easy to understand English. Guests must be made aware of the terms and conditions of the booking.

Disclosure of price of goods: Full prices must be disclosed and hidden costs are not allowed. If a special only applies to a percentage of rooms in the hotel then this percentage must be disclosed.

Sales Records: The law is specific on how quotes should be managed and invoices must include all company and cost details.

Marketing Standards: Marketing efforts must be factual and accurate and may not mislead consumers in any way. This includes information put out by third parties engaged by the business. Trade coupons, prizes

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and gifts vouchers must disclose all limitations and similarly any ‘bait marketing’ must announce the limitations of availability and validity.

Vouchers: The terms and conditions of vouchers and coupons must be clearly stated. Vouchers must now be redeemable for a period of three years.

Quality Service: Consumers are entitled to timeous, quality service.

Prepaid Services: Service providers must protect any moneys of consumers paid 25 days in advance – this includes deposits paid for accommodation, flights etc Overselling/ Overbooking: This one is relevant to airlines and hotels that oversell rooms. Failure to honour the transaction will now incur a full refund of the full amount paid but will also require that consumers are compensated for the transgression. There is some leeway if service providers have taken steps to notify customers within a reasonable time frame or when a shortage of capacity is beyond their control.

Responsibility for Property: Suppliers will be held accountable for consumers’ property while at the establishments or using their facilities.

Cooling Off Clause: This is more directed at the sale of goods (particularly through telesales). There is a cooling off period for consumers of five working days - so if they agree to a sale verbally or in writing they have every right to cancel within five working days of agreeing.

Safety and Disclaimers: Tourism service providers can now be held responsible if their products or environment causes harm, death or damage to any person or their property. Companies can no longer issue a general disclaimer. Businesses must disclaim against specifics risk areas e.g. swimming pools or car parks.

Business Compliance: This clause is concerned with the registration of business names. It deals with the physical form, cost and manner in which a person who carries on any form of business must go about registering that business with the Registrar of Companies.

For further information and assistance, business operators should contact: Consumer Help Line, via the dti Customer Contact Centre: 0861 843384 http://www.economic.gov.za/ccrd/Consumer_protection_bill.pdf Cape Town Tourism (for members): +27 (0)21 487 6800 http://www.capetown.travel/industry/news/news-entry/consumer_ protection_act_explained_at_information_session/

MARKETING

German

The Long Haul Leisure Market

Fact & Figures This article is published with acknowledgement to the Anerkannte Spezialisten fur AfrikaReisen (ASA) and is extracted from the ASA Market Mirror 2011 edition, which is compiled on behalf of ASA by Reinhart Mecklenburg.

The article will be published in two parts with the second part in the Issue 5 (Sep/Oct) edition of the Tattler- Ed. PART 1 I would like to concentrate on the changing face of the German consumer; this mysterious figure in front of whom markets and marketers bow.

beach and sun destinations. Mauritius and the Seychelles are included because those two islands are often featured in the Southern Africa travel catalogues published by German tour operators. Part of the family!

2012 - here we come!

I found it most interesting that the German visitor figures (2009) for China have dropped after the Peking Olympics in 2008, but than shot up by almost 90 000 passengers in 2010.

Will we experience a similar pattern in South Africa?

Industry Experts predict that we can expect a general 5 percent increase in long haul leisure travel in 2011. Some destinations more - some less. (Cruises excluded).

The right to choose Consumers are said to dictate production; to fuel innovation; to create new service sectors and to have the power to save the environment and protect the future of our planet. Consumers embody a very simple logic: The right to choose.

Without a sound understanding of their needs, expectations and cultural requirements it will be almost impossible for you to operate successfully in this relatively easy-to-please German market. One just has to know what makes them tick.

Not all National Tourist Boards reveal their foreign arrival statistics and those that do are not always telling us the truth.

Hence we should take the information shown in this article with a pinch of salt. Still, the very different ups and downs over the six years from 2006 to 2011 are a pretty valuable trend indicator. In this comparison I have disregarded most long haul

All National Tourist Authorities (save Namibia) predict a healthy increase for 2011. FIT Specialists, Small Group-Tour Operators and Retailers report a good advance-booking situation for Namibia. From what I hear, I am confident that Namibia too will benefit from the general long haul leisure boom. Perhaps not so much in quantity, but definitely in terms of quality. Ideally half of the 80 000 guests would stay a day longer. That makes all the difference!

1,7 Million German landlubbers buy €190 to €240 per person per day Sea Cruises instead of visiting Southern Africa!

International and German Cruise Line Operators have invested in a very innovative marketing campaign. Within a relatively short period of time they have managed to turn around that detrimental old market perception of 'elderly people hanging on the side of the ship, chumming' to an eventful floating vacation - and a smooth ride. Most cruise lines now offer special programmes for a host of different market segments, designed to make all of them feel at home at sea.

In co-operation with several competing cruise line operators Germany’s leading Travel Trade magazine 'FVW' has introduced a highly successful product - and sales training programme for retail travel agents, who needed to be convinced that cruises are indeed saleable to people from all walks of life.

Cruises have drastically changed their previous old-fashioned image. They have become floating Holiday 'Destinations', offering a huge selection of entertainment options.

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MARKETING

Where do all the Germans go? 18 potential ‘Competitors’

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

1 USA 1,385,900 1,524,100 1,782,300 1,687,000 1,726,200 2 Canada 297,800 298,600 315,400 291 ,700 315,300 3 Brazil 277,200 257,800 254,300 215,600 n/a 4 Cuba 128,800 114,800 108,300 103,400 103,500 5 Mexico 135,300 152,000 159,000 141,000 160,000 6 Australia 148,300 151,600 160,800 161,400 160,100 7 New Zealand 59,400 59,800 62,300 64,000 66,000 8 India 156,800 187,300 209,300 194,000 220,000 9 Hong Kong 213,900 234,800 224,700 210,800 239,200 10 China 493,300 558,000 528,900 519,000 608,600 11 Malaysia 66,200 78,600 111 ,500 128,300 134,700 12 Oman n/a n/a 93,700 117,300 118,000 13 Mauntius 57,300 65,200 61 ,500 51,300 52,900 14 Seychelles 19,300 19,400 21,200 19,800 21,300 15 Kenya 83,400 83,400 44,100 65,100 75,000 16 Namibia 68,200 80,400 81,500 82,000 82,000 17 SouthAfnca 258,500 255,000 238,300 196,700 215,800 18 Cruises 705,000 762,800 906,600 1,422,000 1,665,200

2011 (Est) 1,772,000 340,000 240,000 105,500 176,000 173,000 68,000 230,000 241 ,000 639,000 138,000 120,000 55,400 22,000 85,000 80,000 230,000 1,700,000

±Growth 2011 over 2006 + 386,500 +27.8% + 42,200 + 14.2% − 37,200 − 13.4% − 23,300 − 18.1% + 40,700 + 30.1% + 22,700 + 15.3% + 8,600 + 14.5% + 73,200 + 46.7% + 27,100 + 12.7% + 145,700 + 30.1% + 71.800 +108.5% n/a 1,900 − 3.3% + 2,700 + 14.0% + 1,600 + 2.0% + 11,800 + 17.3% 28,500 − 11.0% + 995,000 +141 .1%

Notes: Sources: National Tourist Authorities, Travel-One and AfroSales.

Careful: Stats do not distinguish between tourists, business travellers and family visitors. Double entries are common. The most critical factors: ‘Duration of stay & Money spent’ can only be obtained from some individual Tourism Authorities. Official arrival statistics for Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania are not available. The total pax output 2006 for the above destinations (4 626 200) includes 72 000 visitors to Oman; a disputable personal guess. As usual, my statistics including the 2011 estimate are: “Better vaguely right than precisely wrong !”

2011 Forecast: Most 2011 figures are estimates by the relevant Tourism Authorities. Assumptions have been made after the Tunisian and Egyptian crisis, but before the Libyan crisis and the sad events in Japan. Especially the latter may influence world wide

Joint Marketing Campaign by competing partners?

Have a look at the enviable performance figures left.

The ‘passenger increase’ of almost a million people within six years is stunning.

Amazing: When you look at the year-to-year figures, you will be surprised to see that there was not one single year which has been negatively influenced by one of the many crises we experienced between 2006 and 2011.

So yes, we must include Cruises into the long list of our rivals.

This exemplary success story is 100% based on brilliant & innovative co-op marketing developed jointly by innovative partners.

arrival figures due to significant ‘shifting’ from the Far East to other destinations German tour operators offer their Japan clients free rebookings.

Cruises: The average per person/per day expenditure of around EUR 200, is very similar to a ‘lekker’ Southern African vacation. Perhaps a bit far-fetched, but I consider cruises as our competitors..

What‘s considered expensive or cheap by German Tourists ?

The Cologne/Germany based Hotel Portal HRS publishes a quarterly ‘Price Radar’ that compares the development of room rates in various cities. the table below illustrates average hotel prices in long distance destinations. In order to show you what an average German pays for an average room at home, I have added Berlin. You can easily see that the currency factor plays a major role. Not only in SA and NAM, but also in India, Australia and in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro hosted a number of large conferences during the first quarter of 2011. WOW - they really cashed in!

City Average room rate Average room rate Variance in

First Quarter 2011 First Quarter 2010 %

Euro Euro Bangkok 54,91 53,06 + 3,49 Buenos Aires 85,64 71 ,27 + 20,16 CapeTown 125,56 100,D4 + 25,51 Dubai 102,22 107,87 − 5,24 Hongkong 112,11 101,45 + 10,51 Kuala Lumpur 52,49 47,44 + 10,65 Las Vegas 87,28 78,31 + 11,45 Mexico City 62,45 65,38 − 4,48 Miami 100,17 102,06 − 1,85 Mumbai 110,96 81,72 + 35,78 New York 149,60 130,12 + 14,97 Peking 53,71 49,18 + 9,21 Rio 149,17 88,73 + 68,12 Seoul 105,23 102,05 + 3,21 Shanghai 65,37 59,76 + 9,39 Singapore 132,41 123,62 + 7,11 Sydney 176,88 139,43 + 26,86 Toronto 90,47 85,92 + 5,30 Vancouver 73,84 151 ,42 − 51 ,23 Berlin / Germany

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Surprising Canada: The + 5,3 percent for hotel rates in Toronto are understood.

But a 51,23 percent decrease in Vancouver? You guys from sunny Southern Africa probably watched Cricket and Rugby during our Northern Winter 2010 and the Vancouver Winter Olympics (Feb 2010) didn’t catch your attention.

For us Northerners it was a huge event. Plenty of new hotels opened their doors and prices went up sky high (ski high!) during this mega event.

A year later over-supply and ‘normality’ in terms of visitor figures forced the Vancouver hospitality industry to drastically slash their rates. Oh, oh - I am not commenting on Cape Town.

The Hotel Portal Europe’s leading Hotel Portal HRS operates a global electronic hotel reservation system for business and private travellers based on a database of more than 250 000 hotels in all price categories.

HRS enables users to make direct bookings with immediate confirmation and at continually updated special prices.

The HRS ‘Price Radar’ is a very useful tool for the travel trade as well as for interested consumers.

Understandably, German Travellers tend to use prices at home as a yard stick or index for comparisons.

In other words - from a German Tourist’s perspective: Kuala Lumpur is cheap and Cape Town is expensive.

Have a look at Malaysia’s impressive visitor numbers in the previous table. The enormous visitor increase of 108,5 percent can certainly be attributed to highly competitive pricing, agree ?

MARKETING

Beyond Segmentation AMADEUS Germany’s leading travel technology partner and transaction processor for the travel and tourism industry has launched a very enlightening report which says, among other things, that hotels must embrace extreme personalisation to survive the turbulent decade ahead.

The report looks forward to a time when responsive guest environments become commonplace as guests demand greater personalisation, increased comfort and more innovative experiences. At the same time the report also highlights some new hotel models that may emerge.

Forget the 'Stars'. You are judged by your Experience Factor Tomorrow's hotel and lodge standards must prove themselves beyond traditional 'Star Rating' categories.

The report reveals emerging behaviours and demands of tomorrow’s hotel guest and what this means for the future strategies, business models, services and innovation approach of branded hotel groups over the next decade.

Amadeus looks to a future where augmented reality, customisable and responsive guest environments and service robots may become commonplace as guests demand deep personalisation, increased comfort and innovative experiences.

Think like your guests In his foreword the Amadeus Director responsible for Hotel-IT exclaims: 'Think like your guests'. Understanding a customer is a strategic imperative for all tourism players in today’s world.

Jerome Destors urges us to challenge our conventional thinking about how we sell, market and interact with guests and he warns us to think of customers as segmented groups as we have in the past….and still do. This report recognises that hotel/lodge guests no longer fit into these clean little segment boxes of yesteryear. This is why they have called the report: 'Beyond Segmentation'.

This highly recommendable report can be down-loaded free of charge from the AMADEUS website.

For well travelled and experienced German hotel guests, star classifications have not been the real measurement criteria for a long time.

They hardly state anything about the actual quality of a hotel or lodge. Star ratings mostly reflect minimum standards, which may also vary considerably from country to country.

Therefore, it is impossible for the smart consumer to determine what experiences the hotel actually has in store for each individual guest. In order to define a hotel's experience factor in future, a new thought process is needed for category classifications.

The Experience Factor counts Holidaymakers seek highlights and extraordinary experiences beyond the mini bar, laundry service, sparkling pool and coffee kettle. Modern tourists measure their hotel or lodge by its unique individuality and its experience factor. Hell, those clients of ours get cheeky, hey?

What makes the Germans tick?

Most of the outside world sees the Germans as a nation of nononsense and it is quite difficult to say exactly what is 'typically German'. What’s sure is that there are plenty of prejudices and clichés about us Krauts.

About the ASA The Association for the Promotion of Tourism to Southern and East Africa (ASA) - was founded in Germany in 1988 by a handful of enthusiastic Tourism Professionals. Their aim was to combine marketing forces, to exchange views and to exploit synergies where ever possible. 'Where possible' because the members consisted to a large extent of daring competitors.

Soon the 'nasty competitors' became colleagues - even good friends. Our collective passion for Africa was much stronger than any rivalry. In the following years ASA conducted a number of remarkable promotional events.

Today ASA boasts some 150 members - including airlines, tourism boards, European tour operators, African DMC’s, service providers as well as many representatives from the hospitality industry.

For further information please contact ASA’s secretariat in Germany: Petra Gotta at petra@asa-africa.com or visit the website at www.asa-africa.co

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PROCUREMENT

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RESPONSIBLE TOURISM

At Avis, green is not just a colour it’s integral to business

It doesn’t take long, when you talk to Avis chief executive Wayne Duvenage, to realise you are in the presence of a person who is passionate and serious about the environment, someone who doesn’t just mouth the slogans, but who lives and drives the philosophy.

“The exciting thing about our green journey is that it is a constant voyage (L to R) Charmaine Pereira, CSR Co-Ordinator - Avis of discovery,” comments Rent a Car, Wayne Duvenage, Chief Executive Wayne Duvenage.

Avis Rent a Car, Jessica Branco, Sustainability & “We are achieving Corporate Social Responsibility Manager - Avis Rent one milestone after a Car and Gale Lemmert - Executive Transformation, another, constantly Organizational Performance and Sustainability – introducing initiatives, Barloworld Automotive. testing innovations and making new progress.

Our Brand Ambassadors are also part of the journey, with input and recommendations from our ‘Earth Champions’ ranging from water coolers which capture condensation from the air rather than use water bottles, to educating early-morning cleaners and other staff to switch lights and airconditioners off as they leave rooms.”

The environment has been a major focus for Avis over the past four years and it was the first company in South Africa to receive carbonneutral® accreditation in 2009 in line with UN protocol, for the offset of its own business emissions, and in 2007, Avis was the first to introduce the hybrid, environmentally-friendly Toyota Prius to its fleet.

Wayne’s personal Damascus Road moment came long ago, inspired by Glenn van Heerden, the co-founder of the company over 40 years ago.

“Glenn was serious about supporting conservation initiatives that made a difference. All we have done is to take this journey to a new level. More recently,” he says, “When monitoring our live energy usage, we discovered that our energy consumption from the car wash dryers was significantly high. More disturbing though, was the realisation that this process continued even on rainy days when cars were dried, only to drive out into the rain again. This highlighted the ‘dumb behavior of business’ and when we realised that there must be more of this crazy behavior in our business, we just had to keep looking for it.

“The success of our journey has been in our quest to measure and understand our consumption of natural resources, from water to electricity, to office consumables. “If something can be measured, it can be managed.”

“In 2010, we appointed Energy Cybernetics to undertake comprehensive energy measurements,” Duvenage continues. “The baseline data provided the reference point from which to quantify energy management impacts.

We identified problem areas, investigated them and implemented solutions to conserve energy, which has resulted not only in greater efficiencies, but in significant savings in rands. You need to measure things carefully – that’s where one’s learning about the real benefits of ‘going green’ starts.”

Live energy measurement will now become an ongoing event and progress is very carefully monitored as Avis plans to introduce lighting retrofits and other energy-saving initiatives going forward.

“After discovering our electricity use (and waste) when drying cars, we decided to switch the dryers off. In South Africa’s sunshine, most cars will dry very fast naturally and need just a bit of a rub over to remove any streaky marks. To our amazement, at just one site, the amount of electricity saved was more than 900 Kwh a day! The financial saving amounted to more than R600 000 a year as we switched off driers around the country. The cars are still clean and dry, but a wasteful process had been stopped.

“Now we were on a mission and took to looking at office waste recycling, turning off geysers in buildings, installing water flow regulators onto our taps etc”. It was however, in the area of water use that Avis made its greatest impact on environmental matters. “Until 2007, we were rather oblivious to

AVIS Rent A Car has been very busy making its famous red-branded company green, writes Marjorie Dean.

In doing so, many lessons have been learned – among them that “greening” your company not only pays for itself, but saves you money. the amount of water we used to wash our vehicles. Our decision to look closely at the impact of our business on the environment opened our eyes in this regard and we were astounded to learn that we used almost a small bathtub (over 250 litres of water) for every car we washed through our high-speed automated car wash machines, and it all simply went down the drain. It was at this stage that we were revamping our facilities at the main high-volume vehicle preparation depots and we decided to introduce intensive water recycling processes into our business. All that water had to be cleaned and filtered enough to wash the next car. Working with our car wash suppliers, we invested over R2 million in draining and water cleaning processes. We also added rain water harvesting for “free” additional clean water required for the final rinse arch, making us effectively “water neutral” during the wet months. All this effort results in a saving of more than 75 million litres of water a year and of almost R1 mil” Avis simply surged ahead as the country’s leading car rental company in the green space in South Africa.

In 2009, the company’s executive team decided to become a carbonneutral® accredited organisation. It was addressing electricity reduction and now it was time to off-set the remaining CO2 emissions from its own business output, which measured just under 10,000 tones of CO2 per annum.

Linking up with the CarbonNeutral Company which specialises in the trading and managing of Carbon Offset credits and projects, Avis purchased credits to effectively neutralise its carbon emissions to net zero, in line with UN protocol becoming the country’s first company to do so. Working in partnership with Enviroserv, it now also recycles 3,5 tons of office waste each month and its next project is to reduce electricity use at its HQ campus through a number of initiatives, with a view even to taking the HQ precinct (or part of it) off the national electricity grid by way of alternative energy generation. All this has not gone unnoticed and in March 2011, Avis received the Climate Change Leadership Award (Corporate Services) in recognition of its efforts and was also runner up in the Water Care category of the Mail and Guardian ‘Greening the Future’ awards in June 2011.

All this effort is in vain, if it is directed only from the top. The process needs to be internalised, something which Avis did when it appointed a full-time ‘Sustainability Manager’ in Jessica Branco in 2008 and in addition, launched the ‘internal Avis Earth Champions’ programme, to find the environment drivers of energy reduction and waste recycling within its business aimed at changing behavior at the coal face of business.

“But sustainability in South Africa goes beyond the environment. Our programme needed to include the community, and along with the greening drive came social responsibility, so we introduced our “Avis Cares” slogan in 2008, including three elements, environment, community and staff. Our community element is driven largely by our staff (brand ambassadors) many of whom were already involved in community upliftment projects. Today, Avis has accomplished over 70 viable community projects, all of which were driven by our Brand Ambassadors and supported by the company.”

One of the first projects to be assisted was the Soweto Equestrian Centre, which was given a combi to transport riders to and from competitions.

Another project that has benefited from Avis’s involvement is ‘Jumping Kids’. This is a scheme to give children who have lost lower limbs quick access to a prosthesis that can be changed as they grow, so that they get used to walking on it early in life Employees are deeply involved in all Avis projects. Managers have planted trees in the barren streets of townships and cars have been donated to schools and people who have an acute need for transportation.

And there is much more to come. Avis’s stand at Indaba 2011 was made almost entirely from recycled materials says Duvenage, “And there are significant renewable energy projects on the drawing board as we play our pioneering role, something one would expect from the industry leader. We are proud of the recognition and awards bestowed on the company for its efforts in reducing its harmful impact on the environment”, says Duvenage, “But we don’t do it for the awards, we do this work because it is the right thing for any business to do – to know your impact, measure it and reduce it.”

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RESPONSIBLE TOURISM

Tourism faces the high cost of fuel

Whether we like it or not, tourism entities need to begin to consider the on-going relationship between the cost of oil and the cost of travel writes Dr. Peter E. Tarlow, President of Tourism & More.

Travel and tourism are very oil/pricesensitive products with high spoilage rates. That is to say, once an airplane has left the gate, the profit from unsold seats can never be regained.

The same is true of unsold hotel rooms or attraction tickets. To make tourism even more sensitive, most people are not obliged to travel except in cases of business and family. For the most part, leisure travel is something that people elect to do, rather than are obliged to do. This right to not travel, means that the tourism industry dare not allow itself to become arrogant or too self-assured. It is in this light that travel and tourism experts need to watch the rising cost of oil carefully. No one knows at what point travel may become so expensive that people simply decide to forgo it. While no one can predict the future, it is also a mistake not to plan for the future. Then as realities develop, those plans can be adjusted as needed. To help you plan, Tourism and More offers you the following ideas and scenarios.

For the foreseeable future, assume that gas and oil prices will continue to rise. Gas pump shock is now something that travel officials will need to consider. In those countries, such as the USA, where gas prices have traditionally been low, the public is less likely to ignore rising fuel prices. In fact, every day as citizens pass a gas station they are reminded that the world’s major industrial powers are in a state of wage stagflation coupled with energy inflation. There is already a move to greater carpooling, and seeking of alternative forms of transportation.

Make a plan Do not panic; do plan. The continual rise in fuel prices will impact every aspect of tourism.

This is not the time to panic, but rather to be creative. Hold a local summit meeting between hotels, restaurants, attractions, and even such secondary tourism components as police and city governments. Develop several scenarios and then develop creative methodologies to meet these potential challenges. Remember, in a crisis, it is easier to modify a pre-set plan than it is to develop a new one from scratch.

Take an active role in developing gas price incentives. Until now, tourism entities have mainly taken a reactive role in gas price issues. With gas pump price-shocks becoming more common, tourism and travel may need to become creative. For example, create promotions that include a free tank of gasoline for new visitors, or people spending an extra night in hotels or at attractions. The bottom line is that gas pricing often creates emotional reactions, and tourism is a business of emotions.

Make sure you know how people arrive in your community. If you are a destination to which most people drive, then you are going to be directly impacted by the high cost of motor fuel.

If your tourism industry is airline dependent, airline service cutbacks and less flight frequency

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(often caused by high airplane fuel prices) will impact every aspect of your tourism industry.

One solution for many will be to expand markets by finding more visitors closer to home. While this temporary solution may help the local hotel industry, it is not adding to the community’s economy as tourism revenues from outside of the local region begin to fall. Instead, develop compensatory marketing schemes that will continue to make travel to your destination worthwhile. In some areas, such as many island destinations, there are no closer markets.

In that case, develop creative pricing, along with creative airport hospitality. Get travellers to forget the woes of travel as soon as they deplane.

Tourism is integrated Higher fuel prices mean that the tourism industry needs to be thinking of its product as an integrated whole rather than as a series of independent components. The additional cost of transportation means that visitors will be seeking other ways to economise. Visitors do not see their tourism experience separately as hotels, restaurants, transportation, and attractions, but rather as a unified experience.

The tourism industry now needs to do the same.

Each component needs to be working with the other sectors of the industry to find ways to compensate for higher fuel prices. If visitors do not see the total experience as worthwhile, then all of the tourism industry’s components will suffer.

Be aware that the rise in fuel prices has caused some airlines to cut back on service. Most airlines have taken the position that higher fuel costs should translate into (1) poorer service and (2) higher ticket prices. It may be a number of years until travel historians will be able to determine if this policy was wise or not. What is known is that people now enjoy flying less, and where once the trip was a positive part of the travel experience, when combined with security considerations, many people now dread the 4/2011

transportation component rather than looking forward to it.

Act positively This cutback in service means that on-theground tourism service providers must work extra hard to provide compensatory good service. For example, hotels (a major component of the hospitality industry) may want to ask their guests how they are arriving, and notify front desk personnel to be extra patient with people arriving by air. Registration counters may need to provide a small snack realizing that airlines no longer provide meals, and rooms may need to be readied at earlier hours for those people who arrive by air prior to noon.

Show your appreciation. All too often tourism businesses act as if they are doing the customers a favor. This is the time to develop creative ways to show appreciation. For example, locales may want to develop ‘welcome passports’ to be used at restaurants and hotels where visitors are provided with a free ‘extra’ as a way of showing appreciation. Follow-up letters may also be sent in which the local tourism industry thanks people for visiting. The letters can even be e-letters and used as a way to encourage visitors to return for another visit.

Lobby for serious energy policies. Over the past ten years, politicians from all sides of the political spectrum have used energy as a political football. Millions of dollars (and rands) have been wasted in non-productive attempts to find energy solutions. Tourism and travel must find ways to show the world that they are leaders in creating sustainable solutions rather than allowing themselves to be seen as part of the problem. The industry’s future may very well depend on what energy solutions are developed.

For more information contact Dr. Peter E. Tarlow on e-mail ptarlow@tourismandmore. com or visit his website at: http://www. tourismandmore.com

TRANSPORT

Mercedes has brand-new winner The annual SATSA trek by road to Indaba is not normally an experience the office staff enjoy, crammed into a minibus with loads of luggage, and exhibition material in a trailer behind. That makes for a slow and uncomfortable journey.

However, this year was different. Thanks to a kind sponsorship from Holiday Autos Car Rental, we were able to travel in style and comfort in a brand–new Mercedes Vito. The new six gear system handled the heavy load with ease, and there was good legroom for all passengers, as well as adequate luggage storage space.

On the uphill journey back from Durban, the vehicle again performed well, and when we got back, we were pleasantly surprised by its economical fuel consumption.

It coped well in heavy Durban traffic, both day and night, and fairly buzzed along on the open road.

From SATSA staff a ‘Thumbs up’ to the new Vito.

It delivered everything that was promised.

The new Mercedes-Benz Vito Tough, indestructible and dependable – day-in, day-out, the MercedesBenz Vito applies itself to the rigours of the tasks on hand. This is a van that knows its business. Mercedes-Benz has undertaken a comprehensive revamp of the Vito van, which is now more economical and environmentally friendly, yet more practical and more dynamic.

New engines and new transmissions reduce emissions and fuel consumption by up to 15 percent while enhancing performance. The fully reconfigured chassis is tailored to the transportation of goods or passengers, according to the model variant. The driver’s workplace and the passenger compartment of the Vito Crewbus are more attractively appointed than ever.

“With the introduction of the new generation Mercedes-Benz Vito, we are delighted to launch our new and extended product line-up, from entry level models with varying specification levels to unique derivatives in the FUNCTION, SPORT and SHUTTLE guise,” says Nicolai Berger, Divisional Manager, Mercedes-Benz Vans.

Drive system: economic engines and BlueEFFICIENCY technology cut costs.

“BlueEFFICIENCY, which has integrated optimisation measures, is the latest innovative technology now available for the new Vito, significantly reducing fuel emissions. The new generation Vito is also the first Mercedes-Benz Van in South Africa with START-STOP technology,” says Berger.

The central innovation featuring in the latest Vito is a completely new drive offering particularly economical and environmentally friendly operation. All engines comply with the Euro 5 emissions standard.

“Fuel consumption has fallen markedly once again, accompanied by cuts of up to 15 percent in CO2 emissions, depending on the engine variant. Reductions in fuel consumption and emissions are possible with BlueEFFICIENCY technology. This innovative package comes as standard for the Vito model range, and is a unique offering in the vans segment,” adds Berger.

The new four-cylinder engines rated at 100 kW in the Vito 113 CDI and 120 kW in the Vito 116 CDI are provided with balancer shafts for impressively smooth running. All diesel engines are equipped with an oxidation catalytic converter, a particulate filter and cooled exhaust gas recirculation. The new ECO

Gear six-speed manual transmission for all four-cylinder models offers a broad gear ratio spread for optimum performance and enables low fuel consumption and emission levels.

Top of the range among the diesel engines is the V6 in the Vito 122 CDI, which combines smooth running with impressive output and high tractive power. With a power output of 165 kW, it now offers even better performance, while combining economy with environmentfriendliness.

The new chassis The new Vito impresses with a completely new and perfectly tuned chassis. Both the front and rear axles have only their basic construction in common with the previous models. The new chassis sets new standards in driving stability and robustness, ride comfort and driving safety in the Vito’s class. The Vito Panel Van/Crewcab and Vito Crewbus come with a rear axle configured to the respective areas of use.

The interior A host of new features inside the Vito all boil down to even simpler operation, enhanced comfort and an even higher-quality look and feel.

The Vito is more user-friendly than ever, featuring a new shift lever, pushbuttons in the upper control panel of the centre console and an optional upgraded overhead control unit. A four-spoke multifunction steering wheel with new control buttons and matt chromed spoke trims and the new generation of radio, an Audio 20 (NTG 2.5) are available as standard on SPORT and SHUTTLE The exterior Mercedes-Benz has also incorporated numerous new highlights into the exterior design. The new ‘face’ of the Vito features a yet more striking and distinctive look, whilst at the same time, exuding the robust character of a commercial vehicle. New reflector headlamps offset the radiator grille. The daytime driving lights which come as standard are integrated with their own light source in the headlamp housings, together with the fog lamps. The new-generation Vito is optionally available with a combination of Bi-xenon headlamps with cornering function and LED daytime driving lights.

CharterWay “We are pleased to include a value added service package to our customers with a special product called Mercedes-Benz CharterWay, Best Basic 5-years/90 000 km Service Plan,” adds Berger. Customers who wish to upgrade into a service and Maintenance Plan have the possibility to choose from the complete packages on offer.

CharterWay offers its customers a one-stop shop for all their procurement and service needs. The range of services consists of individual, combined service modules for tailor-made solutions aimed at all industries and types of operation. Predictable costs, flexibility and fail-safe operation are key components of each product.

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TRADE NEWS

View the Southern Night Sky from a New Unique Hammock Camp Mashovhela Lodge has just opened their unique Hammock Camp on their nature reserve situated in the scenic Soutpansberg Mountains of South Africa. Visitors to South Africa are always amazed, when they have the opportunity to get away from the city lights, to see how magnificent the southern hemisphere night sky really is. It is for this reason that Mashovhela Lodge has opened a camp where guests cannot only relax and spend a night in a comfortable hammock viewing the stars but can also be introduced to some of the planets, constellations, star clusters, nebulae and the South African mythology related to them.

Ingrid Hahn, Operations Director for Mashovhela Lodge states “I have always been amazed at the beauty of the night sky and I often just lay staring up at the stars, but what better way to do it than in the comfort of a hammock. My market research showed that there is a great interest for such an experience, and strangely I couldn’t find any other place that offers this, so the whole concept is very unique to Mashovhela Lodge”.

The lodge has a resident astronomer, Kos Coronaios, who has received various awards and accolades from the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA) and runs the local Soutpansberg Astronomy Club.

The Hammock Camp has been sited away from the Lodge itself, so that even the lights of the lodge do not influence a clear view of the sky. Being out in the African bush also allows guests to hear African night noises clearly; sleep patterns can be disrupted by the call of an Owl, Night Jar or Bush Baby, which just adds to the whole experience.

For more information on the Hammock Camp and African Night Safari e-mail Ingrid Hahn at info@mashovhela.com or visit www.mashovhela. com Gorilla’s Nest Lodge, Rwanda survives fire Situated in Northern Rwanda’s Musanze district, surrounded by Eucalyptus trees, Gorilla’s Nest Lodge, which brings guests into close proximity with the largest group of Mountain Gorillas in the Virungas, recently sustained fire damage to its main public building, as a construction fire broke out.

This has limited the operational capacity of the lodge until the main Lounge and Dining Room are restored.

The Lodge remains open for single groups of up to eight people, who will be accommodated in the famous Jack Hanna Cottage, which overlooks the surrounding Volcanoes and 18 hole Golf Course. Jack Hanna’s private lodge accommodates a maximum of four guests, at a rate of US$ 200 per person per night. Gorilla’s Nest will also continue to accommodate guests in the adjacent Ranch Rooms, which accommodates four guests at a rate of US$ 150 per person per night. Meals will be prepared by a private chef, making this temporary inconvenience a wonderfully personalised affair.

The Hanna Cottage was recently renovated to five-star standards and ranks as the finest accommodation available in the region. Rate prices quoted include, all meals and selected beverages, terms and conditions apply.

“We would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused and we wish to assure all our guests that excellent and personalised service will continue over this period of restoration.” Says CEO of Dubai World, Nick Webb.

For further enquiries and clarifications regarding existing and future bookings please contact the Dubai World Offices on Tel: +27 (0) 21 405 0757 (South Africa) Mobile: + 27 (0) 72 373 0471 or by e-mail on ursula. barkhuizen@dubaiworldafrica.com Tourvest Destination Management expands real time rate & content distribution solutions To meet the demands of today’s fast-paced and rapidly-changing travel environment, Tourvest Destination Management (TDM) has developed a multi-platform IT solution, providing clients with all the necessary tools to compete with direct online channels.

“One of the biggest challenges the tourism industry faces is the collection, distribution and ongoing management of product information, especially with rates and content becoming more and more dynamic,” explains TDM Director of Solutions, Dieter Holle. This has been solved through the TDM Connect range, which enables customers to choose the platform best suited to their needs to access the very latest product descriptions, supplier rates and availability feeds, all available from TDM. The newest addition to the TDM Connect product range is a user-friendly

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lightweight Adobe Air desktop application, designed to provide customers with up-to-date product details and real time rate information. The TDM Connect Air App will replace the traditional MS Excel-based FDM or Full Destination Management Manual from the beginning of the new season on November 1, 2011. The Air App complements the company’s existing solutions: TDM Connect H2H, which allows clients to connect their own reservation system with TDM’s; and TDM Connect B2B, an online environment where clients can access TDM’s rate and reservation system through the Internet.

Customers can use these tools to perform a variety of functions, such as producing rate cards in MS Excel format to print or store. As soon as a user creates a rate card, they will be subscribed to an auto-update, which means they will be advised of any changes via a weekly email update summary. Rate information can also be exported into an import-friendly data structure that can be utilised to achieve bulk data imports into clients systems.

Through these solutions, tour operators are well placed to offer travellers benefits most commonly associated with the more direct approach. Competitive last-minute rates and instant availability information can be coupled with the much sought after assurance and accountability provided by traditional channels.

AHA signs up the Saint James on Venice in KZN

African Hotels and Adventure has secured the marketing and sales contract for the Saint James on Venice boutique hotel, the company’s first in KwaZulu-Natal.

The Saint James on Venice is situated in the up-market Durban suburb of Morningside, close to the trendy eateries of Florida Road, the beachfront, major sports stadiums and golf courses. It has easy access to the city centre and the Umhlanga Ridge precinct. It has 14 rooms, each of which has been decorated differently, and caters for discerning travellers who expect high standards of service.

“The Saint James on Venice adds yet another coastal property to the AHA portfolio of boutique hotels in South Africa,” says Gary Elmes, CEO of Tourvest Accommodation and Activities. “We intend to use this property as a beachhead from which to extend our presence in the KZN area.”

AHA offers independent hotel owners a number of benefits including integrated support functions. Its e-Res reservation tool plugs into 14 online channels, which include leading global travel distribution systems such as Galileo, Amadeus, Expedia.com, Booking.com as well as its own online web booking engine and the large volumes of tourists sourced by the Tourvest group’s travel agency and tour operator businesses.

Inaddition, AHA offers a soft branding approach where the AHA brand will discreetly support the brands of the individual hotels and lodges.

Reservations for AHA Group hotels and lodges can be made on the AHA Group website: www.ahagroup.co.za.

For further information contact Gary Elmes on 082 450 8127 Captains of Industry support the fight against Child Sex Tourism at Indaba At an event held at Africa’s biggest tourism trade show, Indaba, hosted by Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA), the local representative for the Tourism Child Protection Code of Conduct (The Code), representatives

TRADE NEWS of some of the country’s top tourism establishments and associations, including SATSA, showed their support in the continual fight against the sexual exploitation of children in tourism.

Several captains of industry, including Clifford Ross, CEO of the City Lodge Hotel Group; Linda Pampallis, CEO of Thompsons Africa; Khehla Mthembu, Group Executive Director of Tourvest; Bekithemba Langalibalele from the National Department of Tourism and Michael Tatalias, SATSA CEO, publicly demonstrate their commitment to this important initiative.

The Code is an instrument of Corporate Social Responsibility for tourism establishments, which aims to provide increased protection to children from sexual exploitation in travel and tourism. It is based on the United Nations (UN) Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and requires commitment from all levels of signatories’ business.

Over 1000 companies have already signed The Code across the globe and signatories in South Africa include hotel chains such as City Lodge, Accor and Radisson; major tour operators such as Tourvest and Thompsons Africa and car rental companies such as Avis, Europcar, First and Budget.

New tours from Thompsons SATSA member Thompsons Africa has a reputation for launching new and innovative tour itineraries. Over the last couple of months we have had news of three new itineraries.

Red Caracal released onto Kapama Nature Reserve At the beginning of December last year HESC received a phone call from a farmer who was experiencing problems with a Red caracal on his livestock farm.

Fortunately he decided against killing this beautiful animal, as is so often the case in these situations.

Christo (curator) and Werdy (guide) drove all the way to Roetan to fetch the reprobate cat. Upon arrival at Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre the caracal was immediately quarantined so that we could give him a check-up and allow his wounded nose time to heal. He soon regained his health, and last week we decided that the time had come for him to return to the wild. We decided to release him on Kapama because caracals are rarely seen on the reserve, but more importantly there are no farms anywhere near the reserve. Which means the cat will stay out of trouble!

At Indaba, the company launched its Kenya and Tanzania Fly-in Safari packages. Its four and eight night options include visits to between two and four of Kenya’s finest national parks and reserves and Tarangire National Park, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. The experience is a unique combination of African adventure, relaxation, affectionate service and culinary delights.

All accommodation is at eco-friendly and sustainable luxurious camps, on a fully inclusive basis. All tents and suites are en-suite and offer spectacular views of the African landscape. Game drives are in traditional 4x4 safari vehicles, accompanied by highly experienced guides, with a selection of highlights including exciting bush walks, a visit to a traditional Masai village, and sundowners set in a series of amazing locations.

These packages depart from Nairobi, Mombasa and Kilimanjaro.

For more information contact Janine Southwood on +27 31 275-3609 or janine.southwood@thompsons.co.za

Mango voted Coolest Domestic Airline for third successive year A week prior to commencing operations between Lanseria and Cape Town, low cost airline Mango was recognised as the Coolest Domestic Low Cost Airline for the third successive year in the Sunday Times Generation Next Brand Survey 2011.

“We are thrilled to be recognised as the number one brand among young consumers,” says CEO Nico Bezuidenhout. “The youth market not only represents a future market but also, as we have seen, Generation Y’s spending power is significant – thus being ranked as a favourite brand within this market segment is exceptionally important to us.”

Bezuidenhout believes that the airline’s communication strategy, which includes a large social media component, has paid dividends. “Engagement across all available media channels, Facebook and Twitter, empowered the brand to initiate direct two way conversation with our guests. Social media platforms reach a large segment of the youth market.”

Mango flies between Lanseria and Cape Town from 1 June.

SATSA’s old computers given to charity Recently SATSA’s remaining ‘antique’ office computers were replaced – much to the joy of National Office staff. In keeping with SATSA’s commitment to social responsibility, the old computers were handed over to The Living Link, an organisation that creates opportunities for people living with disabilities.

SATSA CEO Michael Tatalias and Project Last year our Manager Annelie Barkema handover the old computers that were computers replaced were given to Dial-a Nerd, who also arranged to ‘recycle’ them.

In the Western Cape, Thompsons Africa is offering a completely new take on fynbos, which grows in a 100-to-200-km-wide coastal belt, forming part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, half of the surface area and 80 percent of the plant varieties, with Cape Town alone supporting over 2 200 species.

Fynbos cooking has become an extraordinary fine art. A half-day tour, which includes a fynbos cooking experience, starts with the collection of fynbos from the slopes of Table Mountain. You learn about the many medicinal and healing properties of some of the plants that will be used for cooking. Back at the hotel, you will be treated to an interactive fynbos cooking demonstration and tasting, where the room is filled with the diverse aromas and scents of these unique plants, each with its own delicious flavour.

The Tour is subject to a minimum of eight guests booked and a maximum of 12 and is available between 1 May and 20 September.

For more information contact Illana Clayton on +27 31 275-3587 or illana.clayton@thompsons.co.za There’s Romance and Adventure to be had on a new three-night package to the peaceful and romantic Grootbos Private Nature Reserve, outside Hermanus just two hours from Cape Town. For the romantic at heart, Grootbos’ breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean, ancient forests and unspoilt beaches make it a place in which to truly lose yourself. The package is bursting with complementary activities including amazing views of False Bay, where whales are often sighted between June and November, and a stop in Betty’s Bay to view the colony of African Penguins. There is complementary beach horse riding for beginner and advanced riders through white dunes and on 30 km of sandy beaches. Also included is a complementary guided Wine Tour of the Overberg and a visit to three wine farms, with wine-tasting.

The climax is a Great White Shark Cage Diving and Surface-Viewing Experience. Shark Cage Diving is regarded by many as one of the most adventurous experiences on our planet.

For more information contact Janine Southwood on +27 31 275-3609 or janine.southwood@thompsons.co.za 4/2011

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TRADE NEWS ACT skydives for Rhinos Thirty staff members and supporters of the African Conservation Trust will bravely put aside their fear of heights and jump out of a plane to raise awareness and funding for anti-poaching activities and the protection of South Africa’s remaining black and white rhino populations.

As the number of Rhinos slain for their horns escalated to over 185 in the first six months of 2011 so did ACT’s desire to get more involved and support those on the front line of anti-poaching efforts, who are up against what is increasingly organised crime. The particularly heart-

Photo credit: Lawrence Munro breaking image of a rhino with half its face missing, was the final straw for ACT’s staff. In an ‘Aha!’ moment, Skydive for Rhinos was born.

WHAT? 30 staff members and supporters of the African Conservation Trust will be leaping out of a plane to raise awareness and funding for anti-poaching activities that are urgently needed to protect South Africa’s remaining black and white rhino populations.

WHEN? 06 August 2011 WHERE? Durban Skydive Centre: Angel’s Way Farm in Eston (outside Pietermaritzburg) WHY? To support ordinary people who have had enough of the escalating rhino slaughter and who are willing to do something extreme to increase awareness, as well as give other ordinary people a cause they can donate to easily, knowing their support will go where it’s needed most.

HOW? 1. Sponsor an individual ACT staff member to jump out of a plane 2. A once-off donation to one of the anti-poaching activities, as selected by the donor 3. Concerned businesses wanting to give a substantial donation: sponsor an individual Rhino’s identification and micro-chipping OR businesses can match donations or give ‘in kind’, particularly the equipment needed for anti-poaching units.

ACT canvassed a range of rhino conservation experts and with their assistance, identified high priority anti-poaching interventions that need assistance. These include equipment for anti-poaching patrol teams such as boots, flak jackets, 2-way radios, tents, sleeping bags, and hi-powered binoculars, among others.

GPS tracking technology is another area that ACT would like to focus on.

This technology can be painlessly inserted into a rhino’s horn and sends a continuous signal to a monitoring station and alerts anti-poaching patrols if a rhino’s movements become erratic.

A significant number of rhinos urgently need to be individually identified by ear-notching and micro-chipping. This is an area that resources from the Skydive initiative will also be directed to.

It has also been recognised that poachers do not target rhinos in reserves under regular air patrol. ACT will therefore look into improving aerial surveillance to deter poaching and track poachers’ movements.

This will assist the South Africa Police Service and conservation officials with capture and arrests.

ACT have set up the AFRICAN CONSERVATION TRUST RHINO FUND with its own dedicated bank account. 100 percent of funds raised will go towards rhino protection activities that are struggling to counteract poaching because of funding shortages. For banking security purposes, ACT encourage donations to be given via EFT or via direct deposits into the ACT Rhino Conservation Fund bank account. In return, ACT will ensure that every donation is tracked, receipted and used exactly as the donor has requested and feedback on the amount of funding generated, as well as the impact it has had, will be communicated to all donors. All donations to Skydive for Rhinos are tax exempt.

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For more information on the Skydive for Rhinos initiative, contact Sheelagh Antrobus, Micah van Schalkwyk or Anelisa Ngwenya at the ACT offices in Pietermaritzburg (Tel: 033-342 2844) or e-mail talk@projectafrica.com.