Editorial Comment

Cover Story – January 2015

A prosperous New Year to Tourism Tattler’s readers.

To me, the new year provides a new chapter in life waiting to be travelled and written. New destinations to be discovered, questions to be asked, and answers to be gleaned. But knowledge in, and of itself is pointless unless shared. In the words of Saint Augustine; “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

Talking of new destinations, it has taken a while, but Tourism Tattler has finally ventured across ‘the other side of the mountain’, as the Overberg region of South Africa’s Western Cape province is colloquially known in the Afrikaans language.

The mountain referred to is the Hottentots Holland Mountains, part of the Cape Fold Belt, which forms a natural barrier between the Cape Town metropolitan area and the southern Overberg coast, with Sir Lowry’s Pass being the only crossing, in the form of the N2 motorway.

In this edition, we feature the Overstrand region, or ‘Cape Whale Coast’, as this most southerly region of Africa, only one hour east of Cape Town, is popularly known. The unexpected pleasures this panoramic region offers, will embroider stories, friendships and pictures never to be forgotten (see pages 14 to 21).

In this issue, we also have the latest hotel rates and occupancy stats, airport passenger arrivals and car rental stats for South Africa (see page 08). The lack of official foreign tourists arrivals data from Statistics South Africa is of serious concern as the local travel trade rely on this information for forward planing in the new year.

The travel and tourism industry is certainly fraught with challenges, and in this edition Dr. Peter E. Tarlow takes a look at some challenges that can be expected in 2015 (see pages 26 to 27). This is the first of a two-part series, which will be concluded in the February edition.

And finally, a reminder to the South African travel trade – don’t forget to enter the 2015 Lilizela Tourism Awards. Entries close on 15 May 2015, so the sooner you register, the sooner you can accumulate those all important votes, but make sure you have a TripAdvisor account set up as your customer reviews count.

Yours in Tourism,

Des Langkilde. [email protected]

The Hottentots Holland Mountains and Sir Lowry's Pass. Image Andries de Wet - www.en.wikipedia.org/Creative Commons.
The Hottentots Holland Mountains and Sir Lowry’s Pass. Image Andries de Wet – www.en.wikipedia.org/Creative Commons.

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