THIS TOURISM WEEK Number 54 - Wednesday, 27 September 2006
Want the BarefootBenefit? There’s more at the end of this message.
Seems that last week’s This Tourism Week struck a chord with quite a few people - I wrote about the importance of a quick and unqualified apology when things go wrong and the response was ‘yes, we agree - but things don’t often go wrong as long as you listen to the guest.’
Listen to the guest.
Indeed.
There are many reasons - ethical, humanitarian and, more selfishly, my health - why I choose not to eat meat. And, South Africans being carnivores and often xenophobic about anyone who isn’t, I know this is a terrible inconvenience. I understand, though, and try to make it easy for people to accommodate me, try to help by always mentioning my debilitating handicap (“so sorry, oh great master of this humble patron, but [grovel] please forgive me because, you see [blush] - I’m a vegetarian”).
The response is sometimes wondrous to watch:
“I’m a vegetarian but I do eat eggs. I see here that all your breakfast items include bacon. If I order the forty-eight rand sandwich, is it possible to have two eggs instead of one egg and one rasher of bacon?”
“No, you gotta have what’s there. The owner sez the customers can’t change the menu to suit themself.”
“Can I see the owner, then?”
“No. He won’t see the customers. He’s in the kitchen.”
I swear on my mother’s grave - it happened.
But I don’t gotta do anything and I left and I’ve never been back.
“I’m a vegetarian and I know you’re short-staffed. I just want a toasted sandwich. What can you do for me?”
“You don’t eat meat?”
“No.”
“OK, then we can make you a toasted ham and cheese.”
That one happened too.
Poor Mother. Poor grave.
“I’m a vegetarian and I don’t eat meat: can I just have scrambled egg on toast?”
“You mean the ‘Kiddies Breakfast?’”
“No, the menu says the Kiddies Breakfast is bacon and eggs. I don’t eat bacon. Can I just have scrambled eggs on toast?”
“OK, no problem.”
The bacon on the Kiddies Breakfast, when it arrived, was nice and crispy, I’ll give them that. But by then Mother was so sick of my swearing that she changed graves.
I, on the other hand, changed restaurants.
Which might never have happened if that dizzy waiter had just listened both to what I’d asked for - and to what she’d said she would do for me.
One word: OPEN.
I can’t believe the confusion that’s reigned since heavy rains in the Garden Route during August caused land slips which damaged a small section of the Kaaimans Pass on the N2.
You’d think the whole blimmin’ area had been shut down indefinitely - but it hasn’t. Never was, in fact (pure poor media management, that’s the problem. But I have a solution: see Managing Perceptions - The Care And Feeding Of The Media on the Products and Services page of thistourismweek).
So here’s the truth: the Kaaimans Pass and, indeed, the whole of the Garden Route are open for business - and for traffic. And that means the Kaaimans Pass is open - and safe - for tourist coaches, too.
And, although there have been delays of up to as much as 30 minutes as a result of the temporary need to limit traffic to one one-way flow, the engineers are doing everything they can to restore normal movement in the shortest possible time. And, by their reckoning, two-way traffic on the Pass will resume by the middle of next month - and when that happens those delays (which haven’t been that onerous, really, nothing more than you’d expect at any road works) will once again be a thing of the past.
The Land Rover G4 Spirit of Adventure moves to Cape Town this week - but it isn’t all over for Jozi, because two of the teams which competed there will go up against a team each from Cape Town and Durban in the finals at Sun City in November. At stake is a trip to England for four - with World Traveller tickets courtesy of British Airways and, of course, a visit to Land Rover’s birth place at Solihull.
To follow the event go to www.thistourismweek.co.za and click on the link under the G4 Spirit of Adventure logo.
A reminder that you can still see Now Media’s web cast of SATSA’s annual conference - visit http://www.nowmediawebcasting.co.za/clients/satsa_agm/index.asp.
Now here’s a sight that’s got very little to do with tourism, but absolutely everything to do with the future. The English-medium, co-ed Howick High School is justifiably proud of its position as one of the finest schools in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands - and this site gets that message across quite clearly. Pages for news (yes, news - and the fact that they’ve got an e-newsletter shows that they understand the importance of communicating with their clients), sports and academics - and an interesting photo library on the Past Pupils page (names like McDonald, Pike and Botha in the eighties - with a richer mix in more recent classes with the addition of the Buthelezis and the Naidoos).
And, of course, www.howickhigh.co.za is hosted by ChakariNet.
…Have a Great Tourism Week!
Want the BarefootBenefit?
Visit www.barefootclients.co.za
The BarefootBenefit
BarefootClients provides communications services (copy writing, advertising, printing and that kind of stuff) as well as strategy planning and creative thought for select clients who share our Barefoot On The Beach approach to business.
It’s simple. We believe that successful marketing creates relationships - friendships - between businesses and their customers. Our job is to help you develop friendships with your clients: to make them so comfortable with you that they’ll happily walk Barefoot On The Beach with you … Because business works best between friends. That’s the BarefootBenefit.
Want it? Visit www.barefootclients.co.za
ABOUT THIS TOURISM WEEK
Telephone +27(0)44 384 1810 | Cell +27(0)84 951 0574 | martin@thistourismweek.co.za
Stumble It!
No user commented in " So, As I Was Saying… , 27 September 2006 "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackLeave A Reply