Minister Winde surprises tourism offices by performing spot-check walk-ins

Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Alan Winde, has embarked on a province-wide campaign initiated to ensure that ahead of 2010, the Western Cape's tourism offices are performing at their best.

Over the coming months, Minister Winde will perform random spot checks of tourism bureaux around the province to see whether the highest standard of service is being offered. "Our tourism offices must be manned by staff who are experts of their local tourism offerings, and are informed on all our destination's major icons, so that they can give the best possible advice to foreign travellers visiting the Western Cape", Winde said.

Last week, Winde performed an unannounced walk-in at the V & A Waterfront's Clock Tower Centre Information Kiosk, and was greeted by pleasantly surprised staff members. The Minister found the kiosk to be in good shape, with staff that were friendly and knowledgeable. He said that he would not take it lightly if he found staff to be inefficient, and would implement positive measures such as training.

On Friday the 14th of August, Minister Winde visited the Ceres Tourism Bureau. Fortunately, the staff in Ceres were given short notice of his visit, and were very excited to meet the Minister and provide him with some highlights of their offerings.

Minister Winde would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve and Wellness Spa in the Cedarberg for being voted by Travel & Leisure as the best hotel in the world. Winde commented that it is no surprise that our province offered the winner: "Our hospitality industry staff should all strive to achieve a level of excellence on par with that of the staff who collaboratively worked to get this marvelous result".

MEC Winde launches Western Cape Quarterly Economic Review

This morning (17 August 2009), Minister Winde launched the Provincial Government of the Western Cape's Quarterly Economic Review. Christelle Grobler, from the Bureau for Economic Research, presented up-to-date information on the state of our economy, while Professor Dave Kaplan, chief economist, commented on how the reports would be of greatest value to the SMME sector, most of which could not afford to hire financial teams to assist them. Please find an extract of the report below:

Global economic output plunged during 2008Q4 and the first quarter of 2009, as the world slipped into synchronized recession. Although signs of stabilization have since emerged, consensus seems to be that the world economy is in for a subdued return to growth with output remaining below potential over the short- to medium term. The SA economy felt the full brunt of the global recession during 2009Q1 and is forecasted to contract by 2% this year, with fairly muted growth of 2.7% projected for 2010. In view of the national economic outlook and the expected world economic conditions, the regional growth picture for 2009 is quite bleak...

Please contact the Ministry at finmin@pgwc.gov.za for a full copy of the report.

Efforts to save the Choo-Tjoe running full steam ahead

For steam train enthusiasts who missed the first two installments of our Choo-Tjoe newsletter, please e-mail finmin@pgwc.gov.za, and we will send them to you. Herewith the third:

Pressure to get the Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe back on track is certainly building!

This week, the Ministry began to get calls from the public about when the Choo-Tjoe will resume its operations between George and Mossel Bay. In media statements at the end of June, Transnet assured that the line would reopen in August. According to a representative from Transnet, this has been delayed until mid-September due to a shortage of spare parts. Minister Winde says that he is “very much looking forward to seeing our Southern Cape icon back in action, and hopes the required parts arrive soon”.

At a meeting to be held on the 21^st of this month in George, MEC Winde will brief the Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe Steering Committee on the progress we have made thus far to keep the train on track. He plans to pave the way forward for increased cooperation between his department and the Steering Committee by inviting them to become a part of our effort to find a lasting solution for the its continued operation. Our goal, as with this newsletter, is to bring all train enthusiasts together: many heads think much better than a few! On that note, thank you to all the concerned enthusiasts who have e-mailed us with suggestions and comments about the Choo-Tjoe. Your inputs are incredibly valuable to us.

UPDATE: At a meeting called by Minister Winde last month, Transnet undertook to compile an information memorandum on the Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe. We are expecting to receive that document by the end of this month, at which time we will invite the public to a special meeting where we will call for expressions of interest from private sector investors.

Minister Winde meets Bollywood superstars

From left to right: Laurence Mitchell (CEO of Cape Film Commission), Anil Kapoor (Bollywood superstar), MEC Alan Winde

Cape Town Film Industry set to experience influx of Bollywood film productions

In another significant step towards cementing its role as one of the leading global film industry destinations, Cape Town is set to become the African home of the lucrative Bollywood film production market.

According to the Western Cape Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Alan Winde, “the successful hosting of the IPL earlier this year gave us massive exposure in India as it beamed images of our country into the homes of millions - this provided the Western Cape with a wonderful opportunity to access this significant tourism and film market. We are now actively targeting the Indian and the Middle Eastern markets, as both have huge potential”.

Yesterday, Minister Winde and the CEO of the Cape Film Commission, Laurence Mitchell, visited the set of the latest Bollywood Blockbuster to be filmed in Cape Town, “No Problem”.

“No Problem” is a Bollywood police action movie that stars major names, such as Anil Kapoor (Slum Dog Millionaire), Sanjay Dutt and Suneel Shetty.

“The fact that Cape Town and the Western Cape has been able attract these influential and leading men and women of Bollywood is to a large extent due to the fact that we are truly recognized as a global film industry destination”, Minister Winde said.

He added that the abundance of both Bollywood and Hollywood A-list actors and big budget productions coming to our Province was a signal that our film industry was well on track to becoming a key contributor to our economy. “In order to ensure that we grow this contributor even further, we need to make sure that our service offering, whether in tourism or film, is exceptional”.

Mr. Laurence Mitchell (CEO of the Cape Film Commission) said, “the Cape Film Commission has over the past 5 years worked tirelessly to attract big Hollywood and in particular Bollywood productions to Cape Town, and we are pleased that our efforts have proved successful.”

The production of “No Problem” on our shores has already had significant spin offs, with at least 80 local people being employed as crew and cast members. Our service industry has been able to provide catering, transport and security services, and the housing of crewmembers and the cast has contributed over 2000 bed nights to our hotels in the space of less than one month. Indeed, the spin-offs have benefitted our entire tourism industry.

Anil Kapoor, who plays a policeman in the movie, expressed his satisfaction at how production has progressed and said that he believes Cape Town has the right service offerings within the film industry to be able to attract large Bollywood productions.

He remained confident that with big productions such as “No Problem”, “Tasveer”, “Seasons Greetings” and others, Cape Town has become the home of Bollywood films in Africa.

According to this Bollywood superstar, Cape Town has remarkable locations, diverse cultures, wonderful weather and even world class services that are able to compete with the best in the world.

The Cape Film Commission will later in the year undertake a mission to India to cement the Western Cape’s relationship with Bollywood and directly present the film industry’s service offering to the huge Indian film market.

Welcome to the blog of the Western Cape Finance Minister

Hi, my name is Tammy Evans. I am the Media Liaison Officer of Western Cape Finance, Economic Development and Tourism Minister Alan Winde.

Ever since the Democratic Alliance won the Western Cape in April, this Province's citizens have been asking us what we are going to do for them. And rightly so. We have been mandated to run this government, by you, for your benefit, and we plan to take up that challenge with vigour.

After Minister Alan Winde was elected, he spoke to me about how he hoped to communicate with you about his goals and his progress in achieving them. He expressed a desire to reach out to more people, and spoke about giving the electorate a platform to have their say. This blog will hopefully become a vital cog in that chain. In our endeavour to become an open government that offers all its citizens a voice, we encourage you to comment on our posts, and commit to taking each and every one seriously.

We hope that you not only enjoy reading this blog, but that it also assists you with information that may be pertinent to you. We are very excited about this project, and look forward to your feedback.