The June edition of Tourism Tattler focuses on the $298 billion wedding industry, with an analysis of statistics, trends and budgets for the USA and South Africa, and a look at the Millennial generation – is the wedding industry ready to adapt to the changing trends of 29 to 33 year old brides and grooms? (Read more on pages 18-21 or read the blog post here).
June is an appropriate month to feature weddings, not only because the mild winter months in the southern hemisphere of Africa provide an ideal climate for international couples to tie the knot, but also because many wedding venues offer special wedding packages between June and September (see Guvon Hotels & Spas special on page 2, and Spier Wine Farm’s winter wedding specials link on page 20 or click here).
June is also appropriate for a wedding feature on more personal note, as it coincides with my own wedding anniversary on the 17th – a day on which Beverley and I will be celebrating 15 years of matrimony – sometimes calm, sometimes tumultuous, but never boring. (See page 27 for an ideal venue to celebrate a wedding anniversary).
June is also a month of travel industry recognition, with the 2015 World Travel Awards Africa & Indian Ocean ceremony taking place at the Kempinski Seychelles Resort on the 20th, and judging for South African Tourism’s 2015 Lilizela Awards taking place this month, for which I am a judge in the ‘Service Excellence’ category – not an easy task given that there are over 500 entries to adjudicate.
Speaking of awards, Tourism Tattler has partnered with the World Luxury Hotel and Spa Awards for 2015. The World Luxury Hotel Awards aim to encourage and raise service standards within the luxury hotel industry, as does the World Luxury Spa Awards, and both are voted for and presented to winners in different categories on a country, continent and global basis. To cast your vote for the best hotel, click here.
The month of May was a busy one for the travel trade in South Africa, with four major travel trade events having been convened – Indaba and We Are Africa (WAA)in Durban, and WTM-Africa and ILTM (International Luxury Travel Market – Africa) in Cape Town. I attended both Indaba and WTM-Africa, and whilst there is much debate about the practicality of holding two major B2B exhibitions within weeks of each other, my observation is that each serves a different market segment – WTM-Africa / ILTM for the luxury 5-star travel market, and Indaba/WAA for African destinations, regional and provincial markets to showcase their products and meet with buyers. From a media perspective, Indaba’s TECHTalk series and media presentation venues were superior to that of WTM-Africa.
As usual, we have our regular subject features in this edition (see content on page 3). Enjoy your reading!
Yours in Tourism,
Des Langkilde. [email protected]
