We are constantly reserching the travel markets and
have found that many travellers would have less travel days than our current
programs allow. Thus we have re-structured our routes for 2007 to allow
travellers the opportunity to join in the full route or only one part
of the route thus creating more flexibilty. In addition, you may still
do extensions and add on additional nights at the start or end of each
tour. Please click
here to view out routes for 2007.
A study to determine Cape Town's most suitable venue
for 2010 Fifa World Cup matches has identified Green Point Stadium as
the favourite.
The study found that, given the relatively short time for construction
work to be completed, Green Point was the only stadium that stood a reasonable
chance of meeting Fifa's specifications.
Cape Town has been nominated to host the 2010 semi-finals on condition
that it provides a stadium which can accommodate at least 68 000 spectators.
Releasing the study's findings on Thursday, Cape Town's director of sports
and recreation, Mike Marsden, said that stadiums such as Newlands and
Culemborg were found to be unsuitable.
"Green Point is the only feasible venue for a 68 000 semi-final given
the time constraints," Marsden said, adding that developing the stadium
to Fifa standards would require an investment of around R4.3-billion.
"The maximum capital contribution council can make towards this is
R400-million," Marsden said. "The rest will have to come from
the national government and other stakeholders."
Construction work will begin in January 2007, so long as the national
government makes its allocation towards the development of the stadium,
Marsden said.
According to the study, it will take around 35 months for the construction
work to be completed.
To ensure that the stadium is financially sustainable after 2010, Marsden
said the City would try to convince local professional rugby and soccer
teams to use the venue as their home ground after 2010.
Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille said the city would be bidding for the opening
game of the tournament to be held in Cape Town.
The road up Sani Pass, one of southern Africa's most
spectacular mountain passes, is to be upgraded, opening up the corridor
from Thaba Tseka in Lesotho to Pietermaritzburg in South Africa and providing
easier access to the Maloti-Drakensberg
transfrontier area.
Foreigners would no longer need to apply for transit
visas for South Africa, the home affairs department announced on Thursday.
"I have decided to suspend the requirement for
transit visas for all countries," minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
said in a statement. In the meantime, I will commission a study into international
best practices relating to transit visas."
It wraps your bags like a sandwich in a minute, and
leaves them protected against water and stains and (most importantly)
theft. And it's free.
Simply called "Bag it", this magic automated machine was unveiled
on day by South African Airways (SAA) at Johannesburg International Airport.The
device uses a protective layer of branded plastic applied to baggage by
means of a heat-shrinking process which also cools off the baggage in
seconds, leaving it absolutely safe.
With SAA handling millions of bags a year, the safety of customers' luggage
has become a daunting challenge to the parastatal.
In addition to theft and damage, SAA also has to deal with problems such
as baggage that arrives at incorrect destinations.
But now, SAA is confident that the new device will go a long way to combating
theft and loss its clients' bags.
The pilot project will be tried and tested at Johannesburg International
Airport for six months and if successful, implemented at other airports
around the country.
Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk
has praised South Africa's tourism industry for attracting a record number
of overseas visitors last year.
The sector had delivered a spectacular performance, he said on Thursday
in reaction to a Statistics SA report showing 7,3 million visits by international
travellers in 2005. From the management of SA Tourism, to our partners
in the private sector; from educational institutions, to the smallest
tourism operators and guides in the most remote parts of South Africa
- this success is your success.
At a ceremony held in Johannesburg , Star Alliance,
the airline network for Earth™, welcomed South African Airways (SAA)
as its 18th member into the alliance. Star Alliance is the first aviation
alliance to include an African airline and SAA is the first airline from
Africa to have joined such an alliance.
Commenting on today’s event, Jaan Albrecht, Star Alliance CEO said:
“On behalf of all member carrier CEOs gathered here today, it is
with great pleasure that we welcome SAA into our family. With SAA we do
not only gain a further member, but we more importantly provide improved
access to an entire continent to our customers.”
With immediate effect, customers travelling on flights operated by SAA
will benefit from all the advantages which the members of the alliance
offer. These include among others, a network of more than 15,500 daily
flights serving 842 destinations in 152 countries, through check-in, mileage
redemption and collection and access to more than 660 lounges.
Tsotsi, a South African coming-of-age story set in the
slums of Soweto won the Oscar for foreign-language film.
Tsotsi updates to modern times the Athol Fugard novel about the mean streets
of 1950s South Africa. The film traces a teen's transformation from almost
mindlessly robotic thug to incipient manchild experiencing his first stirrings
of compassion and decency. A definate “must see”!
Meurant Botha of Dirtopia Trail Centre in Stellenbosch
will be South Africa’s solo representative at the biggest advocacy
event on the international mountain biking calendar. Botha will be the
only South African to attend the 2006 International Mountain Bike Association
(IMBA) Summit and World Mountain Bike Conference, which will be hosted
in Whistler, Canada from 20 - 23 June.
At the recently held annual congress in Durban the new
board of directors of directors for Cycling South Africa has been selected.
The most important position of president has been taken over by Lawrence
Whittaker who took over from Gotty Hansen.
