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.

Today (Friday, 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"