Editorial - Return to normality

IT'S good to be back and we appreciate the calls from the many frantic readers who obviously suffered withdrawal symptoms during our three week Christmas and New Year closure - it's comforting to be missed! Well, we're all still here - Y2K failed to do its worst and SA emerged from its millennium celebrations unscathed. Travelling overseas during the break, it was heartening to see that South Africa received lots of positive international coverage - Durban enjoyed a huge six minute or so plug during Queen Elizabeth II's annual Christmas Day message in which TV coverage of the Commonwealth Conference and the Queen's travels in SA was shown in great detail; President Thabo Mbeki made a good showing on an extensive CNN interview with Jesse Jackson - and in London - although only there on short stop-over - I was proud to see no less than four of SA's brightly painted London taxi cabs plying the streets doing their bit for tourism! Travelling with several major international airlines, it became a mystery as to why South African Airways receives such bad press here in SA for its service. It was my experience that it fully deserves its recent best airline awards with service that other airlines, once renowned for skyway excellence, seem to have now given up for less than mediocrity. The Airports Company of South Africa must be complimented on the superb design of their new car parking at Johannesburg International Airport, far outshining the awkwardly laid-out, unwelcoming mezzanine restaurant area. It would be good to have some African-influenced decor/artwork in its updated arrival halls - which incidentally feature plenty of great state-of-the-art escalator-friendly trolleys - as at present it is somewhat faceless. On the minus side, it was a pity that SA failed to embrace the massive one-off global opportunity to effectively market itself to the world as a premier destination during the New Year's TV coverage. In Cape Town for "the" night, I was dismayed that all the hype surrounding the big countdown by a 'laser-clock' beamed onto Table Mountain came to naught, with merely a few feint green lights mysteriously playing around mid-mountain. But what made matters worse was that the usual stunning uplighting of the mountain had obviously been canned to ensure that the laser display was visible. As a result, the mountain was invisible - possibly for the one and only night ever in high season! A visit to Kirstenbosch for one of its renowned Sunday afternoon concerts nevertheless restored the spirits - a beautifully uplifting experience and heartening to see the many tour coaches spilling out foreign visitors. Gauteng restaurants - thumbs up for fast, friendly service: Cape Town, buck up!!! People who want to eat out want at least to be recognised as potential customers and not left waiting at the door like lost refugees for indeterminate periods of time. So now it's onwards and hopefully upwards. The Travel Now team looks forward to keeping you updated on all the many happenings and issues within our industry in the coming year. Keep the news and views coming in! Happy New Year. (Elizabeth Sheridan)