This is some 17,000 higher than in 2009, when 157,541 visitors landed on our shores.

Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) chief executive Alain St Ange has hailed the achievement as a result of teamwork by all stakeholders in the tourism industry.

He also attributes the rise to the hard work added to the STB’s marketing drive by our tourism ambassadors abroad.

And the Friends of Seychelles – Press club has made a valuable contribution by publicising our islands in the countries where the newsmen are based, he added.

Mr St Ange, however, cautioned that an increase in the number of visitors does not necessarily mean increased spending by them.

He said that does not depend on the STB but on the private sector, and there is clearly a need to maximise earnings from tourism.

According to a survey of visitors for the third quarter of 2010, carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), about the different items tourists spent money on, restaurants remained the highest apart from hotel bills and other hotel expenses. This was followed by excursions and souvenirs.

The NBS said expenditure on most of the items was lower when compared with the same period of 2009. It stressed, however, that this refers to spending by tourists while in Seychelles and not any advance payments made abroad, such as to foreign travel agents.

Tourists’ spending on car hire, taxis and boat tickets was less than half that spent on excursions.

Of the visitors surveyed, 70% came via tour operators, with the highest percentage from Italy and France, followed by Germany and the UK.

Visitors from Germany stayed longest, with 13 nights on average, followed by those from Switzerland (12.9) the UK (11) and the rest of Europe (10).

Forrás: http://www.nation.sc/