It has so far been a great year for the Seychelles tourism industry as the country has fared well in this ever competitive trade for a second year in a row with a 10% growth in tourist arrivals.

Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) chief executive Sherin Francis said this during Saturday’s Tourism Ball which is aimed at bringing tourism trade partners together under one roof in a social and relaxed atmosphere where they can interact and strengthen working relationships with their public sector partners as well as establishing new contacts.

The annual event took place at the Eden Bleu on Saturday night in the presence of Tourism and Culture Minister Alain St Ange and other guests.

Mrs Francis said “this excellent result has been because of the collective hard work, us at the tourism board, the ministry, the DMCs and travel agents, the hotels and more importantly the airlines to complete the circle. It is all because of hard work. Success can only be achieved through hard work and perseverance. It does not happen automatically, and it does not happen by magic!”

The STB boss added that while we enjoyed the 19% percent growth last year, our neighbours Maldives and Mauritius registered 4% and 11% growth respectively and world tourism only grew by 4.4%.

“This year the United Nations’ World Tourism Organisation has anticipated that tourism worldwide will only grow by 3.5 to 4.5%. Here we are with so few resources when compared to our competitors and yet we are faring pretty well with a 10% growth,” she said.

A firm believer that unity makes strength, Mrs Francis noted that we can be only strong as our weakest link, adding that this year’s performance goes again to show what can be achieved when we work together with common purpose.

“I know we still have not got it completely right. There are areas where we at the tourism board, the airlines and the trade still need to see things eye to eye. But, as long as we keep on persevering, we always look for time to meet, discuss and strategise, I know we will be able to achieve great things. Seychelles is our beloved country, and I implore that if we want to make tourism work in this country we must continue to set aside all of our differences, our different ideologies and beliefs and keep working for the same cause. It is the only way we can win for Seychelles. As a team. Only as a team,” stressed Mrs Francis.

A major partner of the STB, Air Seychelles embarked on a number of new challenges, of which many have been successfully achieved with the support of stakeholders.

Air Seychelles’ chief executive Roy Kinnear said the airline’s successes are:

• Increased frequencies to international, regional and domestic flying;
• Fleet registration on our own registry;
• Codeshares with nine airlines to 77 cities across 38 countries;
• Indian Ocean’s Leading Airline in all four categories;
• Seychelles’ dedicated Call Center;
• Successful implementation of the SABRE reservation and check-in system which led to introduction of new features on the airline’s website among which: website check-in, manage my booking feature, travel updates, online booking of access baggage, lounges.

He added that Air Seychelles is especially proud of the feature enabling Seychellois residents to purchase Praslin resident fares and check-in for flights online, making their travel to/from Praslin even shorter.

Most importantly, added the Air Seychelles boss, the company has invested in its people, training and development of their careers.

During the ceremony, Air Seychelles also gave out some interesting prizes for the lucky dip.

They included two return Business class tickets to any operated Air Seychelles destination, two return Economy class tickets to any operated Air Seychelles destination, access to the Air Seychelles VIP lounge for two persons (valid for return travel) and the star prize which saw the lucky winner receive unlimited business class travel during the month of February next year.

Meanwhile, today being World Tourism Day, representatives of Indian Ocean islands and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie who are meeting here are expected to plant a tree in Victoria to commemorate the event.

Forrás: www.nation.sc