Minister starts door-to-door visit to hotels on Mahé |17 April 2015

After completing the Praslin leg of his door-to-door visits to all 114 licensed hotels, the Minister for Tourism and Culture Alain St Ange kicked off his Mahé tour last Friday.

Minister St Ange visited the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Resort & Casino and the Augerine small hotel that is situated right on the beach of Beau Vallon itself.
The former being a large hotel and the latter a smaller one, both located right next door to each other in the district considered to be Seychelles’ tourism promenade at Beau Vallon.

Accompanied by the principal secretary for tourism Anne Lafortune and Seychelles Tourism Board chief executive Sherin Naiken, Minister St Ange met firstly the general manager of the Berjaya Beau Vallon Resort & Casino, Gulab Rai, the hotel’s human resource manager Luc Ally and the resort's management team in the hotel’s lobby.

The minister made it clear that this was not an inspection visit but rather a familiarisation exercise. One during which he gets to view each and every Seychelles’ tourism establishment first hand, to witness their successes and deficiencies, to meet the hotel staff to find out about their challenges and working conditions.

He also took the opportunity to advise the managers about the new hotel grading system which is being proposed for a 2016 introduction.

“Berjaya is an old institution in the country, the biggest hotel in north Mahé, which is today enjoying a high occupancy rate and employing a considerable number of staff. Each member of your team has an important role to play that can well make or kill your hotel.  It is therefore important to get them on board and be one team and be updated with the forthcoming grading system which will be introduced next January,” Minister St Ange said.

The minister continued by saying that “the country's marketing is working because the STB and the trade are working together to ensure visitor arrival numbers increase to keep the pillar of our country's economy buoyant. We have heard the call from the trade partners and from Seychelles as a whole that the yield from tourism needs to increase. This is why we are now focusing on the product side of things and starting with hotels. For the first time that Seychelles will embark on such an elaborate grading or classification system, this will encourage a transparent operating system that we can adhere to because hotels and guest houses all enjoy today a level playing field.”

“I would personally encourage hotels to incorporate the Creole flavour in every aspect of their establishments if they want to succeed.  This is the feedback we are getting from tour operators, travel agents, press and visitors to our country. The time has arrived for our hotels and resorts to have Creole menu nights and entertainment with Creole dancers and musicians. We need to ensure our visitors get a real taste of our Creole welcome, of our spicy and rhythmic Seychellois culture because this is said to be what they want to experience when they visit our country,” said the minister.

“Ensure that we have more Seychellois workers as part of our front line team at our tourism establishments. They will be more at ease and more in the know to communicate with the guests the better way to find out about Seychelles, and help our tourists fall in love with the islands’ Creole flavour,” added Minister St Ange.

The minister insisted on visiting the different staff working areas, so as to get the opportunity to meet, talk with the hotel's staff and show his support for their hard work and commitment towards tourism, the industry that he said remains the pillar of Seychelles’ economy.
Minister St Ange toured the Berjaya’s kitchens, laundry area, stores and offices.

After touring the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Resort & Casino, Minister St Ange and his delegation then walked on to Augerine small hotel which forms part of the Seychelles’ Secrets portfolio.  With 16 years in operation and expanded on about seven years ago, this small hotel boasts 15 rooms and 12 employees, only one of those being a foreigner. And the proud Seychellois owner Terry Sandapin stated that they are at the moment fully occupied. After touring the small hotel and also talking to some of the hotel's guests, the minister gave an interview to the press.

He said it was refreshing to see a Seychellois hotel where the owner is running a great operation and proudly able to say that he has only one foreign employee in his team.

“We are all on the same boat, it is important to embark that boat and let it set sail and journey on successfully.  There is a positive energy in the Beau Vallon air today, we need to work together to ensure that this continues in the long term. For Mr Sandapin, one of his main concerns is getting more Seychellois to join the workforce. Staffing problems for hotels is the responsibility of everyone. Let us all join forces and make our tourism industry the success it deserves to be,” Minister St Ange said.

Another one of Mr Sandapin’s concerns is the danger created by speeding boats in the Beau Vallon bay for the tourists swimming or snorkelling in the area.

Commenting on this issue in his interview Minister St Ange said “the Seychelles Maritime Safety Administration (SMSA) needs to take this up and send officials to discuss the problem with Beau Vallon Bay hoteliers to ensure that the Beau Vallon beach is a safe area for tourists and Seychellois alike because as the popular saying goes prevention is better than cure.”