Minister St Ange on Reunion’s main news channel with journalist Laura Chateau |05 August 2016

Alain St Ange, the Seychelles Minister for Tourism and Culture, was this week live on Antenne Reunion TV on its main 12h30 News programme.

The Seychelles minister, who was in Reunion Island for the Indian Ocean Vanilla islands ministerial meeting, was being interviewed by popular journalist Laura Chateau.

The interview focused on the progression of the Vanilla islands and how it was benefitting the islands. The programme also showed promotional shots of the six Indian Ocean Vanilla islands (Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, Comoros and Mayotte). 

Seychelles and Mauritius are often perceived as benefiting from the regional tourism grouping and Minister St Ange spent time making the point that the Reunionnais can also benefit by doing what Seychelles did and that is to claim back their tourism industry.

The government of Reunion, like the one in Seychelles, are but facilitators and it is the people of our islands who need to move to benefit from their tourism industry,” the Seychelles minister said.

Minister St Ange also spoke about the growth of the cruise ship business through the work undertaken by the Vanilla Islands.

“In 2014 we had in our region from our cruise ship business 14,094 passengers and this grew in 2015 to 29,059 passengers. In 2016 we can already confirm that Costa Cruises alone will bring the number to 18,000 passengers and this as we work to team up with the Fred Olsen liners and also Silversea cruises,” the Seychelles minister said. 

The minister went on to spell out that Reunion Island was benefitting more than the Reunionnais realised.

“25% of the tourists coming to Reunion today are through combinations with other islands of the Indian Ocean. This represents over 100,000 tourists,” Minister Alain St Ange said as he confirmed that tour operators in the region's tourism source markets were now programming the Vanilla islands with several possible combinations.