What stakeholders say: |28 September 2016
The tourism forum held at the ICCS yesterday had as theme ‘Seychelles the bridge between Africa and Asia through tourism and transport’. Some may think that it is a far-fetched idea, but stakeholders in the trade believe it can happen if they work together.
The personalities mentioned here were on the panel of discussion held during the forum.
Andrew Jones, chairman of the executive board of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA): “I think it’s a great idea. And I think they are very timely because here is an opportunity for bringing these elements together in different regions. In fact PATA has now members in Africa and we have members in Asia. And so we are working with the Seychelles Tourism Board and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture to see how we can help facilitate those opportunities. Not only in Seychelles but also those of the Vanilla Islands.”
Sherin Francis, chief executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board: “For us in Seychelles our attention has been more focused on Europe since we have had tourism in Seychelles. But with the increase in global tourism and many markets can be quite volatile, we have seen the essential of yes, we maintain our principal markets but also look into other areas where we can develop potential markets. If one day a problem occurs in Europe where we cannot get our visitors coming here, we can always turn towards these other markets. As you may know where the Seychelles is positioned, the two nearest markets are Asia and Africa. For the moment 62% of our business is from Europe and the remaining 38% evidently is shared between Africa and Asia as America and Australia are negligible. As the years go by we notice the Africa Asia market share is increasing and for us to discuss on that theme today is very relevant as it will provide us with ideas on how to increase and explore these emerging markets with new ideas from the PATA and UNWTO representatives.”
Roy Kinnear, chief executive Air Seychelles: “My views and that of my team at Air Seychelles, I think our awards speak for themselves. The fact that we’ve gone from three awards to four awards of recognition not just for our people but our product. The growth we are seeing in the national airline in terms of the load we are carrying speaks volume for itself. So success speaks for itself. With regards to tourism and the link between Asia and Africa, in this day and age there are very few markets that can stand on their own two feet. So first obviously is Air Seychelles, the national airline, our first priority obviously has to be inbound tourism, which is the life blood of Seychelles. But over and above that there are many opportunities to grow air traffic beyond that. So domestically we have seen a huge growth. And then also how do we use Seychelles to unfold as the link between east west etc.. The very fact that we have grown our operations in Mauritius, Madagascar and South Africa all inside the last twelve months, and our operations in Mumbai as well shows we as an airliner are clearly very focussed on playing our part.”
Sybille Cardon, chairperson, Seychelles Hospitality and Tourism Association (SHTA): “It would be good for Air Seychelles to develop a hub through which people from Asia go to Africa via Seychelles. It would be quite interesting to see the stop-over like Emirates does at the moment. You can choose when you book your ticket to stay over in Dubai. So that may be an opportunity for the Seychelles to have people extending instead of going through Seychelles, then transit to stop over and spend a couple of days. So it would extend and once you come and then you will enjoy your money back for a full holiday. So definitely, it will be a very good incentive for the Seychelles”.
Elcia Grandcourt, programme director, Regional Programme to Africa, United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO): “I believe it is a really important theme which comes at an opportune time because when we look at the developments happening in Africa, there is great potential to develop tourism there. Seychelles is already one of those countries which is a leader in tourism as it is the pillar of our economy. I believe with the upcoming development Seychelles has many positive points which are seen. First we heard Minister St Ange spoke on accessibility. You must have infrastructure, access to reach a destination and it is also to have that security aspect. So I think Seychelles already has an advantage as it already has those positive points in comparison to other African countries which are only now seeing tourism as a pillar for their economic development”.
Wilson Nancy, chairman Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry: “Regarding tourism we in Seychelles we have that programme “Mon Sesel Sa”. It’s a programme which is merging culture and tourism. We feel that we can bring this forward and make visitors appreciate our culture more so that they can enjoy the Seychellois lifestyle. And it can become an example to become the bridge between Seychelles and Africa. And also Seychelles has a big advantage on the economic and political levels due to our stability. And we can become this example for Africa and also showcase how we in Seychelles have managed to merge the two together and move forward.”