PATA Global Travel Entrepreneur Challenge 2016 Emre Kanik wins $5,000 and round trip to Seychelles |05 December 2016
Minister St Ange addressing guests at the gala dinner
Activities to mark the first Seychelles Ocean Festival, an event which celebrates Seychelles’ extraordinary marine heritage, continued on Saturday evening with a gala dinner at Eden Bleu Hotel on Eden Island.
The highlight of the evening was the presentation of a prize to the winner of the PATA Global Travel Entrepreneur Challenge 2016 which was held in partnership with Triip.me and with the support of Gobi Partners, PWD Hong Kong and STB. The award was aimed at nurturing entrepreneurship and to celebrate the beauty of local experiences while travelling.
The grand prize was $5,000 and a round trip to Seychelles. This was won by Emre Kanik from the Netherlands but who lives in South Korea as he is married to a South Korean. He said he is combining his holiday here with the gala dinner event where he was invited to receive his prize.
The Seychelles Ocean Festival is being celebrated under the theme ‘Celebrating our Ocean and our Blue Economy’.
Several dignitaries including Minister Alain St Ange, Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine; officials from the government, the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB), the department of tourism and partners of the trade were present at the gala evening.
Guest of honour for the occasion was Mario Hardy, chief executive of PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) who was there to give an overview of how they celebrate their festival, Festpac, in Guam, in the Pacific. Founded in 1951, PATA is a not-for-profit association that is internationally acclaimed for acting as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region. The association provides aligned advocacy, insightful research and innovative events to its member organisations, comprising 95 government, state and city tourism bodies, 29 international airlines, airports and cruise lines, 63 educational institutions, and hundreds of travel industry companies in Asia Pacific and beyond.
Entertainment for the evening was provided by the band ‘Fame’ while a short film, ‘Pristine Seas’, filmed on the outlying islands by a crew from the National Geographic, was shown. Tableaux from local artists Egbert Marday and Nigel Henri were displayed in the lobby.
In his address Minister St Ange said it is a real honour to have the PATA CEO with them that night because with PATA they are opening the doors for Seychelles far and wide, much further than we were doing before because as we focus on Asia, that new potential market, it is important for Seychelles to look at PATA and through PATA for us to be able to really claim a fair share of this important market.
He said Seychelles has been invited to be part of PATA and has accepted. “Seychelles positions itself clearly to be the bridge between Africa and Asia. This bridge will come with a lot of potential for us. PATA will open the door for thousands more press people that we were not able to touch before,” said the minister while noting the deficiency in air connectivity between Asia and Seychelles and with PATA, the STB and ministry of tourism can look for new avenues of possibilities for Seychelles to open its doors into Asia.
Regarding the Seychelles Ocean Festival, Minister St Ange explained why we are looking at this Blue economy concept, the blue ocean, everything that rallies us to this key unique selling point (USP) of Seychelles.
“We must together continue to work as a country and as a people for us to protect our ocean because it is an important USP for Seychelles,” said the minister.
The CEO of STB, Sherin Francis, said SUBIOS, the predecessor of the Seychelles Ocean Festival, has fulfilled an important function in sensitising visitors and Seychellois alike in managing our ocean and its ecosystem. Today as we see our tourism sector booming, we fast realise we have to better manage our marine sector.
“It is very much our hope that the Seychelles Ocean Festival puts the foundation to a prime event that will celebrate all our assets of the Blue economy as I believe there is a lot for us to showcase,” she said.
Talking on PATA, Mr Hardy said it is a bridge between the public and private sector and for sustainable growth of tourism. Its job is to bring both partners around the table. He said it is a member of various prestigious tourism trade related organisations inlcuding International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and International Air Transport Association (IATA) in order to speak with one voice to tourism leaders around the world to face challenges and opportunities together.
"I believe that is actually fantastic with great opportunities to build a bridge between Asia and Africa here in Seychelles. This is a truly unique and beautiful place,” said Mr Hardy, while adding the ocean also needs to be protected as we talk about sustainability.
Mr Hardy was also among the personalities that presented Mr Kanik with his Global Travel Entrepreneur Challenge 2016 prize.