Germany leads the way in visitor arrivals to Seychelles |26 June 2017

Almost halfway through the year 2017, Germany has taken the number one spot as the Seychelles’ main tourism market.

According to latest statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, Germany has sent 21,642 visitors to the island nation up to Sunday June 18, 2017. The figure is 29 percent above that recorded for the same period last year.

This means Germany has surpassed its closest contender, France, which has long been the main tourism market for Seychelles. France, which was number one since the beginning of the year is now second, having sent 20,922 visitors to the island destination. This trend was last observed in 2014, when Germany outperformed France in terms of visitor arrivals before France regained its position in 2015.

Air links between the Seychelles archipelago and Germany received a huge boost this year, which is surely contributing to the increase in German visitors. The national airline Air Seychelles started twice-weekly direct flights to Dusseldorf in March 2017. In recent years, the route was primarily served by German leisure airline, Condor, which also started to charter a second direct weekly flight to Seychelles last year.

Commenting on the latest trend in visitor arrival statistics, the chief executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB), Sherin Francis, said: “Seychelles today is more connected to its source market than ever and that is especially so for Germany. More airlines to the destination also means more marketing support for Seychelles as well.”

With Austrian Airlines scheduled to operate a once-weekly non-stop service to Seychelles in October this year, it is expected that this will further boost visitor arrivals from Germany and other German-speaking markets, including Switzerland and Austria.

It is to be noted that the STB has been increasing efforts to create awareness of the destination among German travellers with the support of its partners, including the national airline and other international carriers that bring visitors from German-speaking markets to Seychelles.

“It is important to always look at the big picture where growing the tourism number for the country. Where we see opportunity for growth, our team always look to capitalise on it. The team out there with our faithful partners has done a tremendous job and should be commended,” added Mrs Francis.

Visitor arrivals from Europe as a whole is also encouraging having increased by 21 percent so far compared to the same period last year. Aside from France, which has so far recorded a decrease of 4 percent, other European markets have recorded positive results -- Italy (6%), Russia (31%), Germany and UK & Northern Ireland (29%).

Ranked fourth among the leading markets, the United Kingdom is one that has also shown remarkable progress in recent years.

“We also acknowledge the exponential growth of the UK market over the last two years which has also allowed it to rise to the fourth position on the rank. The growth has been really encouraging. Again this has been possible through the consistent effort of our small team in UK and its partners,” said Mrs Francis.

Generally, there’s been positive results from the Seychelles tourism markets in Africa, America, the Middle and Asia in spite of a 17 percent decrease in arrival figures from China. To date, the total number of holidaymakers that have disembarked in Seychelles stands at 159,659, representing a 21 percent increase compared to last year, already positioning the island nation to record a tourism upswing in 2017.