STB spares no effort in marketing the destination through digital means in Brazil |18 August 2017

The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) office in Brazil has been increasing efforts to develop creative and diverse online marketing strategies to promote the destination, as it aims to increase the number of visitors from the South American nation.

Global Vision Access (GVA) -- a tourism marketing and communication company -- has been the Seychelles’ representation company for Brazil and South America since 2012. Founded by Gisele Abrahão in 2009, GVA’s vision is to effectively stimulate an important way of thinking for tourism trade and media professionals in Brazil -- a country with over 200 million inhabitants.

As part of its efforts to make Seychelles more visible, the Sao Paolo-based company launched a special Seychelles course on its e-learning platform at the beginning of the year. Ms Abrahão says that to date more than a hundred of the over 300 trade professionals registered on GVA’s e-learning platform are connected to the Seychelles project.

“The platform is used to constantly inspire our audience with captivating content that goes well beyond basic travel information through a practical, clear, and easily accessible format that has numerous features and options for innovation and constant improvement,” says Ms Abrahão.

“In addition, the Seychelles course educates and further develops the expertise of travel and tourism professionals on the experiences, products, and services offered in Seychelles by the local trade partners offer. It intensifies the destination’s presence in this market while drastically decreasing the budget we would normally need for sales calls and training seminars all over Brazil,” she adds.

One of the main tools used on the GVA e-learning platform to promote Seychelles and its products is what is dubbed the ‘webinar’ section. This features live presentations that are later archived and become available on demand.

The webinars of 5 to 15 minutes cover special themes from services, events, culture, gastronomy, festivals or focus on specific segments such as MICE, wedding and honeymoon among others.

“We always have special guests and speakers sharing experiences. For example, chefs describing the destination through a recipe; a guest giving live testimonial, local people giving local tips, etc… The webinars tell stories, share insider facts, create interest, and allow interaction between the presenters and the audience,” says Ms Abrahão.

When it comes to Seychelles, Ms Abrahão says nature and romance top the list of what attracts Brazilian visitors to Seychelles.

To give a further boost to the romantic appeal of the island nation, GVA is expected to generate more content to promote the island nation as a honeymoon destination with the upcoming honeymoon trip of one of its representatives in Seychelles.

The tourism marketing and communication company is also inviting more local trade partners to participate in the webinars so as to create more content that would help to market Seychelles.

Although it does not send an impressive number of tourists to Seychelles, Brazil has recorded remarkable growth in its visitor arrivals to Indian Ocean archipelago.

Statistics show that 839 visitors from Brazil have come to the island nation from January to June this year, compared to only 307 visitors during the same period in 2016, which is an increase of 173 percent.

Figures from the STB office in Brazil show that the numbers have increased further to 993 visitors at the end of July.

“We want to have at least 2000 visitors from Brazil visiting Seychelles this year, which would represent around 130 percent compared to last year, and we are working super hard to achieve this goal. It is important to mention that the numbers might be small but Brazilians usually spend between 4 to 8 nights in Seychelles and that is not so little,” said Ms Abrahão.

On top of the GVA website, the STB representation office also uses other online channels including social media sites -- Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, an official website, the GVA blog all with Portuguese contents -- to help showcase the Seychelles islands and attract visitors from Brazil and South America.