STB unveils new summer billboard campaign in South Africa |11 November 2017

With the start of the summer promotional season in South Africa and the upcoming festive season break, the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) has added an exciting element to its promotional efforts on the market.

Since early October, STB’s office in South Africa has launched a new billboard campaign, which will run for six weeks.

Several billboards -- each targeting a particular niche such as beach holidays, family holidays and romancing in the Seychelles – have been put up across Johannesburg.

The billboards have been placed at very busy and prime locations in the city, in a bid to capture maximum attention and generate increased interest in the destination. This includes on Ben Schoeman Highway facing incoming traffic to Johannesburg, LHS Corlette Road facing traffic from the upmarket areas such as Sandton, Sandhurst, Rosebank, Ilovo, Fairway and the M1 Highway, as well as at Morningside facing traffic coming from Sandton.

The director of the STB office in South Africa, Lena Hoareau, said: “The billboard campaign is aimed at promoting travel to Seychelles especially now that the new summer promotional season has started and the market is flooded with promotions to different places and different destinations.”

Mrs Hoareau explained that each billboard carries a different message and this is in line with several other marketing and advertising activities they are undertaking on the market, to promote the diversity of the destination and what it has to offer to different market segments.

“Outdoor billboard advertising is very effective and we decided to go out there with big and poignant images of the Seychelles, to wow the customers and create excitement about the destination,” she said.

Mrs Hoareau said the idea of taking advantage of prime locations in Johannesburg to highlight the spectacular features of the Seychelles islands, is aimed at encouraging even more holidaymakers from South Africa, which remains the island nation’s top market in Africa.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, South Africa, which has shown consistent growth in terms of visitor arrivals to Seychelles over the years, has sent 10,870 visitors to Seychelles up to October 22 this year. This represents a 19% increase when compared to the same period last year.

“There is huge interest in Seychelles across South Africa and similar to all markets, our islands have a great appeal. It has the traditional sun, sea and sand like other island destinations, but we also have much more, with our products and activities being available throughout the year,” said Mrs Hoareau.

She also revealed that the STB office in South Africa is hoping to extend the campaign to Cape Town at the beginning of 2018 and Durban later on during the year.

The chief executive of the STB, Sherin Francis, has welcomed new initiatives being adopted across the different markets to further position Seychelles in the minds of potential holidaymakers.

Mrs Francis said the destination needs to be more visible, especially through consumer-targeted promotions, while maintaining and increasing business-to-business activities.