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STB hosts workshops in South Africa to drum up bookings to Seychelles |21 April 2018

 

 

 

The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) office in South Africa is teaming up with Air Seychelles and its main tour operator partners on the market, to drum up sales and bookings for the island destination.

The breakfast workshops are targeting three main cities and will be involving the participation of travel consultants and travel agents as well as the top supporters of the destination.

STB conducted the first event in Johannesburg on April 12, which recorded a full house participation. Thompsons Holidays also took part and Air Seychelles, which flies five times a week to Johannesburg, also gave a presentation.

The director of the STB office in South Africa, Lena Hoareau, said there was great response to the first workshop and it was clear that the destination still has a great appeal on the market.

“The turn-out was great and all the consultants who were invited, accepted at first go. Thompsons confirmed the list of participants in a matter of two days,” she said.

STB and its partners are currently concentrating on the tour operator partners in Johannesburg as it has the biggest outbound market.

The workshops will be moving to Cape Town and Durban and Mrs Hoareau has said that her office has received overwhelming responses for the upcoming events scheduled for the next two months.

“We will be keeping to small groups of 20 for each training, as it is very important that we are able to interact and network with the participants, to identify whatever shortcomings they encounter when selling the destination,” said Mrs Hoareau.

She noted that the workshops have come at the right time, especially now that the South African market is currently experiencing a slack in visitor arrivals, compared to a good start at the beginning of the year. A total of 3,088 South African visitors have come to Seychelles so far in 2018, which represents a 14 percent decrease when compared to the same period last year.

Mrs Hoareau said the performance can be attributed to several factors, which are not playing in the destination’s favour at the moment, but that the workshops are opportune to help restore confidence in the destination.

“The workshops are even more important now because we are interacting with the right players – the ones who push the sales through. We are optimistic of a rebound in the figures,” she added.

 

 

 

 

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