Tourism New strategies for a more ‘action-oriented’ committee |21 April 2018

 Minister Loustau-Lalanne addressing the meeting

The Tourism Multi-Sectoral Committee will adopt new methods in conducting its work, through better time management, ensuring that it becomes more action-oriented.

The Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine, Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, made the statement at the committee’s second quarterly meeting held yesterday at the Seychelles Trading Company’s (STC) conference room.

The Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Change Didier Dogley and the Minister for Employment, Immigration and Civil Status Myriam Télémaque were among the high government officials who, alongside stakeholders from the private sector, discussed and proposed solutions to challenges affecting the tourism industry.

Minister Loustau-Lalanne said, in the past, the committee was taking too long to deliver on decisions taken.

He said different mechanisms will be put in place to ensure that decisions are put into practice within a three-month period, so that the committee can move on to other items of discussion.

The tourism minister explained that following discussions with committee members, they agreed to issue the minutes of the meeting within a period of two weeks and thereafter hold a pre-meeting, involving consultation with ministers  who are directly involved in the decision-making.

This, he said, will ensure that when the main meeting is due, most of the decisions taken will be already in the implementation phase.

“At the moment we are wasting a lot of valuable time that we don’t have and as we also have a lot of civil servants around this table, we need to make better use of our time, hoping to see better results as we go along,” added Mr Loustau-Lalanne.

The consequence on the tourism trade following the regionalisation of local airline Air Seychelles was another topic of discussion at yesterday’s meeting.

Mr Loustau-Lalanne said releasing the Airbus 330 from its fleet, Air Seychelles has lost 15 tonnes in terms of freight capacity, and with the smaller aircraft unable to take any cargo, the airline will completely lose the freight business.

This he said will go on until June 2019 when the airline will bring in a new aircraft.

In terms of freight capacity, Mr Loustau-Lalanne said the new aircraft’s capacity will be far less, at round 1.5 to 2.5 tonnes, depending on the routes.

He added that one alternative for local importers would be to trade via Dubai; a move which he said should have no negative impact on the quality and freshness of the products.

The main focus will now be on code sharing Air Seychelles on routes which are out of reach of the local airline, noted Mr Loustau-Lalanne.

He added that the marketing agreements have been discussed and agreed with all the other airlines that fly to Seychelles, as the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) also needs to involve them in their own tourism marketing programme.

The key challenges of the agricultural aspects of tourism were another area targeted at yesterday’s sitting.

Through a presentation on the Ministry of Agriculture by consultant Guy Morel, the delegates learnt about several critical success factors which can help boost agro-tourism locally. This includes identification of lead farmers, competitive rates, meeting quality requirements, as well as a sustainable financing mechanisms.

Other topics on yesterday’s agenda included national cruise ships strategy and high cost of business, among others.