Seychelles to offer ‘holiday of a lifetime’ |06 March 2009

Vice-President Joseph Belmont made this announcement yesterday as Alain St Ange was named director for tourism marketing.

The campaign seeks to advertise Seychelles as widely as possible, highlighting that with the new favourable conversion rates of the rupee, Seychelles offers “a once-in-a-lifetime vacation at a once-in-a-lifetime price”, he told partners at the general tourism meeting at the International Conference Centre.

Vice-President Joseph Belmont addressing …

“It’s a unique window of opportunity for visitors to enjoy the vacation they always dreamed of at significantly discounted prices,” he said.

Mr Belmont said the new partnership and synergy between government and the private sector in the tourism industry is a strong and durable foundation on which to build our dreams and make effective plans to counter the effects of the downturn in visitor numbers we are now seeing.

“Already we are seeing a drop of 15% in visitor arrivals from the start of 2009, and the forecast for the rest of the year is even bleaker, with possible tourism revenue dropping further by some 25% as visitor markets continue to succumb to the global recession,” he said.

… partners at the general tourism meeting yesterday

Mr Belmont, who has the portfolio for tourism, said the newly streamlined Seychelles Tourism Board has reacted to the changes quickly with its formation of the “affordable Seychelles campaign”, which will be unveiled at the ITB travel fair in Berlin next week.

He said, however, that though this sounds attractive, “we must all take pains to ensure that the message is reflected by the realities on the ground and “our prices must match our promises”.

“I appeal to our hoteliers and other members of the trade that this is not the time for rigidity but rather for flexibility in pricing our product sensibly and realistically to get the business they need,” he said.

“We must not allow disharmony, short-termism and unprofessional practices to stand in the way of the achievement of our goals at this critical time.”

The chairman of the STB, Maurice Loustau-Lalane, announced that the head of the tourism marketing fund, Alain St Ange, is to be the new director for marketing at the board.

Mr St Ange called on all the partners in tourism to work with him in his new capacity.

“I need you all to work with me to turn the current tourism arrival numbers around, and then to work closer with me to consolidate our tourism industry to bring direct results for all your businesses and, in so doing, strengthen the Seychelles economy,” he said.