Tourism chiefs promote Vanilla Islands brand in Germany |17 March 2011

The meeting at last week’s ITB trade fair in Berlin was attended by Seychelles Tourism Board chief executive Alain St Ange, Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority director Dr Karl Mootoosamy, Ile de la Réunion Tourisme director Pascal Viroleau and Madagascar Tourist Office president Joel Randriamandranto.

German tour firms at the working breakfast were TUI, Dertour, Thomas Cook, Meiers Weltreisen, Trauminsel Reisen, Explorer Fernreisen, Islands4more, Reiseagentur-Brandner and Evasion Tours.

A decision was made to launch the following action to move the Vanilla Islands concept forward:

- To plan packages for the Vanilla Islands in collaboration with airlines flying between the islands – Air Mauritius, Air Seychelles, Air Madagascar, Air Austral, Air France and Corsairfly;

- To organise press trips to visit two or three islands in the group during April;

- To organise a Vanilla Islands roadshow in three or four German cities during May;

- To develop a website for the islands and draw up a plan to train travel agents.

The German operators at the meeting spoke about their support for the Vanilla Islands brand and said they will be dedicating space to it in their brochures.